Wal-Mart Growth Facing Challenges in San Diego
A citizens group hoping to halt the expansion of a San Diego County Wal-Mart store has filed a lawsuit against the city of Vista, Calif., and named the Bentonville, Ark.–based retailer as the main respondent in the case.
San Diego attorney Cory J. Briggs in San Diego Superior Court filed a petition for a writ of mandate on behalf of the nonprofit Concerned Citizens of Vista, which is charging the retailer with violating the California Environmental-Quality Act (CEQA).
On March 11, the city approved a 28,000-square-foot expansion of the store, located on University Avenue in Vista, a north San Diego County suburb. Plans are to turn the existing 154,000-square-foot store into one of the region’s first Wal-Mart Supercenters, which would include grocery, bakery and deli sections.
According to court documents, the store was part of Vista’s North County Square–specific plan, which was the subject of an environmental review in 1992 and amended in 1994 and 1997, but the citizens group charged that the amendments did not consider the environmental impacts that a Supercenter would have on the region. It now wants the city to reconsider the case and conduct an environmental-impact report for the expansion. Vista officials said they approved the project according to law.
Briggs did not disclose who is included in the citizens group. Vista Mayor Morris Vance suggested the group was made up of labor unions, according to a report in The North County Times, an Escondido, Calif.–based newspaper covering North San Diego and Southwest Riverside counties. The retailer generally operates without unions and has had numerous confrontations with labor unions in the past.
Briggs has filed similar actions against Wal-Mart and Target Stores in several other California cities.
Wal-Mart is also facing a similar scenario in Poway, another San Diego suburb. A group of citizens is voicing opposition to a Wal-Mart expansion project there, as well. Outspoken Wal-Mart critic Al Norman, who was once the subject of a “60 Minutes” report for his national fight against Wal-Mart’s growth, has joined the South Poway Residents’ Association in the fight.
The city of San Diego approved a so-called “big-box ordinance” in 2004, restricting new retail developments of 90,000 square feet or more, but that action was later vetoed by the mayor. —Robert McAllister
