RSD CALL FOR WAL-MART PETITION

The Ontarion - News
September 29, 2005
RSD CALL FOR WAL-MART PETITION
Written by Meghan Moloney

The activist group Residents for Sustainable Development (RSD) has made an offer to Mario Pilozzi, the CEO of Wal-Mart Canada, stating that they will accept the proposed location of the store at Woodlawn and Woolwich, if the company successfully petitions the community for support. They are specifically asking for the signatures of over half the adults in Guelph and suggest that Wal-Mart entertain alternate locations if they cannot produce the petition.

The offer is just one more development in a long campaign against the retail giant. Since 1995, RSD (formerly known as the Big Box Action Group or BBAG) has been opposing Wal-Mart's proposal to build a 350,000-square-foot mega-store at the intersection of Woodlawn and Woolwich.

The City Council of Guelph originally voted against Wal-Mart's application in 1997, in order to protect its Official Plan for municipal development, which led to an appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB). However, throughout the next few years, the city changed its stance on the Wal-Mart issue several times.

In 2004, the city approved a revised application for a 135,000-square-foot store, and a few months later the OMB approved it. Almost immediately, the decision was protested. RSD launched an appeal beginning in early 2005, which is currently still being reviewed in court.

"We could avoid any further action if they accept the petition offer," said Ben Bennett, a spokesperson for RSD. "But it looks like they're not going to accept it.

"The court action will work its way through, and we should have some news on that in November," he said.

Bennett emphasized that their campaign is focusing on the proposed Woodlawn/Woolwich location in the north end of the city, rather than on the question of whether Guelph needs more "big box" stories in the community.

"The main demographic that Wal-Mart serves is young families in new homes," Bennett said last week. He points out that the neighbourhood surrounding Wal-Mart's proposed location consists mostly of cemeteries, religious centres, retirement homes, and factories. The west, south, and east parts of the city, on the other hand, are full of new growth and housing developments for younger families, and are in need of a wider range of shopping centres.

"We haven't been able to engage them in any discussion of why they wouldn't put it somewhere else," he said, describing the fight as a "David and Goliath struggle."

"This is literally the only site for Wal-Mart in Guelph," said Wal-Mart spokesperson Kevin Groh. "We've looked at size, we've looked at traffic, we've looked at community converns and this is the site that works."

Groh says Wal-Mart has always been committed to finding store locations that benefit communities.

Aside from the issue of the demand for a large-scale shopping development, Bennett and RSD also cite environmental concerns as part of the motivation for the current campaign. They claim that developing the north end would create more traffic congestion and, by extension, more noise and pollution with residents from the south and other parts of town driving to and from Wal-Mart.