SAVE ATASCADERO

(FORMERLY OPPOSE WAL-MART) UPDATE

May 12, 2010

Contact us at info@opposewalmart.com or go to

opposewalmart.com or saveatascadero.com

(Please notify us of email address changes)

Editor:  Lee Perkins

TO VIEW PAST SAVE ATASCADERO UPDATES, PLEASE

GO TO saveatascadero WEBSITE

1. WAL-MART OPEN HOUSE AT ATASCADERO CITY HALL 5/5/10
2. SCOPING FOR WAL-MART/ANNEX EIR (Environmental Impact Report), TUESDAY, MAY 25 AT 6:00 P. M.
3. GENERAL PLAN INFORMATION

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1. WAL-MART OPEN HOUSE AT ATASCADERO CITY HALL

THE CITY OF ATASCADERO SPONSORED A WAL-MART/ANNEX OPEN HOUSE ON WEDNESDAY MAY 5 AT THE CITY HALL.

• Wal-Mart’s architectural plan has changed completely along with its size, now down to 123,112 sq ft.  Smaller is better, but we believe this store is still too big for our City.  The new architectural plan, a sequence of boxes, does not reflect a Colony Style or conform to the General Plan as written:

“Programs:

1. Update and maintain the Appearance Review Manual to include provisions for rural

character design features, street trees, landscaping, parking, fencing, screening, and

architectural design (except for single family development), with standards tailored to

specific areas of the City, including commercial corridors, and gateways such as

Highway 101 and Morro Road.”

1. SCOPING MEETING FOR WAL-MART/ANNEX EIR, TUESDAY, MAY 25 AT 6:00 P. M.

Mark your calendars to attend the City Council and the Planning Commission joint EIR scoping session on Tuesday, May 25 at 6:00 p.m. at the City Hall.  THIS IS A CRITICAL MEETING!

Re scoping:  “a scope will be proposed based on public input and the CC’s observations, which outlines what needs to be studied during the EIR.  Traffic, biology and environmental assessment such as noise, light pollution and aesthetics are typical.  There can also be a Retail Sector Strategies Report to assess the Town’s retail sector and recommend measures to proactively preserve and promote economic vitality and growth within the City.  The public needs to raise the issues and any others that are important to them or it will not be addressed in the EIR.

Discussion regarding the Wal-Mart/Annex project has gone on for several years and many concerns over the years have been expressed at the lectern.  The scoping process is like starting over.  Any concerns residents of the City and neighbors have to the development must be expressed during the scoping process meeting May 25 to be considered in the EIR.

Come and speak if you have concerns about:

• Traffic, noise, glare, hazardous dumping
• Night time deliveries, idling big rigs
• Security issues, crime, funding of emergency services and police
• Economic impact to our local stores and sustainability of local grocers and their jobs

EACH PERSON WILL HAVE 3 MINUTES TO SPEAK–MAKE THE MOST OF IT! Use your time to outline what needs to be examined during this EIR process.

The City Council must approve the EIR scoping process.  Only you can express your individual or neighborhood concerns at this meeting.  Organize your neighbors!  If you believe someone else will voice an issue, that issue may not be brought up.  The CC majority is way in favor of the project at all costs, but they must hear from you as a voter about how you want this project to go forward and must be held accountable to deal with the findings, rather than dismissing them for “overriding economic considerations” which the CEQA law allows.

This is our City and this development will affect all residents directly or indirectly.

1. GENERAL PLAN INFORMATION

I recommend to all of you to go to the City website and take a look at the General Plan.  In light of the recent tabling of the Request for Participation in a State Grant Application:  Small cities of San Luis Obispo County Climate Action Plan which would help guide us to a “sustainable” city and which the state is paying the tab.  It is an impressive document which took years of citizen input that IS AN OFFICIAL guide and sets criteria for growth, environmental issues and safety in our town.

I have copied a few statements from the General Plan for your perusal, but suggest you take a look yourself.  We need to hold our CC accountability to its General Plan.

2. Require landscaping and/or screening to buffer non-residential uses from residential areas.

3. Continue to support the Neighborhood Preservation Program.

4. Update and maintain the Sign Ordinance with higher standards for the quality and visual impact of signs.

5. Develop incentives to encourage existing uses to upgrade to contemporary design

standards, including frontage and parking lot landscaping, and the screening of loading and service areas.

Policy 1.4:  Ensure that “darkness” remain a rural characteristic by requiring that all exterior

lighting does not result in significant off-site spillage or glare.

