Activists in LaHabra, California have been engaged in a multi-year battle to keep the retailer Costco out of their community, but are running out of funds. Here is an update sent to Sprawl-Busters by residents in the city: “About 2.5 yrs ago our neighborhood found out that LaHabra city was going to GIVE Costco $1 million to locate in our small neighborhood. We also found numerous improprieties within our city council. We formed Concerned Citizens of La Habra (CCLH) and hired a lawyer to bring to light the misgivings we had of our city council. Through much legal doings and many months, we were able to force the city NOT to give Costco $1 million, and to insist that the laws governing the location of any huge store be abided by. We soon were able to force the city to conduct an Environmental Impact Report on the pending location. The EIR recommended that the site be better used for residential purposes. Ironically, 2 miles down the road on a HUGE boulevard intersection is an empty Super K-Mart store that Costco REFUSES to move into. They would rather move into our residential area, whose biggest store is a Salvation Army. We were planning to appeal the court’s decision on a few unfavorable decisions and possibly file another Petition for Writ of Mandate, but the few citizens that were able to financially sign contracts with the lawyers seemed suddenly forced to settle with him due to rising costs and expended funds of our CCLH organization. The lawyer’s settlement went haywire, and the few CCLH financial signers are now trying to settle with not only the city of La Habra, but COSTCO too! Some of us still want to fight against Costco. Basically, we have been unable to raise the enormous amount of funds that it takes to fight these big stores, and now we have a community divided over money, but not over Costco. We are ALL still anti-Costco. Its just that the scare tactics of lawyers and big box corporations is trying to be our demise, yet a few of us continue to fight this battle as well.”
Anyone wishing to help the residents of LaHabra in their financial standoff with Costco, contact [email protected]. Costco threatened to sue Sprawl-Busters several years ago over a story we printed about Costco’s activities in Cuernavaca, Mexico. For more background, search this database by “Costco”.
