Last night at the Village Board of Trustees meeting in Glen Carbon, IL a proposal to create a special business district and hand over seven million dollars in local sales tax revenue in order to build a Sam's Club was defeated on a 4-3 vote, with Mayor Rob Jackstadt casting the deciding vote against the project.
This is the second time in four years that the Village has rebuffed the efforts of Wal-Mart/Sam's Club (hereinafter referred to as "WM/SC") to dominate the retail scene in the Village. In 2007 they requested variances to convert the present store--already the beneficiary of a Tax Increment Financing district (TIF)--into a Super Store. The Village Board rejected these proposed variances after citizens organized in opposition to it.
The general public became aware in February of this year that WM/SC was back again. This time they requested approval for a 24,000 square foot expansion of the current Wal-Mart--not calling it a Super Store but expanding to 24/7 operations nevertheless--as well as the Sam's Club proposal. Now any time someone wants to use $7M of taxpayer money one would think it would be given very careful consideration. But because three of the six Trustees weren't running for reelection--and at least one of their replacements (who are to be seated at the next meeting) opposed the project, they were put on the fast track to get a final vote last night. What transpired at last night's meeting is chronicled below.
Glen Carbon was incorporated in 1892 and, as its name describes it--valley of coal--it was a coal mining town. When the last of the mines closed it continued its small-town existence, and in 1970 the population was still under 3,000.
In the 1990s a residential building boom took place as land west of the city of St. Louis became expensive and farther removed from the downtown area, while land in the Metro-East area remained a bargain and downtown could be reached in 20-25 minutes from Glen Carbon with the opening of I-255. The result was an influx of residents from outside the area with new homes valued between $250,000-$450,000 and growth was largely unabated until the housing bubble burst in 2008. Money Magazine recently named Glen Carbon One of the Best 100 places to live, and not without merit. There are miles of biking and hiking trails and designated green space throughout the area, the library was recently chosen as one of the best small-town libraries in the country, etc.
With development, however, comes a tension between those who want to preserve the past and those who, e.g., want a Sam's Club right in the middle of the Village. Which brings us to last night's standing room only crowd at the Village Hall.
As noted above this project was fast-tracked like the survival of humanity depended on its coming to fruition. Because state law prescribes the steps needed to establish a special business district, there had to be public hearings and because of our form of government multiple committees had to meet numerous times. This was done in an incredibly compressed time frame. As the project director from THF, the real estate arm of WM/SC noted last night, he's been working on this project for almost two years, first with WM/SC people and more recently with Village officials. So what had taken him two years was supposed to be put together, analyzed and approved in less than three months by our Trustees.
The meeting proceeded to the standing agenda item where citizens can address the Board. A number of people spoke out against the project, including my wife, Maggie, who, among others, quoted the "poet of the common man".
Everything Wal-Mart all the time,
No more mom-and pop five and dimes
What happened?
Where did America go?
Where did America go?
Merle Haggard, What Happened, from The Bluegrass Sessions (curse you, Kos italics and blockquotes!)
Aside from the question of taxpayers subsidizing the richest corporation in the world, opponents focused primarily on two issues: traffic and site cleanup.
Traffic in the area already earns a grade of D and there is no good way to mitigate that now, let alone with increased traffic. Surprisingly--not--THF's traffic study said things would be just fine. But the only change that could be agreed to was to further extend a middle turn lane on the section of road in question.
Site cleanup is another matter. The proposed business district covers fifteen acres that was formerly the site of a company that treated lumber with carcinogenic creosote. An environmental attorney at the meeting representing some residents opposing the proposal noted that the Illinois EPA should have oversight of the cleanup--the proposal calls for the developer to have oversight--and that the Village should insist on IEPA's issuance of an "EFR letter" when the cleanup is done. "Exempt From Remediation" means the IEPA assures that the cleanup was thorough and followed accepted protocol, thus negating the possibility of WM/SC later abandoning the property and leaving the Village with a contaminated site that still needs cleanup. THF made it clear in their presentation at the meeting that they did not agree that IEPA should be involved and that an EFR letter wasn't needed. Color me unconvinced.