Goal LOC 7. Tree-covered hills shall be preserved to retain the distinctive scenic quality of the community.

Policy 7.1: Ensure that the native trees of Atascadero are protected from new development in

order to retain the natural character of the community.

THESE ARE JUST A FEW THAT AS CITIZENS, WE NEED TO SPEAK TO!

SAVE ATASCADERO

(FORMERLY OPPOSE WAL-MART) UPDATE

APRIL 28, 2010

Contact us at info@opposewalmart.com or go to

opposewalmart.com or saveatascadero.com

(Please notify us of email address changes)

Editor:  Lee Perkins

TO VIEW PAST SAVE ATASCADERO UPDATES, PLEASE

GO TO saveatascadero WEBSITE

1. SAVE ATASCADERO SUPPORTS AND JOINS WITH FOOD BANK FOR ANOTHER FOOD DRIVE SCHEDULED FOR SAT. APRIL 17 AT FOOD FOR LESS.

1. HERE COMES WAL-MART—

1. 1. WAL-MART/ROTTMAN SUBMIT FINAL PLANS
   2. WAL-MART OPEN HOUSE WEDNESDAY, MAY 5/EIR public Scoping

May 25

1. 1. BIAS SUIT ADVANCES AGAINST WAL-MART
   2. LETTER TO THE EDITOR

1. MENTAL HEALTH FORUM IN ATASCADERO, SUNDAY, MAY 16

1. SECOND ANNUAL HUNGER WALK IN ATASCADERO SUNDAY SEPT. 26

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1. SAVE ATASCADERO SUPPORTS AND JOINS WITH FOOD BANK FOR ANOTHER FOOD DRIVE SCHEDULED FOR SAT. APRIL 17 AT FOOD FOR LESS.

Thank you to Food for Less and all who volunteered from the Atascadero Democratic club and Save Atascadero to staff the table at the entrance of Food for Less Saturday, April 17 and to all of you who donated food.  We collected over 840 pounds of food for the North County Food Bank.

1. HERE COMES WAL-MART—

1. 1. WAL-MART/ROTTMAN SUBMIT FINAL PLANS

Wal-Mart’s application has been revised and now proposes a 123,112± square foot commercial retail and grocery building and outdoor garden center of 6,448± square feet store which includes the following:

• General Merchandise Sales Area 63,506± square feet
• Grocery Sales and Support Area 27,894± square feet
• Retail Tenant Space 1,934± square feet
• Stock and Ancillary Area 25,550± square feet
• Pharmacy 759± square feet
• Indoor Garden/Seasonal sales 3,469± square feet

The store includes a pharmacy (not drive-thru) and drive-up “site to store” pick-up on a 19.0± acre site with a 697± space parking lot (refer to attached exhibits). The tire & lube express is no longer proposed as part of the project. The Walmart project also includes 2.0± acres of retail outpads and a 2.8± acre multi-family residential pad on the southern end of the site. The total Walmart project area is 26.1± acres.

The Wal-Mart and the Rottman Group project proposals will be processed under a single Specific Plan and environmental impact report (EIR). The City Council has selected Michael Brandman Associates to prepare the EIR. City of Atascadero Website

The Annex component, 120,900 sq ft of commercial uses includes eating and drinking places (including drive-though eating and drinking places).  So Atascadero will have even more drive-throughs.  Oh, for some nice family style restaurants!

1. WAL-MART OPEN HOUSE WEDNESDAY, MAY 5

The City of Atascadero has scheduled a Wal-Mart Open House for Wed., May 5 at the Atascadero City Hall, Conference Room 4 from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Notice how dramatically the architectual rendering of the final project for Wal-Mart has changed from the Just Listening Open House in  2006. The Wal-Mart supercenter now is simply a sequence of boxes rather than the Colony style architecture originally proposed.

The first Wal-Mart EIR public scoping meeting is tentatively set for May 25.  I tried to get information on this today from City Hall, but have not heard back from Warren Frace’s office on any further details or confirmation.

NOTE: IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO RECEIVE NOTICE OF UPCOMING WAL-MART MEETINGS, SCOPING, ETC., CALL ANNETTE AT CITY HALL AT 470-3402 and request mail notification.  If she does not answer, leave a message of your information.

