Residents in Papillion, Nebraska are willing to fight to the bitter end to keep a Wal-Mart out of their town. According to the Omaha World-Herald newspaper, citizens have asked the Nebraska Supreme Court to reconsider its decision earlier this month to allow the construction of a Wal-Mart supercenter in Papillion. A lawyer for the residents says there are still some constitutional issues of due process and equal protection. The city’s position is that the 25 page brief filed by neighbors raises no new issues. If the Supreme Court in Nebraska agrees to hear the case, it would not come before the court until February. The citizens say that the court erred when it said that comprehensive development plans are just administrative guides, not laws. The group says comp plans cannot be amended by resolution, and that the city should have followed public notice procedures to adopt an ordinance. The Papillion City Council passed a resolution last year to change the city’s comprehensive plan to permit a shopping area at 72nd Street and Giles Road, paving the way for a Wal-Mart Supercenter, a Lowe’s home improvement store and Kohl’s department store. They did not follow the rules to make a law, chosing instead to pass the change by resolution.
Local residents often say that big box stores are a “done deal” and there is no point in fighting the big corporations. The residents of Papillion, Nebraska hold a different belief. They know that if you don’t fight, you have a 100% chance of losing. By challenging the development at every stage, they have some chance of prevailing, and they force the developer to waste valuable time and money. For local contacts in Papillion, contact [email protected]
