A proposed Super Wal-Mart sparked debate-and a lawsuit.
***image2***Wal-Mart was everywhere this year. On any given week, the bad mamajama of superstores stole headlines throughout the country-whether it was by fighting off a sexual discrimination suit in California, hauling truckloads of supplies into Katrina-ravaged Louisiana or starring in new documentaries and books.
When Wal-Mart wasn't making big-city news, the corporation was causing a stir in communities everywhere in between. City and county governments in places like Papillion, Neb., and Tarpon Springs, Fla., publicly fought developers and sometimes each other over whether to let Wal-Mart peddle its wares where they lived.
And then there was Santa Fe.
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For months, a vicious debate raged in the City Different over whether to allow a 150,000-square-foot Super Wal-Mart as part of the Entrada Contenta development on Cerrillos Road [Outtakes, Oct. 5:
].
Supporters argued that the 40,000 mostly working class residents who live on the city's south side desperately need a place to shop and shop cheap. Opponents, such as members of the Coalition to Limit Big Box Stores in Santa Fe, countered with Wal-Mart's checkered corporate history [Cover story, July 13:
].
Both sides clashed fiercely at an Aug. 15 City Council meeting at Santa Fe High School to determine Super Wal-Mart's fate.
Featuring impassioned diatribes in favor of the project from people such as the project's consultant, Richard Gorman, and south-side residents and a dramatic speech on Wal-Mart's many troubles from former interior secretary Stewart Udall, the battle swayed back and forth through the night.
***image3***When the dust cleared at 5 am the next morning, things seemed more convoluted than ever. The development originally was rejected, but a last-minute parliamentary vote from City Councilor David Pfeffer appeared to put Wal-Mart back on the table. On a second vote, Mayor Larry Delgado broke a tie in favor of Wal-Mart pending a revised traffic plan [Outtakes, Aug. 17:
].
A month later, the Council approved Wal-Mart's revised traffic plan, despite a good old fashioned thrashing of the company's corporate edict by Councilor Matt Ortiz and public wavering from Councilor Miguel Chavez, both of whom ultimately voted for the project.
"My feelings are still somewhat mixed," Chavez says of his vote. "I understand both sides of the argument: those who say we need to support small businesses and the cottage industry, and those who say that not everyone can afford to support small businesses all the time and that one way to keep prices down is to depend on volume and bulk prices. This debate has really generated a lot of interest in this community."
***image4***Months later, the Wal-Mart debate continues. Local lawyer Stephen Durkovich filed a Dec. 7 appeal in New Mexico's First Judicial District Court over the city's decision. Durkovich, whose sharp wit and acerbic tongue have earned him both respect and disapproval from his own anti-Wal-Mart contingent, says the city unlawfully limited itself by only considering land use issues when discussing Wal-Mart; violated procedural rules in letting Pfeffer switch sides and request a re-vote; and illegally approved a muddled traffic system.
"This is a decision on a matter of law," Durkovich, who is working with five other New Mexico lawyers on the case, says. "My bet is that this will be heard sometime within the next three months."
("We are not a party to the lawsuit, therefore it would be inappropriate for me to comment on it," Wal-Mart Spokeswoman Kimberly Randle says. "My understanding is that the applicants are going to proceed with the approved development.")
Planner Gorman tells SFR he hopes the Super Wal-Mart will be open for business sometime in 2006.
"There's no question we've received tremendous support from the majority of residents on this side of town," Gorman says. "It's very bothersome when you have people like Stephen Durkovich and other east-side folks that are opposing what the south side wants and needs."
Whatever happens, Santa Feans were limited to the regular Wal-Mart on Cerrillos Road for their 2005 Christmas shopping.
