On April 5, 2006, Sprawl-Busters reported that the village of East Dundee, Illinois was in an uproar because a real estate listing showed that the Wal-Mart discount store # 1531 in the village was being advertised as available for lease or sale by the winter of 2007, and that a larger superstore was going to be built in neighboring West Dundee. East Dundee Village President Jerald Bartels met with local Wal-Mart officials, who seemed as surprised as he was. The East Dundee store was not officially posted on the Wal-Mart Realty website. “We have no official word from Wal-Mart that anything is happening at this point,” officials said at the time. But Wal-Mart officials eventually told the village it was shutting down its store in East Dundee to move to West Dundee. The store in West Dundee will be less than 2 miles from the existing store in East Dundee. One local official described Wal-Mart’s move from East Dundee as a “body blow” to village finances. “Wal-Mart has confirmed that they are actively in the process of identifying a new site for a super center,” announced Village Manager Paul Nicholson, after meeting with Wal-Mart officials. The Wal-Mart discount store on Dundee Avenue in East Dundee is now about 20 years old — which is ancient by Wal-Mart standards. The East Dundee store generates about $600,000 a year in sales tax revenues for the village — a gross number, before subtracting out the substantial municipal expenses, such as police, fire and road maintenance. East Dundee Village President Dan O’Leary said his community would lose 15% of its service-related funds when Wal-Mart shuts down. “I am guessing we could see a $600,000 cut from our $4 million operating budget,” O’Leary said. “That could mean a reduction in services like police and public works, and then we just run out of places to cut back.” West Dundee officials seemed to have little qualms about stealing revenues from their neighbor. West Dundee’s Village Manager admitted that Wal-Mart was negotiating with General Growth Properties Inc., the owner of Spring Hill Mall, for a mall out lot that was commercially zoned. To make matters worse, it appears that East Dundee will make the transfer of location possible through a deal between the two villages in which the East provides sewer services for West Dundee. So the West will be able to offer sewer to the new 186,000 s.f. Wal-Mart stolen from East Dundee, by using East Dundee’s sewer system. On April 27, 2008, Sprawl-Busters updated this “tale of two cities.” Anticipating Wal-Mart would close, East Dundee cut its budget 6%, and then another 10% this year. “If we could get a final decision from Wal-Mart, we could take advantage of other opportunities in the area,” one village official said. “Some companies say they want to be with Wal-Mart, others say they don’t want to be anywhere near Wal-Mart.” This week, two years after the East versus West controversy began, and as the village board in West Dundee prepared to consider Wal-Mart’s application next Monday night, the Courier News reports that West Dundee residents are speaking out against the superstore. The village’s Zoning and Planning Commission voted in May to recommend approval of the project. Village Board president Larry Keller told neighbors, “Make your comments tonight. Next week is our discussion week. You’ve had ample opportunity to contact us for the past six months, and have done so, including through phone calls and e-mails.” This week’s public hearing was the third time that residents have criticized the superstore plans, warning of increased traffic, increased crime, increased storm water runoff, and other adverse impacts. The citizen’s group, Dundee Neighbors, which was formed only two months ago, has dominated the hearings thus far. Only one person spoke in favor of the superstore at this week’s hearing. Dundee Neighbors has asked the village to hold off voting for 30 days so the group can conduct independent studies of the project. “Wal-Mart has objected — they want as little input as they can get away with,” one opponent told the News. Opponents said that Wal-Mart’s own traffic study showed that intersections that are now at a level of service F (failing) would remain failing despite the four-lane upgrade Wal-Mart plans to construct. “We just don’t think that a Wal-Mart Supercenter is a right fit,” a spokeswoman for Dundee Neighbors told the Chicago Tribune. “There’s really no need for it in our community.”
This site has provided a transition zone between shopping uses and 205-homes in a nearby subdivision. Dundee Neighbors are literally fighting for the future value of their homes. The property is adjacent to a park with baseball fields, tennis courts and a playground. Neighbors know that if a huge retail project encroaches on this buffer zone, that their homes will be harder to resell, and will lose value — not to mention having a noisy and congested neighbor. This land was rezoned in 2000 from residential to commercial, according to the Tribune, for another big box: a Meijer’s store. That project fell through, but the rezoning left the property open for another big box. “It had a residential zoning, but it was never intended to be developed residentially, because it was part of the Spring Hill Mall holdings,” said West Dundee’s village manager. But the mall owners had no right to a rezoning. The neighbors have hired land use attorney Brian O’Connor, who all but conceded defeat when he told the Tribune, “They understand it’s not a matter of if it will happen, but when it will happen. But it needs to be consistent with the residential character of that area.” Readers are urged to email West Dundee Village President Larry Keller at [email protected] with this message: “Dear President Keller, the land for the proposed Wal-Mart superstore was zoned residential up until the year 2000. Many of the homeowners who live near this site bought their homes trusting that a big box superstore was not something they would ever have to live with as a neighbor. Good zoning decisions should always create a win/win situation. In this case, if Wal-Mart wins, the neighbors lose. That’s because the scale of this project is outside of the realm of what’s appropriate for a site that abuts a large residential development. The building alone is bigger than three football fields. The absurdity of this situation is heightened by the fact that this larger store will cause the existing Wal-Mart in East Dundee to close down. The lack of regional planning between East and West Dundee has allowed developers to play one community off the other. The village has the right to insist that Wal-Mart dramatically scale back this project. The retailer now builds a 99,000 s.f. supercenter — which even though still huge — would have half the impact on traffic and the neighborhood. I urge the Board to require Wal-Mart to come back in with a smaller, more appropriate store — or the Board should deny the proposal as too intense a use of land abutting a residential development.”
