First, the disclaimer:
I am an active member of the Northwest Citizens for Responsible Growth.
I have served as spokesperson for the group through much of the eight+ years in which we have been opposing the current JLD Properties St. Albans Walmart application.
Here follows our formal statement on the Supreme Court decision to uphold the permit:
The Northwest Citizens for Responsible Growth are extremely disappointed by the decision of Vermont’s Supreme Court with regard to the J.L.D. Properties Walmart permit application.
The decision indicates a disregard for citizen access within the local permit process, not to mention for the validity of that process itself.
The judges acknowledged the egregious nature of conflicts of interest that occurred in the local permit process, which is the only level at which ordinary citizens may participate without devoting considerable financial resources to the effort. By ruling that those conflicts of interest do not matter because of the “de novo” nature of the Environmental Court hearing, they are saying essentially that the local permit is meaningless.
We sincerely hope for the best possible outcome for our communities, and we trust that the careful scrutiny that we will apply to Mr. Davis’ St. Albans Walmart, both during the construction phase and throughout its operation, will serve to ensure that this will be the most scrupulously operated Walmart store in history, and that none of the issues of traffic congestion, secondary growth, store closings and environmental degradation that we fear will be allowed to ensue.
There is so much more I’d like to say about this, but I’ll reserve that for another time.
To coverage of this development at Sprawl-busters.com.
Since Walmart first threatened the traditional downtown of Northfield, Massachusetts, Sprawl-busters.com and its founder, Al Norman, have worked tirelessly to maintain an information link amongst community groups and individual activists who were struggling to save their communitites from the giant retail predator.
This new giant store will not only destroy business in downtown St. Albans, it will also have a dramatic impact on the “Boxes of Williston”, the University Mall in S. Burlington, and Downtown Burlington. Just count the number of Canadian cars in the parking lots of those three areas to figure this out. No reason to drive an added 25 – 30 miles to get what you can find just over the line.
To you, Sue, to all the members of Northwest Citizens, and to the increasingly visionary and active downtown St. Albans business owners busy trying to revitalize the district. If nothing else, the lawsuit bought enough time for the downtown businessfolk to join together and make plans for growth and improvement.
I gather there are no grounds for further appeal, not that the current SCOTUS offers hope to any person not incorporated.
Walmart offers the worst excesses of capitalism run amok. Its motto should be: whoever dies with the most cheap plastic crap made in a foreign country “wins.” If it weren’t potentially toxic, I’d suggest that every person who buys crap at Walmart be buried with their c-p-c to comfort them through the endless dark night.
And to those who are believers in a deity, you might want to ask yourselves: what would God want – money donated to charities or spent in businesses that help their communities prosper, or spent in a store based on a business model of impoverishing its community.
NanuqFC
The decadent international but individualistic capitalism in the hands of which we found ourselves after the war is not a success. It is not intelligent. It is not beautiful. It is not just. It is not virtuous. And it doesn’t deliver the goods. ~ John Maynard Keynes (1933)
my challenge to Governor Shumlin regarding his re-appointment of Dan Luneau to the District 6 Environmental Commission.
He never gave me a single reason why Mr. Luneau should be serving on that Commission even though I had cited one very good reason why he should not: conflict of interest.
I would suggest that Mr. Shumlin begin to think seriously about the harm that is done when conflicts of interest have no consequences.