October 2, 2006
Battleground | Wal-Mart says its new Bangor plan avoids the environmental issues that derailed an earlier proposal, but opponents have other concerns
By Douglas Rooks
Three years ago, the state Board of Environmental Protection delivered the final rejection that scuttled a proposed Wal-Mart supercenter on Stillwater Avenue in Bangor. Now, the nation's biggest retailer and largest private employer is pushing ahead with a new supercenter proposal for the city, but the landscape has changed significantly since the company saw its previous plan fail.
The earlier supercenter plan ran afoul of its proximity to the Penjajawoc Marsh. It drew strenuous opposition from environmental groups and proved unable to meet state or local environmental standards. The new supercenter proposal remains on Stillwater Avenue, but on a different 50-acre parcel that currently is undeveloped. The lot is situated farther from the marsh ˆ a change Wal-Mart believes should allow it to pass muster. "We are hopeful that our company's application will receive all approvals of local and state agencies," said Chris Buchanan, senior public affairs manager for Wal-Mart, in an e-mail. (Buchanan did not respond to several requests for a telephone interview.) "By moving our store further from the marsh, we feel we have submitted an application that meets the local and state criteria."
The new plan also is slightly smaller than the previous one ˆ a 210,000-square-foot combined grocery and department store, compared to the 224,000-square-foot store previously proposed. Those who have scrutinized the application say it differs from the original proposal by eliminating some ancillary services, such as a drive-through pharmacy and auto service bays.
Although that scaled-down proposal and the additional distance from the marsh may address issues that derailed Wal-Mart's previous proposal, it's unlikely the new supercenter plan will be free from controversy. For local critics and skeptics of Wal-Mart, the impact on wetlands is only the beginning of their concerns. Since 2000, when Wal-Mart began a major expansion that has added more than 1,000 stores in the United States ˆ the total is now 3,800 ˆ opponents have become more focused on concerns about the company and its effect on local communities.
In Bangor, Wal-Mart's critics are beefing up a host of arguments against the development. Valerie Carter, spokesperson for Bangor Area Citizens Organized for Responsible Development, which organized in response to the first Wal-Mart plan, says that the process for consideration will be different this time. For one thing, Bangor now has a city agency, the Penjajawoc Marsh-Bangor Mall Management Commission, to review the plan before it goes to the planning board. BACORD is represented on the commission; so are developers, Maine Audubon and other groups.
The commission got its first look at the Wal-Mart plan, which was announced in July, in mid-September, and is still reviewing it to make a recommendation to the planning board. Carter predicts the commission "will ultimately reach consensus about the application, but it will take time."
Carter makes it clear, however, that BACORD's concerns go beyond the immediate site and its environmental impact. She cites traffic on the already congested Stillwater Avenue; the potential paving over of what was once ˆ and could be again ˆ Bangor's prime farmland; and the amount of energy consumed by mammoth stores like Wal-Mart. "Our society will be hitting the wall of peak oil within the foreseeable future, and when this happens, the international cheap transport of goods and supplies on which Wal-Mart and other big-box retailers depend will not be sustainable," Carter says.
Arguing over economic impact
Other community groups already have lined up to oppose the plan. At Peace Through Interamerican Community Action, a Bangor-based nonprofit that works to prohibit sweatshops, director Sean Donahue questions how many Wal-Mart stores the Bangor area can sustain. "They opened a 158,000-square-foot supercenter in Brewer a few years ago," he says. "Do we really need a 210,000-square-foot store in Bangor?"
Chris Buchanan, the Wal-Mart representative, answered that question by saying that the existing Bangor store, without groceries, has remained one of the busiest in Maine despite the opening in Brewer. "We feel the area can certainly handle two supercenters moving forward," he said.
Even if that's so, Donahue says, what about the impact on other local businesses? "We're already seeing more vacant storefronts on Main Street," he says. "Will there be more?"
The impact on local economies is one of the most hotly contested topics surrounding Wal-Mart development, and an area in which Wal-Mart critics have been getting more aggressive. For example, a much-touted study by Lexington, Mass.-based economic research firm Global Insight found that in 2004 alone Wal-Mart saved American consumers $263 billion, or $2,329 per household ˆ effectively dwarfing any negative effect on wages and local economies. But the GI study has since received a vigorous debunking from the Washington, D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute, which pointed out errors in the study's methodology, such as calculating the claim of total savings as if consumer spending amounted to the whole of GDP, rather than its actual proportion of 60%. Through its own economic analysis, EPI found that the total savings were also speculative, and "effectively vanished" when independent variables such as population and energy prices were included in the analysis.
Other studies have found that Wal-Mart's wages, on average, are 20% lower than in retailing as a whole, that the company covers fewer of its workers with health insurance and that its stores take far more money out of state than do local retailers. The latter claim was detailed in midcoast Maine by the Minneapolis-based Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which found that, in 2002, local stores spent 53% of revenues within Maine, while national chain stores like Wal-Mart and Target spent only 15% ˆ largely in wages. That study, and community activists' efforts, led to a movement to limit store sizes that effectively barred big-box stores in Newcastle, Damariscotta, Warren and several other coastal communities (see "Citizens' initiative," May 29).
