This week, residents in Yelm, Washington, which calls itself “The Pride of the Prairie”, got their first taste of Wal-Mart battle — but they couldn’t talk about it. Here is a report from the front lines in Yelm: “At the Yelm council meeting this week, several people were present to discuss the Wal-Mart plans that were recently filed for a 188,000 sq ft super center at the edge of our small town. The mayor asked everyone who wanted to speak to fill out a blue form and hand it in and then they would get 3 minutes to speak. They called up the first person to speak and it was about a retaining wall and fence that they put up encroaching on the highway right of way. When this was finished, the mayor said that anyone that has come to speak about the Wal-Mart application will not be permitted to speak. He also said that there is no public forum for directly speaking about this application, but there will be a short time when people can write to them about their concerns. We have video taped this meeting. The concerns that the people attending this meeting had were several, ranging from the average hourly wage dropping by about $3 an hour to Wal-Mart’s history of underpricing items until all the local shops have folded up and then raising the prices back up. One of my concerns is that of releasing valuable town land to mega discount chains instead of attracting small interesting attractive shops that are more conducive to a rural setting and family atmosphere as we currently have here in Yelm. We already have several Wal-Mart stores that are accessible within a 20 to 45 minute drive. The land area that is being put together is a total of 16.92 acres made up of three parcels, two of which are residential. A pre submission request form shows the applicant for the project is PACLAND, a planning, engineering and development services company with offices in Olympia, Seattle, Portland and Roseville, California. The owner of the property is listed as Center Investments of Poulsbo. The original property owners have not released title to the three parcels yet. The project itself is described as a “large commercial development with frontage improvements.” There is no mention of Wal-Mart on the request form. The name Wal-Mart is never discussed in or around the city hall (we were told by someone observing this project). However, Eric Berger, Wal-Mart’s community affairs representative for the Northwest region, said months ago that Wal-Mart was interested in serving Yelm’s customers better. Last week Berger confifmed the Yelm will be the site of a new Wal-Mart store.”
If this project needs rezoning, local residents will be able to exercise their First Amendment rights, either in town hall, or in court, but the Mayor’s attempts to choke off debate is totally inappropriate. For local contacts in Yelm fighting the Wal-Mart, contact Diane at www.protectyelm.org, or email her at [email protected].