1. BIAS SUIT ADVANCES AGAINST WAL-MART – April 27, 2010, Wall Street Journal, front Page. A federal appeals court ruled Monday that a gender discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. can go forward as a class-ation case, in the largest such action in U.S. history.  The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco voted 6-5 to affirm a federal judge’s decision to award class-action status to potentially one million women or more.  The ruling increases the pressure on Wal-Mart to either settle claims of unfair pay brought by the women or risk going to trial…  (For the complete article, see Wall Street Journal)

D. LETTER TO THE EDITOR, Atascadero News, April 21, 2010

This letter is in response to Robert Winslow’s letter in the Atascadero News Wednesday, April 14, in response to my letter regarding the La Plaza Cinemas.

I stand corrected, Robert Winslow as he states, no longer works for EDA, but, as he states, is the engineer for the Rottman’s adjourning project at the Annex.  While Rottman and Wal-Mart are separate entities, they are unified under the same EIR and Special Plan.  I see them as joined at the hip.

However, I stand by my words that Mr. Winslow spoke often at City Council meetings touting Wal-Mart/Rottman’s proposed development at Del Rio disregarding the General Plan.  And, ironically, he suggested that La Plaza Cinemas potentially had problems in relation to the General Plan, has traffic issues  and is in need of an EIR (Environmental Impact Report).  The city has criteria to guide them as to whether the La Plaza needs an EIR, etc. or not.  In the past these issues were downplayed by Wal-Mart and its representatives regarding the Annex project.

Slander is a very strong word and I hardly see it as slander to associate Mr. Winslow with Wal-Mart when he was one of their visible representatives until January of 2010.

I attended over two years of Atascadero City Council Meetings while the Wal-Mart issue was before the City and became aware that, in the past, not all contractors were treated equally by the City.  Such mixed messages of unequal treatment were a problem in the past and if the same exists now, are a problem as well.  All contractor/developers must be held accountable to the same rules and regulations the City has on the books.  I cannot speak for the La Plaza Cinema project process.  However, no project, if it meets CEQA obligations can circumvent any steps as required by law in this process.

Editor  Note:  Although Lee Perkins had a letter published less than a month ago, this response is being printed because in Robert Winslow’s letter, he accused her of libel.  Libel is when defamatory remarks are made in print and slander is when defamatory remarks are spoken aloud.

(THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPHS OF MY LETTER WERE NOT PRINTED IN THE A NEWS DUE TO SPACE)

I do remember that the City bent over backwards to support the Colony Square Project.  And, It is common knowledge that permits approved for this project sat in City Hall ready to be acted on for almost a year.

As far as supporting either the Colony Square and/or La Plaza.  I support both and eagerly await the Colony Square completion!!!  Being supportive of La Plaza and Colony Square supports Atascadero downtown and will increase the City’s attractiveness for all residents, countywide visitors and tourists.

Lee Perkins

1. MENTAL HEALTH FORUM IN ATASCADERO, SUNDAY, MAY 16

A Mental Health Forum A Journey of Hope and Recovery, will be presented at the Atascadero Community Church Fellowship Hall, 5850 Rosario Ave., on Sunday, May 16, 2010 at 2:00 p.m.

Featured: the Acclaimed Documentary “The Shaken Tree:  Families Living with Mental Illness

This is free and open to the public.  The Program includes:

Transitions Mental Health Association-Family Services

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)

For more information call:  805-466-9108

MAY IS MENTAL HEALTH MONTH.

1. SECOND ANNUAL HUNGER WALK IN ATASCADERO SUNDAY SEPT. 26

Mark your calendars, walk, volunteer, get your clubs/organizations involved!

Join the Food Bank Coalition

and Central Coast Clergy & Laity for Justice in our 2010

Hunger Walk Sunday, September 26th, 2:00 pm

You and your group can help

fight hunger in SLO County

Participating Communities

Arroyo Grande      Atascadero      Cambria     Cayucos

Los Osos     Morro Bay     Nipomo    Oceano

Paso Robles     San Luis Obispo     San Miguel

How It Works:

TheFoodBankCoalition

•Your organization signs up walkers

Online sign up is available

•Walkers recruit sponsors to donate

•Donations are shared this way:

•50%to the walker’s agency

•25% to the Food Bank

•25% to Church World Service

•Fight hunger at home and worldwide!

For more information call: 805-238-4664www.slofoodbank.org

75% of the funds raised by our Hunger Walk will stay right here in San Luis Obispo County.

Hometown Advantage: Community Banking, Wal-Mart’s Urban Impact, Online Sales Taxes + More?

Sent: Fri 2/12/10 7:36 PM FEBRUARY 10, 2010 | ANALYSIS

Small Business Lending: Big Banks vs. Small

Although small and mid-sized banks control only 22 percent of bank assets, they account for 54 percent of all small business lending. Meanwhile, the largest 20 banks, which command 57 percent of bank assets, devote only 18 percent of their commercial loan portfolios to small business.