The lure of low prices
Some Maine communities are still actively campaigning for a Wal-Mart, however. In Ellsworth, the nearest service center community south of Bangor, city councilors were outraged in 2002 when the Maine Department of Transportation said that Wal-Mart would have to provide $3 million in road improvements to replace its existing department store with a supercenter on a different site. Wal-Mart declined, and did not go forward with the development.
Since then, in hopes of luring Wal-Mart back, the city has passed a development impact ordinance that spreads the cost of infrastructure among other new businesses. To accommodate increased traffic on a notoriously clogged section of Routes 1 and 3 between High Street and Bar Harbor Road, the council has even toyed with the idea of making a giant roundabout, with one-way traffic along three miles of a triangular road where several big-box stores are locating.
So far, Home Depot has opened in the area, and a Lowe's is under construction. It is widely believed that Wal-Mart is the anchor tenant for a 450,000-square-foot complex also being planned on Route 1, but the company won't confirm it. Buchanan only said, "Regarding Ellsworth, we have no publicly announced plans."
Given the recent examples of organized opposition to the company's Maine developments, it's little wonder that Wal-Mart isn't eager to talk about locations it's scouting. With a site plan before the Bangor Planning Board, however, debate there is now wide open ˆ and no one seems to expect a quick verdict. The earlier Bangor site review process took almost three years, and while that application involved legal challenges and precedent-setting decisions by the state Board of Environmental Protection ˆ it is apparently the first big box store rejected primarily because of environmental concerns ˆ there is no guarantee that the latest battle will be speedily decided.
Bangor's planning board will decide first on the application, then the city council will vote. The project also will need state Site of Location approval and federal Army Corps of Engineers permits for wetlands alterations. At its speediest, the whole process takes six to nine months, but could last considerably longer if there is substantive opposition.
Even with that process, opponents like Valerie Carter say "there are still a lack of forums" to discuss all the issues raised by Wal-Mart and other big-box retailers, which she says have had a profound effect on wages, benefits and smaller stores. One new group, the Eastern Maine Economy Commission, in which PICA participates, held community forums on the big-box question in Bucksport and Ellsworth in September, and has another scheduled in Bangor in October.
That's why, even with concerns about the Penjajawoc Marsh potentially off the table, scrutiny of Wal-Mart's latest Bangor proposal likely will be as intense as it was a few years ago. "People need to be able to find the things they need at prices they can afford," Donahue says. "We just want to make sure all the costs of development are weighed, and if the deal is really as good as it seems."
The earlier supercenter plan ran afoul of its proximity to the Penjajawoc Marsh. It drew strenuous opposition from environmental groups and proved unable to meet state or local environmental standards. The new supercenter proposal remains on Stillwater Avenue, but on a different 50-acre parcel that currently is undeveloped. The lot is situated farther from the marsh ˆ a change Wal-Mart believes should allow it to pass muster. "We are hopeful that our company's application will receive all approvals of local and state agencies," said Chris Buchanan, senior public affairs manager for Wal-Mart, in an e-mail. (Buchanan did not respond to several requests for a telephone interview.) "By moving our store further from the marsh, we feel we have submitted an application that meets the local and state criteria."
The new plan also is slightly smaller than the previous one ˆ a 210,000-square-foot combined grocery and department store, compared to the 224,000-square-foot store previously proposed. Those who have scrutinized the application say it differs from the original proposal by eliminating some ancillary services, such as a drive-through pharmacy and auto service bays.
Although that scaled-down proposal and the additional distance from the marsh may address issues that derailed Wal-Mart's previous proposal, it's unlikely the new supercenter plan will be free from controversy. For local critics and skeptics of Wal-Mart, the impact on wetlands is only the beginning of their concerns. Since 2000, when Wal-Mart began a major expansion that has added more than 1,000 stores in the United States ˆ the total is now 3,800 ˆ opponents have become more focused on concerns about the company and its effect on local communities.
In Bangor, Wal-Mart's critics are beefing up a host of arguments against the development. Valerie Carter, spokesperson for Bangor Area Citizens Organized for Responsible Development, which organized in response to the first Wal-Mart plan, says that the process for consideration will be different this time. For one thing, Bangor now has a city agency, the Penjajawoc Marsh-Bangor Mall Management Commission, to review the plan before it goes to the planning board. BACORD is represented on the commission; so are developers, Maine Audubon and other groups.
The commission got its first look at the Wal-Mart plan, which was announced in July, in mid-September, and is still reviewing it to make a recommendation to the planning board. Carter predicts the commission "will ultimately reach consensus about the application, but it will take time."
