Last fall I moved to a lovely little town in southern Wisconsin. It is small, has a thriving downtown, and the traffic is minimal. Unfortunately, Wal*Mart also thinks it's the perfect town to build in, even though they already have a small store here and there are two other stores within 20 minutes of here.
I watched the small town where I lived in Louisiana become a sprawling, traffic-clogged, faceless place. And I would hate to see that happen here as well.
I am not opposed to development, unless it is inane. More below the fold...
First I would like to excerpt quotes from an article that I recently read:
Op Ed by Brent Denzin, Attorney, Midwest Environmental Advocates, Inc.
For example, Wal-Mart and other big-box developments have a tendency to vacate existing sites in favor of new locations in rural areas. The standard excuse for this type of big-box sprawl is the need for increased square footage. Bigger stores need bigger lots and Wal-Mart has no choice but to push Wisconsin cities farther into the country-side, right?
...
Wal-Mart moves to undeveloped areas because it insists on using an out-dated, inefficient store model instead of newer retail designs used in other cities across the nation. In Wisconsin communities, like Monroe and Stoughton, Wal-Mart has the capability to expand existing big-box stores with far less impact on community and its surrounding environment. Using the existing footprint, the expanded Wal-Mart should include...
Underground Parking...
Green roofs, parking lot gardens, and porous pavement...
Multi-level Design...
...
Before we get to the details of a big-box development proposal, Planning Commissions should address basic concerns with the single-story design and expansive parking lots.
The entire article can be read here: http://www.midwestadvocates.org/...
What I would like to do is question the "green" CEO, H Lee Scott, but I need an email address to contact him. I would like to ask him the following:
- Why, when the current store is never busy, do you need a new one?
- Why would you want to use all of the resources needed to build a new facility when you have an old site that is usable?
- Why don't you give our town the same benefit as other towns using the new model store?
- If you are going to take up many acres of stormwater-absorbing open land, why can't you at least reduce your footprint and put a growing roof on it to offset some of the impact?
I hate to see this wonderful community over run by big boxes, but the current city council leans heavily toward development without caring about the impacts. Or maybe they've just never seen a lovely town turn into just another bit of Generica the Boring.
So if anyone knows where to find this man's email address, I would appreciate it. I've looked around a bit with no luck.