This article examines why small banks lend more to small businesses, how banking consolidation has harmed local entrepreneurs, and what can be done to get credit flowing in a recession. READ THE ARTICLE

Charts: Small Business Lending by Bank Size

FEBRUARY 12, 2010 | NEWS
New Rules Project Launches Community Banking Initiative

Our new Community Banking Initiative is building the case for a smaller-scale and more locally rooted financial system. We’ll be posting a growing body of reports, articles, and policy models.

We’re also, through a partnership with the Move Your Money campaign, blogging at Huffington Post about the benefits of going local with your banking. See this recent piece:
Move Your Borrowing Along with Your Money
We’d love to hear your feedback.

FEBRUARY 1, 2010 | OPINION
The Case for Online Sales Taxes

By exempting internet retailers like Amazon.com from collecting sales taxes, lawmakers provide a substantial financial incentive for people to bypass local businesses and shop online instead.

Over the years, there have been four primary arguments made in favor of this inequitable policy. None of them stand up. READ MORE

JANUARY 29, 2010 | NEWS
Wal-Mart’s Urban Impact

Wal-Mart insists that it’s urban stores can reinvigorate city neighborhoods and recapture retail spending leaking to the suburbs. But a new study by Loyola University researchers, who tracked the impact of a Wal-Mart store that opened in Chicago in 2006, found otherwise. Within two years, 25 percent of the businesses within a four-mile radius of the store had closed. For more, visit our Key Studies page.

JANUARY 14, 2010 | NEWS
Holiday Sales Increase at Independent Businesses, National Survey Finds

More holiday shoppers deliberately sought out locally owned businesses this year, according to our survey of more than 1,800 independent businesses. The survey also found that local retailers in cities with active “Buy Local” or “Think Local First” campaigns reported stronger holiday sales than those in cities without such campaigns. READ MORE.

DECEMBER 2, 2009 | SPEECH
A New Deal for Local Economies

This lecture, delivered at the Bristol Schumacher Conference in Great Britain, has been republished in a variety of places in the last month. If you missed it, you can read it online or download a printer-friendly PDF.

Other Hometown Advantage Headlines

Big-Box Lifestyle Center Defeated in Colorado
Voters in Eagle, Colorado, soundly defeated a proposed big-box lifestyle center yesterday in an election that saw the highest turnout in town history.

News Stories We’re Following

A plan to turn a former armory in the Bronx into a shopping mall was soundly defeated after independent retailers, labor unions, and community groups joined forces to block it.
Massachusetts may become the first state to mandate that independent auto repair shops have access to the same repair codes and data dealerships are given. Federal legislation is in the works as well.
Office Depot’s new television ad brings a new twist to local-washing.
More cities are demanding that corporations, including big retailers, repay subsidies when they fall short of their job creation promises.
Sam’s Club is laying off 11,000 workers and closing 10 stores.
A large electronics retailer in New Mexico has returned to local ownership after the company that bought it went bankrupt.
Dan Lutts shares ten lessons he learned living unchained for a year.
A new economic development model of integrated worker-owned enterprises is building momentum in Cleveland.
Bills to extend sales tax to large online retailers are moving forward in Virginia and Colorado.
Bills to close a state tax loophole that benefits big chains are under consideration in Pennsylvania, Iowa, and New Mexico.
Photographer Brian Ulrich has focused his lens on the nation’s growing abundance of dark stores.
CVS is manipulating insurance coverage to steer consumers away from independent pharmacies, according to allegations under investigation by the FTC.
Book publisher Macmillan challenged Amazon’s control of e-book pricing as part of a larger war over the book industry’s future. Read reactions from Shelf Awareness, the Authors Guild, Bill Petrocelli, and Fast Company.
Wal-Mart has created a fake community group to push for a second supercenter in the city of Chicago.

SAVE ATASCADERO

(FORMERLY OPPOSE WAL-MART) UPDATE

February 4, 2010

Contact us at info@opposewalmart.com or go to

opposewalmart.com or saveatascadero.com

(Please notify us of email address changes)

Editor:  Lee Perkins

1. PLEASE JOIN US IN SUPPORTING A MARCH FOR HEALTH CARE AND JOBS FOR ALL
2. MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY OF SERVICE A SUCCESS IN ATASCADERO
3. COPENHAGEN AND CLIMATE CHANGE DEC 09:  IMPRESSIONS FROM TWO STUDENTS WHO ATTENDED AT LAKE PAVILION, WED., 2/10

I. PLEASE JOIN US IN SUPPORTING:

HEALTH CARE REFOM AND JOBS NOW–GET THE JOB DONE!

