The residents of Angola, New York feel like they’re in the middle of a bad movie, and Wal-Mart is playing the leading role. This week, citizens in Angola sent the following email from their front row seats in this battle. “In September, 2006, we formed a group called ‘Friends of the Grandview’ to work on preserving and renovating the 1952 Grandview Drive-in. This facility is one of a kind. At nearly 120 feet wide, it’s one of the largest screens in the USA! It’s the only one in the USA to have retail space under the screen tower (maybe the world). It was the first in New York to have Radio Sound. First in USA to show a movie in stereo sound in the USA in the 60’s. None of us question the need for a general department store to replace the long lost Ames store in Derby, New York. The key question is: where would one fit without loss of existing stores and businesses and damage to our community? Would it not make more sense to build on vacant land, rather than destroy a viable and operating landmark drive-in that the community clearly wants preserved and renovated? And let’s not forget our Jubilee grocery Store. If Wal-Mart builds there, it’s history! Considering it’s the only one between Orchard Park and Gowanda, we would not want to loose the choice of shopping there. We have collected around 1,500 signatures from people upset the Grandview did not open this season, and demanding it be renovated and reopened next year. We have sent these signatures, along with letters from our group to the owners, with no reply. Three weeks ago we sent more petitions that have come in, along with a letter offering that our group pay for all needed repairs and renovations at no cost to them, still no reply. For the past 20 years or so the property owners have done little to no repairs — everything has been done by the man leasing the Drive-in from them. Last winter, several steel panels blew out of the screen and prevented it from opening in April or May while the operator attempted to contact the owners about the screen problem. Finally he was prepared to yet again pay out of his pocket for the repairs, but was stopped by the owners and delayed over and over until the season was pretty much over. The operator has been paying all the bills since last fall when he closed, and has amassed a fairly large debt for this season since he was unable to open and bring in any revenue to cover his expenses. Repeated attempts at contacting the owners and even having an attorney contact the owners brought no response. The same is true for the tenant who has a beauty salon under the
screen tower. Last Wed, Nov 29th, Wal-Mart made an appearance at the town board meeting and has expressed interest in tearing down our Drive-in and building a 130,000 s.f. supercenter! The Jubilee Foods Store is right on the Property. We have no other info yet as to any details, but so far as we know, any sale would have to be on approval by the town of the supercenter. We doubt Wal-Mart would actually be dumb enough to purchase a property before they knew they would even be allowed to build anyway! The property is located at the corner of Route 5 and Lake Street in Angola, it is surrounded by homes on the south, to the east is a new Church with senior housing behind it, to the north east is a school and athletic field, and north of it boarders a creek, and just beyond a nice new home in what they thought was a secluded area, now to be located next to a Wal-Mart loading dock, as well as another home and the VFW hall.”
Sprawl-Busters has written about several earlier examples of Wal-Mart going after former Drive-In theaters. The landowners of these properties stand to make millions off the sale of their land, but residents are usually outraged that these properties are being destroyed. In this case, there are surrounding homes, and some obvious environmental issues to consider. The project will require a review under the New York state Environmental Quality Review Act, and the residents will now have to organize to fight this project, and retain a land use attorney to represent them. For help, they can turn to the group Hamburg First, which is also fighting a Wal-Mart supercenter in their town. The Jubilee grocery store, which reportedly just spent money to renovate, will likely close if a supercenter is built next door. The Friends group wants Wal-Mart to reconsider this site, and look instead for vacant land that is located in a more compatible area. For related stories, search Newsflash by “drive-in.”
