After years of back-and-forth bickering, it seems Lompoc residents opposed to enlarging the existing Walmart retail center have exhausted all their options.
The grassroots activist group Citizens Against Walmart Expansion (CAWE) filed an appeal to the city planning commission’s February approval of the project.
At its May 3 meeting, the City Council finally put the issue to rest, voting 5-0 to deny the CAWE appeal.
According to City Attorney Joseph Pannone, all administrative appeals have been exhausted and the matter will come up once more on May 17, when it will be adopted as a resolution item.
The expansion plan proposes to add 41,433 square feet to the existing 104,453-square-foot Walmart store on West Central Avenue in Lompoc. Including the garden center—a portion of which will have to be removed to accommodate the increase in general merchandise area—the store will take up a total area of more than 150,000 square feet.
CAWE filed an appeal to the project’s development plan on Feb. 22, and was represented by Santa Barbara-based attorney Marc Chytilo. Chytilo delivered a letter to the city dated
April 15, which laid out grievances with the expansion.
Chytilo argued that the project isn’t
consistent with the city’s general plan and that increased competition to small business would result in increases in vacant storefronts, creating an urban blight issue.
He also claimed fire and police department facilities and personnel are currently inadequate to address safety issues that might arise from greater traffic to the super-store.
Supporters of Walmart have argued that CAWE’s opposition to the retail giant is union-driven, and that the city’s environmental impact report addressed all the traffic and safety factors.
Walmart spokesperson Amelia Neufield previously told the Sun construction is estimated to take between 12 and 15 months.
This article appears in May 12-19, 2011.
