By Brent Denzin
Planning
Commissions have an eye for details. By focusing on project details,
commissioners' often identify traffic problems, eye sores, and hidden
dangers that need to be eliminated before a project can proceed.
But
the devil isn't always in the details. When reviewing big-box
development proposals, many communities have stopped asking basic
design and planning questions and started to accept unnecessary impacts
associated with urban sprawl.
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?
Well, no.
Wal-Mart
moves to undeveloped areas because it insists on using an outdated,
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 the community and its surrounding
environment.
Using the existing footprint, the expanded Wal-Mart should include:
• Underground parking.
Wal-Mart can and does build its Supercenters with underground parking.
For example, in Monona, Wal-Mart is building a 203,000 square foot
Wal-Mart Supercenter on the 14-acre site of a vacant Kmart. Why isn't
Wal-Mart using its current stores in Monroe or Stoughton in the same
way?
• Low-impact development. Green
roofs, parking lot gardens, and porous pavement are a few of the design
features that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is promoting to
limit the amount of polluted run-off created by big-box development.
Given the clear environmental and economic benefits (i.e. lower
long-term energy costs), big-box retailers, like IKEA, have been
integrating these design features in to their developments for years.
However, instead of using low-impact development techniques, Wal-Mart
has been offering concrete storm detention ponds and paving over even
more land in the process.
• Multi-level design. Retail
stores can, and should be built with more than one floor. As of
2006,Wal-Mart operated at least 20 multilevel stores, many of them in
buildings vacated by other retailers. Why isn't Wal-Mart adding a
second floor to their stores in Monroe and Stoughton, doubling the
square footage?
In the past, multistory retail buildings and
parking structures defined downtown commercial areas. Concerned about
the impacts of sprawl, many communities are attempting to return to the
multilevel retail design to promote sustainable development.
Yet,
despite better designs, sprawling parking lots and single-story
supercenters continue to rapidly replace Wisconsin farms, paving over
land at a rate three times faster than our population growth.
The
days of accepting Wal-Mart's worst should be gone by now. 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.
Wisconsin communities deserve the most
efficient design that Wal-Mart offers, regardless of opportunities to
cut costs by taking over farms. At your next Planning Commission
meeting, make sure your commissioners are demanding the best that
big-box retailers have to offer and taking your community to the next
level.
Brent Denzin is an Equal Justice Works Fellow and attorney at Midwest Environmental Advocates. He can be reached at bdenzin@midwestadvocates.org
Published: February 7, 2007
