As noted earlier, the November ballot measure concerning land-use zoning for the Balloon Track in Eureka may result in a Wal-Mart on the property — even as part of the proposed Marina Center.
An attorney hired by the city explained at Tuesday’s City Council meeting that a Wal-Mart or other big box may be built on the property so long as the impacts are equal or lesser to those studied in the Marina Center Environmental Impact Report.
In the clip, Councilman Larry Glass asks if the restriction on “Discount Superstores” would have prohibited the Wal-Mart proposed in 1999, which voters defeated with 61% of the vote.
The answer is “no.”
City staff said the 10-year ban on “Discount Superstores” was added in response to concerns that at Wal-Mart could be built if the ballot measure is approved in November (and subsequently certified by the Coastal Commission).
But the ban clearly falls short of keeping Wal-Mart out.
If you oppose Wal-Mart building on the Balloon Track, vote No in November.
Earlier:
CREG: Balloon Track measure would open door to Wal-Mart
Quote of the day
Definition of a “Discount Superstore”
LIVE BLOG: Security National’s ballot measure
What would stop the city from just restricting Walmart again ten years from now?
It would be prejudicial and grounds for a lawsuit.
And your use of the word “again” is incorrect. Wal-Mart is not restricted with the current measure, with the exception of a “super walmart.”
Good. If the ballot measure had restricted Wal-Mart or any big box store from coming I was going to vote against it.
Man, I love all these gifts from Rob, Cheri, and Randy. Hey, how about a BP facility too?
I guess I was meaning this. Lets say a Walmart suddenly is proposed. I would expect there to be enough rumbling from the public that would trigger another vote. If not, than maybe the views of Eureka have changed in the last 11 years.
You make it sound so simple. To trigger the vote you must also waive your $30,000 check in the air.
The ban on “Discount Superstores” only confuses the issue. It was added in response to concerns about Wal-Mart, but would not stop a Wal-Mart. So what is the point? To convince people it would stop Wal-Mart.
“You make it sound so simple. To trigger the vote you must also waive your $30,000 check in the air.”
That is the cost for adding an item to an already scheduled ballot in a regular election. The cost of a special election is many times higher, not counting the petition drive to force the issue since we know without doubt that the 3 stooges wouldn’t be of any assistance.
When is our community going to deal with the issue of poverty imposed at least in part by unreasonable opposition to economic development on the North Coast? Will those who oppose this endeavor agree to support those children in our communities who live in poverty because there are so few jobs outside of government?
Minimum wage jobs at Walmart do nothing to improve poverty rates, Chuck, because they result in a net loss of jobs. Will those who favor this endeavor agree to support the children who will live in poverty because of the even fewer jobs which will actually result?
Wal-Mart or death is a false argument.
The economic data is in the anti-Wal-Mart side’s favor, but since when did anyone make decisions based on evidence? Faith-based decisions are all the rage these days.
Have not heard so much Wal Mart BS thrown around since Bonnie and Patty promised the voters that there were other more suitable users who were beating down the door to build on this site 10 years ago. The voters will be more informed and realize Bonnie and her new minions are lying and have not produced anything viable for our community. Arkley love or hate at least has provided some positive economic stimulus I did not have to pay for.
The “discount superstores” restriction is clearly an attempt to mislead the public that the ballot measure would prevent a WalMart store from locating there, when in fact it wouldn’t.
Equally misleading is the Times-Standard’s repeated phrasing saying that the Marina Center “would include a Home Depot.” There is absolutely NO guarantee of that (aside from the demonstrably meaningless “Arkley Guarantee”).
Truer words have never been spoken 12:49
Yikes apparently wasn’t paying attention when the Arkley’s announcement they were buying the balloon track which put an immediate halt to all other options.
heraldo,you rascal,you’ve let the cat out of the bag.
look for all of the inbred knuckle scraping troglodytes to be sporting their t-shirts and bumper stickers:
“GIVE ME WAL MART OR GIVE ME DEATH”.
What a snob.
“What a snob.”
Says the man who thinks everyone would live in his neighborhood if they could afford to and only those from his alleged social class should be elected to public office.
(Yikes 1:52pm) There were several companies looking and the balloon track but Union Pacific wouldn’t sell unless they could get out of the clean up. That’s why when Rob offered to buy it for the City of Eureka and have it be a park name after his mom, he had the clean up provisions as part of the deal. The City turned him down. We now know that the City could have forced UP to fully clean it, but didn’t want to upset the railroad giant.
That’s why the Federal Clean Water Act Lawsuit is so important, if Baykeeper wins, Arkley will bale and UP will be forced to fully characterize and then completely clean up the site, then and only then will the public win. After this transpires something of benefit to the whole community can be built.
Yeah!
Plain Jane has it right about a net job loss in the community when a Wal Mart or another Big Box come to town. There have been so many studies on this and the facts are clearly not on the side of big boxes.They are responsible for a huge economic drain, as all their profits and vendor money goes out of the local economy forever. A rural economy needs to pull money into the area from outside. That fuels local growth, certainly not what a big box offers. They transform Main Streets into ghost towns. It happened here when the mall went in. In my mind it is a pretty clear choice.
