Walmart to Customers: Help Us Get New Store

Walmart sought to mobilize a new weapon recently in in Elk Grove’s Madeira neighborhood: its customers.

In a flier being handed out to shoppers last week at on Elk Grove Blvd, the retail giant touted the economic benefits of the controversial project and asked supporters to attend a hearing at Wednesday’s city council meeting.

The glossy flier calls the proposed 99,585-square-foot store a “modestly-sized neighborhood store” and says it will create 300 new jobs. It also mentions $35,000 in donations Walmart has made to local community organizations.

Penny Roberts, a customer service supervisor at the store, said Walmart was just trying to level the playing field by calling on shoppers for help.

“There has been at least one city council meeting where there were lots of people from the community [who opposed the project] but not that many from Walmart,” she said. “We’re trying to get people out there to give the Walmart point of view.”

Roberts said management was encouraging employees to hand out the fliers and to personally attend Wednesday’s council meeting.

A representative of a residents’ group with concerns about noise, traffic and crime from the store called Walmart’s efforts a meaningless public relations campaign.

“Their propaganda will never respond directly to the concerns voiced by affected citizens in the immediate area,” said Peter Gaffney of Friends of Madeira. “It’s not a popularity contest or a show of hands…That kind of noise only distracts from what the real issues are.”

Wednesday’s meeting is the latest turning point in a complicated battle that began when Walmart put in a bid to take over a space originally meant for a Target store in the new Vineyard of Madeira shopping center, near the Glenbrooke retirement community.

Here’s where things stand:

• The council will consider Wednesday whether to extend for another year a permit for the shopping center project that expired last month.

• Walmart is appealing a recent court decision that said the city cannot simply extend permits for the project without further environmental review.

• The council has on new big-box stores while it revamps its zoning code to make sure there are no loopholes that could allow Walmart to proceed without the permit. That moratorium is also set to expire and will likely be extended Wednesday.

Unlike Walmart battles in other towns that have drawn attention to the chain’s labor practices or impact on local businesses, this one has focused largely on relatively specific, narrow concerns raised by neighbors: Will delivery trucks idle at all hours of the night? Will nearby streets fill with traffic, and parking lot floodlights disturb the sleep of residents?

The proposal the council will consider Wednesday includes some conditions aimed at addressing those concerns. Walmart—or any other tenant in the location—would have to limit its hours to between 8:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday, closing by 10:00 on Sunday.  The store would also have to prohibit overnight parking and submit plans for security and delivery truck routes to the city.

Walmart spokesperson Amelia Neufeld said the company would agree to the limited hours.

“We appreciate the city’s efforts and are continuing to evaluate the conditions of approval,” she said in an email. “We hope to meet the needs of the community as soon as possible, and will continue to work with local officials and community members to do just that.”

Gaffney and Friends of Madeira, however, say the proposal before the council doesn’t go far enough. They want Walmart to pay for its own security at the parking lot and agree to keep delivery trucks off Whitelock Parkway, where children often walk on their way to school.

They also question whether some of the conditions in the proposal—like the security plans—would be legally binding, since they wouldn’t take effect until after the council has already approved the permit.

“They have not settled a lot of thorny issues,” said Gaffney. “The issue is not Walmart in the abstract; it’s Walmart in this particular location. That’s what Walmart keeps glossing over.”

The hearing will take place at 6:00 p.m. in the City Council Chambers, 8400 Laguna Palms Way.