Carter makes it clear, however, that BACORD's concerns go beyond the immediate site and its environmental impact. She cites traffic on the already congested Stillwater Avenue; the potential paving over of what was once ˆ and could be again ˆ Bangor's prime farmland; and the amount of energy consumed by mammoth stores like Wal-Mart. "Our society will be hitting the wall of peak oil within the foreseeable future, and when this happens, the international cheap transport of goods and supplies on which Wal-Mart and other big-box retailers depend will not be sustainable," Carter says.
Arguing over economic impact
Other community groups already have lined up to oppose the plan. At Peace Through Interamerican Community Action, a Bangor-based nonprofit that works to prohibit sweatshops, director Sean Donahue questions how many Wal-Mart stores the Bangor area can sustain. "They opened a 158,000-square-foot supercenter in Brewer a few years ago," he says. "Do we really need a 210,000-square-foot store in Bangor?"
Chris Buchanan, the Wal-Mart representative, answered that question by saying that the existing Bangor store, without groceries, has remained one of the busiest in Maine despite the opening in Brewer. "We feel the area can certainly handle two supercenters moving forward," he said.
Even if that's so, Donahue says, what about the impact on other local businesses? "We're already seeing more vacant storefronts on Main Street," he says. "Will there be more?"
The impact on local economies is one of the most hotly contested topics surrounding Wal-Mart development, and an area in which Wal-Mart critics have been getting more aggressive. For example, a much-touted study by Lexington, Mass.-based economic research firm Global Insight found that in 2004 alone Wal-Mart saved American consumers $263 billion, or $2,329 per household ˆ effectively dwarfing any negative effect on wages and local economies. But the GI study has since received a vigorous debunking from the Washington, D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute, which pointed out errors in the study's methodology, such as calculating the claim of total savings as if consumer spending amounted to the whole of GDP, rather than its actual proportion of 60%. Through its own economic analysis, EPI found that the total savings were also speculative, and "effectively vanished" when independent variables such as population and energy prices were included in the analysis.
Other studies have found that Wal-Mart's wages, on average, are 20% lower than in retailing as a whole, that the company covers fewer of its workers with health insurance and that its stores take far more money out of state than do local retailers. The latter claim was detailed in midcoast Maine by the Minneapolis-based Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which found that, in 2002, local stores spent 53% of revenues within Maine, while national chain stores like Wal-Mart and Target spent only 15% ˆ largely in wages. That study, and community activists' efforts, led to a movement to limit store sizes that effectively barred big-box stores in Newcastle, Damariscotta, Warren and several other coastal communities (see "Citizens' initiative," May 29).
The lure of low prices
Some Maine communities are still actively campaigning for a Wal-Mart, however. In Ellsworth, the nearest service center community south of Bangor, city councilors were outraged in 2002 when the Maine Department of Transportation said that Wal-Mart would have to provide $3 million in road improvements to replace its existing department store with a supercenter on a different site. Wal-Mart declined, and did not go forward with the development.
Since then, in hopes of luring Wal-Mart back, the city has passed a development impact ordinance that spreads the cost of infrastructure among other new businesses. To accommodate increased traffic on a notoriously clogged section of Routes 1 and 3 between High Street and Bar Harbor Road, the council has even toyed with the idea of making a giant roundabout, with one-way traffic along three miles of a triangular road where several big-box stores are locating.
So far, Home Depot has opened in the area, and a Lowe's is under construction. It is widely believed that Wal-Mart is the anchor tenant for a 450,000-square-foot complex also being planned on Route 1, but the company won't confirm it. Buchanan only said, "Regarding Ellsworth, we have no publicly announced plans."
Given the recent examples of organized opposition to the company's Maine developments, it's little wonder that Wal-Mart isn't eager to talk about locations it's scouting. With a site plan before the Bangor Planning Board, however, debate there is now wide open ˆ and no one seems to expect a quick verdict. The earlier Bangor site review process took almost three years, and while that application involved legal challenges and precedent-setting decisions by the state Board of Environmental Protection ˆ it is apparently the first big box store rejected primarily because of environmental concerns ˆ there is no guarantee that the latest battle will be speedily decided.
Bangor's planning board will decide first on the application, then the city council will vote. The project also will need state Site of Location approval and federal Army Corps of Engineers permits for wetlands alterations. At its speediest, the whole process takes six to nine months, but could last considerably longer if there is substantive opposition.
Even with that process, opponents like Valerie Carter say "there are still a lack of forums" to discuss all the issues raised by Wal-Mart and other big-box retailers, which she says have had a profound effect on wages, benefits and smaller stores. One new group, the Eastern Maine Economy Commission, in which PICA participates, held community forums on the big-box question in Bucksport and Ellsworth in September, and has another scheduled in Bangor in October.
That's why, even with concerns about the Penjajawoc Marsh potentially off the table, scrutiny of Wal-Mart's latest Bangor proposal likely will be as intense as it was a few years ago. "People need to be able to find the things they need at prices they can afford," Donahue says. "We just want to make sure all the costs of development are weighed, and if the deal is really as good as it seems."
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