Yup, that’s about the size of it…
Isn’t Plain Jane also against the Richardson’s Grove Improvement project that would make local niche manufacturers more competitive and help bring money into our community?
ooops.
Yup, that’s about the size of it “Question Everything”.
So basically, it’s vote for the ballot initiative and vote for a walmart on the balloon track? Is this what we’re saying here?
oy. here we go again. who would be so stupid as to take this on? …oh, rob and cherie, right…..my bad.
stupidity personified.
Walmart? Thank goodness for an honest opinion out of the City of Eureka. Bonnie just picked up 30 points. Looks like a dead-heat to me!!
Clarification: “and honest opinion out of their contract attorney………”
Home Depot pulled out of the Marina Center 2 years ago. Heard it straight from a certain Security National employee. Time to tell the rest of the community SN, not just the Tavern regulars.
Little help here H…did I hit the wrong send button yesterday, or did i get chopped off at the knees and censored for my remarks…?
The Voters need to see documentation of a current contractual agreement between CUE iv and Home Depot or anyone else for that matter.
Well Cough it up Randy……………………….(the sound of crickets)………….we thought so!
I don’t think it’s Walmart but HD could be doubtful. What’s the status of Arkleys and what they owe the city? I think I heard they are current. If true, maybe they will begin to pay the rest of the people they owe. From what I hear about that, things are ugly.
Walmart = red herring. Try to distract all you wish, but the public strong favors the Marina Center development for dozens of right reasons, notwithstanding your caterwauling to the contrary.
Wanna bet on the winning spread for this initiative?
… strongly favors …
I went to Walmart once and lived to tell about it :)I’ll let you in on a little secret- it’s just like target (which we have) and K-mart (which we have).
What we don’t have it a HD, and many of us are looking forward to shopping at one. Or we could let Fortuna build one and then see how that goes.
Nice word, Chris.
The fact remains that the ban on Discount Superstores does not prohibit a Wal-Mart. The point of this post is to show the city’s attorney acknowledge that fact.
There is no assurance we are going to get one if the Marina Center is built.
WTF, H, can you answer my question from this 8:19am? Or do I have to change computers and handles….?
Maybe you should start by eliminating the juvenile abbreviations of crude language
I realize the language in the ballot restriction leaves the door open to many types of big box stores as long as they aren’t “discount superstores.” But why does everybody assume we will get a Wal-Mart? I’m not challenging, just curious. Maybe I’ve missed something, someone has some inside info? Or is Wal-Mart more or less the poster child for the type of store people don’t want.
Walmart is the only big box that has publicly expressed interest in the balloon track, the only one who spent big bucks on an initiative to force the change of zoning to accommodate them.
Have they expressed any current interest that anyone is aware of?
From Women’s Wear Daily 2007:
The ballot measure is just another fine example of the outstanding intellects and critical thinking abilities of the Three Stooges (plus the quiter mayor). If you combed the town looking for three people who could excercise LESS ability to think things through and see them as they are, our very own Three Stooges (and quiter mayor) would have to be impossible to beat! We are surely blessed by such a ‘brain trust’.
(hint: I’m being sarcastic!)
The ballot measure ban on “discount superstores” would clearly still accomodate a WalMart, just not a WalMart Supercenter (which Humboldt’s population is probably to small to support anyway).
The measure seems to be written in such a way as to purposefully mislead the voting public into thinking that by voting for the ballot measure with its ban on “discount superstores” they would be preventing a WalMart from opening in that space, when in fact they would be doing just the opposite — throwing the doors wide open to WalMart.
Hopefully we’ll be able to get that message out far and wide before the election.
What type of zoning would allow for a HD but not a Walmart?
If I understand the position of the City’s attorneys correctly, there ISN’T any way to ban WalMart but allow Home Depot. Hence the problem.
There is no way to ban a specific retailer according to city attorneys. It would be considered prejudicial and grounds for a lawsuit.
hereas the letter “_” is the first letter of “ar;” and
hereas the letter “_” is a component of the ord “aful”; and
hereas the letter “_” astefully takes tice as much ink as the perfectly respectable letter “v”;
Therefore, the City of Eureka establishes a ne zoning classification alloing big box merchants hose names do not start ith “W”.
2008 seems to be the latest date (according to WWD) that Walmart has been aggressively looking at CA, and no specifics about Humboldt County.
Aggressively look at Ca. Boy does that conjure a troublesome image. One of the biggest corporations in the world wanting a bigger piece of the Ca. economic pie. In our case, a big chunk of our local pie, would really hard for all our local businesses to absorb lost sales. Particularly considering what shape the local economy is in. Not a wise thing to open another money drain. Seems clear to me. There are enough money problems with current tepid sales, Eureka’s 4.3 million dollar short fall as an example. A lot of that is lack of sales tax revenues. These are very strong indications of a long term systemic recession, and adding a big box should be one of the last options. Time Mag. has a good summation of what is ahead and it is not pretty.
TTGR,
Eureka’s shortfall, largely due to slack sales tax revenues, is exactly why some (not me!) want the Big Box by the Bay at the Balloon Track — to capture more of that sales tax revenue.
The problem is that this windfall for Eureka would come at the expense of the County and other municipalities within it. Pretty selfish, if you ask me.