An amended version of the Big Box Ordinance has bounced back down from council to the Planning Commission; with the commission’s Jan. 16 meeting canceled due to weather, the ordinance still awaits a new review.
The significant amendment, forwarded by Council Member Lee Leffingwell, was a developer-friendly provision to allow a single, combined public hearing for 1) the big-box retail conditional-use permit and 2) rezoning. Advocates at Liveable City (the nonprofit that originally forwarded the ordinance) were wary of the change. Their concern: A big-box conditional-use permit could be approved with rezoning many years before a specific superstore gets built. They want language assuring a CUP neighborhood hearing and expanded notification directly before the development of a big-box project. At Northcross Mall, for example, the zoning permitting the more than 200,000-square-foot Wal-Mart store now planned for the property was approved decades ago.
A second concern is the unaddressed “adjacent structure loophole.” The ordinance’s expanded public hearing and neighborhood notification requirements apply only to stores of 100,000 square feet and up. A wily retailer easily could prepare a site plan for two adjacent 95,000 structures – Wal-Mart Home and Wal-Mart Grocery, say – to skirt the ordinance. To close the loophole, city staff was considering a language change, tying total limited square footage to a principal retail use and accessories (as in the SOS Ordinance), rather than to a single building. For now, it’s wait-and-see on whether a further-amended Big Box Ordinance will get kicked back up to council – again.
This article appears in January 19 • 2007.