GILROY
– The spotlight on Gilroy can get turned off now. The decision
was made Monday to bring the first grocery hawking Wal-Mart to
Northern California.
With a split vote
– and with Bay Area media and union interests watching –
Gilroy’s retail-friendly City Council said it will let America’s
retail giant build a 220,000-square-foot Supercenter here.
Council sifted through nearly three hours of economic,
environmental and ethical arguments before voting 5-2 to allow
Wal-Mart to move from its existing Wal-Mart store at Arroyo Circle
to a new location in the big-box Pacheco Pass Center at Highway 152
and U.S. 101.
GILROY – The spotlight on Gilroy can get turned off now. The decision was made Monday to bring the first grocery hawking Wal-Mart to Northern California.
With a split vote – and with Bay Area media and union interests watching – Gilroy’s retail-friendly City Council said it will let America’s retail giant build a 220,000-square-foot Supercenter here.
Council sifted through nearly three hours of economic, environmental and ethical arguments before voting 5-2 to allow Wal-Mart to move from its existing Wal-Mart store at Arroyo Circle to a new location in the big-box Pacheco Pass Center at Highway 152 and U.S. 101.
Councilmen Charlie Morales and Paul Correa dissented.
“I’m not ready for us to prostitute this community to a corporation that makes $250 billion a year,” Correa said. “I’m not ready to assume Wal-Mart is going to have a good impact on us.”
Wal-Mart’s economic impact on the community was at the heart of Council’s deliberations Monday night.
Two sets of concerned residents presented Council with separate petitions, both asking for a delay until an independent economic study on the impacts of a Supercenter in Gilroy was conducted.
Three reports have been filed thus far. However, one was sponsored by Wal-Mart, another was purchased by anti-Wal-Mart union interests and a third is more than a decade old.
“You do not have enough information to act tonight,” said Connie Rogers, a former Councilwoman who helped spearhead a nearly 1,200 signature petition drive calling for an economic impact study and a vote of the people on the Supercenter issue. “These are your constituents who are counting on you to protect their interest.”
The second petition came Monday from a group of longtime Gilroy business owners, including Garlic Festival godfather Val Filice, a co-owner of the Gilroy Village Shopping Center on Tenth and Chestnut streets. Businesses that signed on to the petition included Arteaga’s Markets, Kachey Produce, El Charrito Market, Del Sol Market and Apatzingan Meat Market.
“My family has been in business for 100 years here in Gilroy, and we do believe that you have a responsibility for the standard of living of the people that live and work here in Gilroy,” Toni Filice said.
In the petition, the roughly two-dozen signers state, “There is room for debate on the impact of a Supercenter on our community. But we cannot even have the discussion without objective information and the opportunity to discuss it.”
The group also complained that Wal-Mart’s economic impact report, done by San Francisco-based Sedway Group, was not produced in time for the public to comment.
The report was delivered to the city only days before the March 1 City Council meeting, when a public hearing on the Supercenter was held. Many Wal-Mart critics did not know it existed until that session. This convinced Councilmen to at least allow petitioners to speak at Monday’s session.
“No one can say this Council didn’t listen,” Mayor Al Pinheiro said.
In the end, a majority of Councilmen could not be convinced that their decision – technically, the approval of an environmental impact report and an architectural review – should be based on economic factors.
“I would hate to be the person who wants to set up a store or restaurant and this city tells me I can’t because I’m going to be competition for someone else,” Pinheiro said.
“Wages are not what we should be talking about. Chasing that red herring is ridiculous,” added Councilman Craig Gartman.
Others argued that the benefit of new jobs, more sales tax revenue and low-cost groceries for low-income Gilroyans outweighed the impact, if any, the Supercenter would have on existing grocers.
At times Monday night, the jam-packed Council Chambers at City Hall sounded like a university economics and philosophy course. In front of news cameras, each Councilman took more time than usual to explain his vote.
Councilmen debated whether government should have the right to deny Wal-Mart projects based on its alleged below-the-belt competitive practices. They also debated whether denying Wal-Mart because of its less-than-union-rate wages meant the city would have to regulate the wages of other businesses.
“Costco went through (the City Council’s approval process) in 19 minutes. I didn’t see an objection to 60,000 square feet of groceries then,” Councilman Bob Dillon said. “I think it has something to do with Costco employees being teamsters.”
After the session, Roger Rivera, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, took exception to Dillon’s remarks.
Rivera said Costco in Gilroy does not use union employees. He said there is a San Jose Costco with a union, a remnant of prior ownership.
“We didn’t fight Costco because they pay good wages,” Rivera said.
The economic impact of a Supercenter in Gilroy will now have to be felt instead of predicted. Wal-Mart critics could not convince City Council it should hire an independent economic consultant to review the impacts a Supercenter would have on local, existing businesses.
“What we have here is Wal-Mart paying for (an economic impact) report by a reputable company. Just because Wal-Mart paid for it doesn’t make it bad,” Velasco said.
Critics also could not convince the majority of Councilmen that the project’s impact to traffic and air quality were enough to nix the Supercenter.
Wal-Mart does not get off easy. It will have to jump through a series of 10 planning hoops, some of them unprecedented, as a condition of approval.
Wal-Mart, which already donates $40,000 a year to Gilroy charities, will establish a first-ever Community Advisory Board to decide how to spend a single $10,000 grant from the Wal-Mart Foundation each year.
Total contributions from a Wal-Mart Supercenter would reach $60,000, the company said.
Wal-Mart also agreed to sponsor seminars on how to compete against large scale retailers.
Despite the accommodations from Wal-Mart, big-box critics and mom-and-pop store owners left City Hall dejected Monday night.
“We lost this decision back on Election night,” said Rivera.
Wal-Mart plans to open the store in the spring of 2005.
Wednesday: A look at each of the 10 items agreed to by the city and Wal-Mart as a condition of the Supercenter’s approval.
