In January of 1998, sprawl-busters in Kanawha City, a section of Charleston,WV, reported that the city planning commission voted down a Wal-Mart supercenter, and that the Mayor was against the project. The supercenter was ultimately rejected by the City Council, and Wal-Mart’s plans to rezone property from industrial to commercial were shelved. Local residents now report that Wal-Mart is baaack, this time with a plan for a 125,000 s.f. store, and residents once again have organized, hired an attorney, and are working on a traffic study and an economic impact study.
If you’d like to help residents of Kanawha City defeat Wal-Mart the second time around, contact Jeri Hunt at 304-925-2590.