Throughout the public hearings and committee meetings on the issues--and my wife or I attended almost all of them--supporters of this project were non-existent, but a few came forward last night, so let me summarize their input.
A young man in his late teens or early '20s spoke about the jobs that WM/SC would create, without, of course, understanding that these are primarily minimum wage jobs with few benefits, often requiring the employee to seek public assistance to survive.
A small business owner spoke and I thought at first she was going to point out that the Village hadn't offered her any financial help with her business so why are they giving money to WM/SC. Instead, reminiscent of What's the Matter with Kansas and failing to recognize one's self interest, she said she welcomed the competition with Sam's Club and supported the proposal. This is competition on a scale with the Yankees vs. the Pirates. I hoped the woman would still be in business in five years but had my doubts.
Finally, someone spoke who, if he were any more self-absorbed would be a sponge, not a human being. He spoke about how he likes to get in his car on Saturday and drive over to the Sam's Club in a neighboring town and shop there and at other stores near it and he thinks the same thing would happen if a Sam's is located here. Traffic congestion challenges that assumption and the addition of a Sam's would only make Glen Carbon even less friendly for bicycle and pedestrian traffic.
He then said he's not concerned if opening Sams' Club results in closing one of our four grocery stores in the area because the store he named is just across the municipal boundary in Edwardsville. Never mind that people working at the closed store live in Glen Carbon. Never mind that the jobs Sam's Club will replace do not support a middle class existence. Never mind that Madison County's sales tax revenue will decline (I'm not sure what county this fella thought he lived in).
The guy from THF did a presentation of the project which lasted about an hour, and what I took away from it is the project will probably cure most types of cancer and raise the IQ of everyone by at least 20 points so they can see the wisdom of subsidizing WM/SC. He also pointed out the revenues that the Village will eventually realize--13, 20, maybe 23 years from now and all that was missing was Don Pardo telling us what we've won. However, he did his best Fred Astaire dance moves when he provided a non-response to the question of why this project needs $7M but two other, larger projects in the last fifteen years needed roughly half that amount. Lord, he was pickin' 'em up and layin' 'em down but never did he answer the question.
The primary supporter of this proposal among the Trustees was John Navin, who was serving his last meeting as a Trustee, having chosen not to run for re-election. As he explained his support, he noted the overwhelming number of people who privately contacted him to express their support (why didn't they show up for public meetings, John?) and he went The Full Boehner, with tears welling in his eyes and his voice cracking. He must positively get a woody just thinking about the honor of forking over taxpayer resources to WM/SC.
Two of the three ordinances related to the project, concerning site plan approval and special business district approval passed with 4-2 margins. It then came down to one more vote, to approve the agreement between THF and the Village, and here's where it got interesting.
It appears that one Trustee confused his previous vote on the special business district ordinance and meant to vote "no", so on the question of approving the agreement, he voted "no", thus creating a 3-3 tie. Mayor Jackstadt then spoke eloquently and with passion that he could not, in good conscience, consider this a good deal for the Village of Glen Carbon and he sided with the no votes in defeating the proposal.
THF and WM/SC may come back with another proposal down the road. They said they need our $7M to make the project work and won't do it unless we give it to them. They might come back with a revised proposal asking for less money but that would undercut their previous argument. I just don't know. But I do know that if they do there will be a committed core of people to let them know in no uncertain terms that they and their ilk are not welcome in our community.
I'm so encouraged by the recent outbreak of democracy, both here (Wisconsin) and abroad (Egypt), despite the best efforts of the plutocracy to end it. Another small victory at the local level is worth celebrating too.
I will be here for another 40 minutes or so and then must leave for awhile--more community volunteer stuff, don't you know. I'll check in later tonight again. Thanks for reading this and what have you done today to help democracy thrive?