On February 17th, we’re going to join healthcareforamerica.org  rallying all over the country to demand Congress deliver the change we voted for. We need you to join us. COME TO SLO FOR THE MARCH to DEMAND HEALTH CARE AND JOBS FOR ALL.

In 2008, people from all over the country, all walks of life, all ages and races, voted for change.  So we’re taking it to the streets Wednesday, February 17th. WE ARE going to be big and our voices loud. We’re going to stand together and send an unmistakable message to Congress that they must deliver HEALTH CARE REFORM AND JOBS NOW–finish the job!

We need your help with this march by getting the word out and come with signs. MORE DETAILS–time, start location–ABOUT LOCAL MARCH IN SLO AS SOON AS WE HAVE THEM.

II. MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY OF SERVICE A SUCCESS IN ATASCADERO – A NEWS LETTER TO THE EDITOR

January 20, 2010

Atascadero Day of Service

This last weekend was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service and tribute to the man.  There were three teams in Atascadero who collaborated with Central Coast United for Change (CCUC) and the Food Bank with a food drive to restore the shelves of the County Food Banks after the depletion of the holiday season.

Special thanks go to the Community Church of Atascadero who offered their hall as a collection site along with donations from their congregation donated to the Atascadero Loaves and Fishes.  Midori Feldman was a CCUC captain who organized an area of house to house pickup of food and our team–The Atascadero Democratic Club (ADC), Save Atascadero and SLO Medical Alliance.

Food for Less in Atascadero made our team’s efforts a success by generously supporting the food collection by allowing us to use their front door Saturday,

January 16, to receive food and cash donations.  We were tremendously successful collecting over 997 lbs of food and close to $200 in cash which buys 2000 lbs of food. In all our collection at Food for Less will provide 2250 meals.

And special thanks to the residents of Atascadero who were volunteers in the food drive and/or donated food so our neighbors will not go hungry.  We made the best of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s day of service to our community.

Lee Perkins, Community Outreach, ADC and Save Atascadero

1. COPENHAGEN AND CLIMATE CHANGE:  IMPRESSIONS FROM TWO STUDENTS WHO ATTENDED DEC 09

Copenhagen and Climate Change:

Two Local Student’s Eye-Witness Impressions

Last December, leaders from nearly 200 nations of the world gathered in Copenhagen, Denmark, to discuss how to address Climate Change. A large number of young people from many countries participated. What message do they have for the world?

Join us Wednesday evening Feb. 10th at the Atascadero Lake Pavilion. The event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:30 PM and the program starts promptly at 7 PM in the Sarah Grondstrom room, seating is limited.

Atascadero resident and Templeton High Junior  Kayla Clark and Cal Poly Senior Michael Symmes will report on their first-hand experiences at  the UN Global Climate Summit in Copenhagen.

Preceding their presentations, Dr. Ray Weymann will provide a non-technical summary of climate science: What are the scientists who are doing climate research finding out, and why is it important?

SMALLER IS BETTER, BUT STILL WRONG SIZE: POLICIES and IMPACTS THE SAME

Wal-Mart’s announcement that it will be submitting plans for a “smaller” store in Atascadero, (still the size of two football fields plus), is a step in the right direction.  Apparently, Wal-Mart realized, as their competitors have, that a smaller store can be profitable and sustainable. But, the proposed project is still the wrong size.

Wal-Mart has told Wall Street analysts that it is now comfortable with the idea of building 70,000 s.f. superstores, which are less costly and more efficient for the company to maintain. (Al Norman,  HYPERLINK “http://www.sprawl-busters.com” www.sprawl-busters.com).

Shrinking the new proposal down to this smaller footprint would minimize traffic, air pollution and other environmental impacts, and reduce the economic and community impacts on the City.

However, changing the size doesn’t change corporate policies. These policies and impacts, because of which 10 to 32% of last year’s Atascadero voters will not be shopping at a Wal-Mart of any size, are still in place:  unsavory business practices, labor and environmental law violations, coercion, intimidation and unfair labor practices aimed at blocking union representation, low wages and poor benefits, driving force behind the massive loss of American manufacturing jobs and of locally owned small businesses across America.

Tom Comar, Spokesperson for  HYPERLINK “http://www.saveatascadero.com” www.saveatascadero.com (formerly Oppose Wal-Mart)

November 23, 2009