DONATE NOW TO HELP STOP WAL-MART ON THE FRENCH KING
This past week marked the 16th anniversary of the defeat of Wal-Mart in Greenfield. But the battle over sustainable land use never ends.
For more than three years, a wealthy developer from Connecticut has been trying to build a 160,000 square foot superstore on 19 acres at the end of the French King Highway, right across Route 2A from the site where Wal-Mart was defeatedin 1993. The store proposed today is 2.5 times bigger than Stop & Shop. It would be the largest single retail building in Franklin County history. The French King Wal-Mart is significantly larger than the Wal-Mart in Northampton, Hadley, Orange, or Hinsdale---all of which are around 100,000 s.f. The developer refuses to make the store smaller, despite Wal-Mart’s statements to the media that it is “comfortable” with 70,000 square foot superstores.
Because of the poor condition of this French King property, including oil contamination, and the location of at least six wetlands, the project has been a challenge for the landowner and the developer alike. More importantly, local citizens in Greenfield have forced this project to remain at the Conservation Commission level for three years. We have appealed the Conservation Commission decision to allow this huge store to destroy the sandy slopes of this land, raise the whole site by nine feet, and then cover almost the entire surface area with asphalt and concrete. It took us three years, but the developer has now moved his building off of a wetland he claims did not exist.
If this project is ever built, it will be glowing all night like a mini airport at the end of a huge asphalt parking field. On Saturdays, more than 7,700 cars a day will enter and exit the French King site. More than a third of these cars will some from the south along High Street—a road which was not designed for large traffic volumes. The entire eastern side of Greenfield, from the Highland Park neighborhood to Canada Hill, will experience a new level of traffic problems that High Street was never designed to handle.
Fighting this Wal-Mart battle has been expensive. The abutters on Canada Hill have had to file an appeal to the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, and to Superior Court. But already we have had some victories. Our legal work forced the landowner and developer to restore the major wetland on the site, and to build around the wetland, instead of destroy it.
It costs between $200 and $400 an hour in legal expenses to fight this project. Just a copy of the record thus far cost $700. Funds are being raised to help us stay in this battle. The developer does not need to raise money. He is very wealthy, and owns a $9 million house on Nantucket---far from any Wal-Mart.
We need your help today to stop this huge Wal-Mart. Please make out a check to the “Greenfield Neighborhood Association” in any amount you feel comfortable with, and mail your check to 21 Grinnell St, Greenfield, MA 01301. Everyone locally working on this campaign is a volunteer. Every penny of your donation will help defray the cost of our legal and expert witnesses.
Greenfield is starting to invest in its downtown after many years of neglect. The last thing we need is another huge national chain store sucking dollars from our local economy. We’ve already seen how a national home improvement store wiped out a local hardware store (Carr’s) and a long-standing family lumber yard (Rugg’s). A Wal-Mart superstore will displace local garden centers, vision centers, music and bookstores, department stores, and grocery stores. As an area radio station likes to say: “Shop local.
Because local is good.”
Your investment in this effort is another way to shop locally, and protect our trade area from predatory national chains.
Please help us today! Our court cases are coming up in the near future, and we need to raise money to carry on the fight.
Thanks for investing in the future of a sustainable downtown, and a green future for Greenfield. Contributions to fight Wal-Mart are not tax deductible.
Send checks to: The Greenfield Neighborhood Association, 21 Grinnell St, Greenfield, MA 01301.
