Nearly four years after Walmart told the city of Lompoc it wanted to expand its existing store, the city’s Planning Commission has given the retail giant the go-ahead.
On Feb. 9, the Lompoc Planning Commission voted 3-1, with commissioner Kate Griffith dissenting, to approve Walmart’s development plan for its 721 W. Central Ave. location. Commissioner Frank Hain recused himself from the vote because of a family member who runs a competing grocery store.
The plan would add approximately 41,433 square feet to the already 104,453-square-foot store. Including the existing garden center—a portion of which will be removed to accommodate an increase in general merchandise area—the total area of the store will encompass more than 150,000 square feet.
According to a city staff report, Walmart plans to remodel the front of the store and add on to the rear and western walls of the building. The new, expanded store will operate 24 hours a day.
The commission had previously rejected the project’s environmental impact report, a decision Walmart appealed to the City Council. The council accepted the appeal on Feb. 1.
Lompoc Planning Manager Lucille Breese told the Sun Walmart could begin construction after the appeal deadline of Feb. 24. Walmart representatives estimate construction could take up to 24 months.
People can still appeal the commission’s decision to the City Council until 5 p.m. on Feb. 24.
Robert Cuthbert, a former union organizer and member of Citizens Against Walmart Expansion—which has been in an ongoing battle with Walmart since the corporation first announced its plans to build a store in Lompoc in 1992—continues to oppose the project, and told the Sun the organization may file an appeal. The question, Cuthbert said, is whether the group can afford to go toe to toe with the company in court.
“We’re considering it right now,” Cuthbert said. “But we don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the question is, do we want to continue on with a futile effort? Nobody in this community has that kind of money for litigation.”
Cuthbert said the final environmental impact report failed to take into consideration an increased burden on already stretched-thin police and fire departments, and added the expansion would hurt small business and do nothing to improve the local economy.
“Walmart is very predatory,” he said. “Their model is to capture as much of the retail market as possible, and in a community like ours, that means the money does not stay local, and it means limited wages [for local workers]. It’s essentially a zero sum game.”
This article appears in Feb 17-24, 2011.