Wal-Mart Divides to Conquer Big Box Law

By Stephen Manning
Originally published by the Associated Press on March 25, 2005

Retailer decides to build 2 smaller stores in city where it had planned to build 1 big store.

DUNKIRK, Md. — The fight last summer followed a plot line similar to other big-box battles across the country: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. proposes a massive retail store, community groups rally against it and local lawmakers pass restrictive zoning laws designed to keep the sprawling store out of town.

But the story of Wal-Mart's plans to build in the Calvert County, Md., town of Dunkirk has an unusual sequel. Faced with limitations that would block plans for a 145,000-square-foot store, Wal-Mart came up with a way to circumvent the new rules: splitting the store in two.

Two separate Wal-Marts, next to each other but not connected, would be built on the site along four-lane Maryland 4, at the gateway to the fast-growing county in Washington's outer suburbs. One would house Wal-Mart's retail section, the other a garden center, with a shared parking lot. Both would be smaller than the 75,000-square-foot limit Calvert passed last year.

The company says this is the first time it has suggested splitting stores to get around restrictive zoning ordinances.

Wal-Mart has to be adaptable as it meets resistance from local communities, said spokeswoman Mia Masten. Its Dunkirk proposal is legal and meets what company officials believe is demand from potential customers, she said.

"We have to be flexible with what we are given, so we modified our plan," Masten said. "We abided by the rules of the ordinance."

It's not guaranteed that the stores will be built; the county's planning commission put Wal-Mart's proposal to split the stores on hold while the Board of Commissioners decides whether the store-size ordinance needs to be changed. The company's proposal may be legal, said John Ward, the planning commission's chairman, but Wal-Mart is ignoring the message officials tried to send when the big-box caps were passed last year.

"It violates the intent of the regulation," he said.

Local residents who fought the original store were aghast when they discovered at a January meeting of the county planning board that Wal-Mart and its developer still planned to build in Dunkirk.

"We thought we had beaten the beast, but apparently not," said Robin Gottlieb of Calvert Neighbors for Sensible Growth. "If they come in saying, 'We are going to do what we want whether you like it or not,' it's disrespectful of the community's wishes and arrogant."

Bordered by the Chesapeake Bay and Patuxent River, Calvert County was once home mostly to farmers and watermen, far enough from Washington to be relatively untouched by urban life. But as the city's suburbs crept farther out, Calvert's population began to boom. Calvert had the biggest percent increase in population of any county in Maryland in the 2000 census.

Much of that growth has centered on Dunkirk. Developments of large homes with expansive yards sprout off Maryland 4. Commuters heading to and from Washington crowd the road during rush hour.

That growth convinced Wal-Mart that Calvert was a ripe market, Masten said. Not only did the company propose the store in Dunkirk, it also planned to expand its store in nearby Prince Frederick to a 187,000-square-foot supercenter.

However, many in the county feared that two big Wal-Marts would drive local shops out of business and bring more unwanted traffic. Calvert Neighbors for Sensible Growth collected hundreds of signatures on a petition urging the county to toughen zoning laws to combat big-box stores.

Officials responded by installing size caps of 125,000 square feet in the county seat of Prince Frederick and 75,000 square feet in smaller town centers, including Dunkirk. Gottlieb said he thought the issue was finished.

But Wal-Mart later submitted a proposal to build a 74,998-square-foot store in Dunkirk with a 22,689-square-foot garden center next door.

Although local officials tried to block Wal-Mart from building in Dunkirk, Masten said the company's market research convinced it that people in the region want a store.

"Customers were excited about having a Wal-Mart in Dunkirk," she said. "Customers should decide where they shop, as opposed to officials."

Calvert Neighbors for Sensible Growth has urged county planners to study a law written by the Idaho town of Hailey to keep big-box stores from building multiple stores on one site.

Hailey, a community of about 7,000 people, changed its laws after planning director Kathy Grotto said she was contacted by a Home Depot representative, asking whether it could meet the town's 36,000-square-foot cap by building a store with an adjacent greenhouse or lumber yard, she said.

Worried their zoning laws might not cover store splitting, town leaders limited retailers or wholesale businesses to a total of 36,000 square feet if the buildings are within 800 feet of each other. Grotto said Home Depot never called back after the law was passed.

Gottlieb said Wal-Mart's persistence against other attempts to block stores, such as the referendum the company forced last year in Inglewood, Calif., after the City Council rejected a store, has convinced her that the company will look for other creative ways around any changes that Calvert might impose.

But she won't easily give up.

"We're not looking at this as a small challenge. It is huge to take them on," she said. "But the more we take them on and win, the more incentive it will be for other communities to try."