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

**********

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

___________________

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.