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Bitterroot Coalition Hails Withdrawal of Plans for
Wal-Mart Supercenter

Mar 26, 2008

After two years of opposition, Wal-Mart has withdrawn
plans to open a supercenter in Hamilton, Montana. "They
cited economic conditions and a strategic plan into which
we no longer fit, but I know that if we hadn't put up
strong opposition for two years, they'd be open today,"
said Russ Lawrence, owner of Hamilton's Chapter One Book
Store and ABA president.

Keeping Wal-Mart out of Hamilton required perseverance on
the part of Lawrence and the Bitterroot Good Neighbor
Coalition. In spring 2006, the county commissioners in
Ravalli County, Montana, unanimously passed a regulation
placing a size cap of 60,000 square feet on new retail
outlets, a move that had the potential of keeping out the
proposed Wal-Mart. The ordinance, crafted by Lawrence and
the Bitterroot Good Neighbor Coalition, was ultimately
repealed due in part to the efforts of the group Citizens
for Economic Opportunity (CEO), which organized a
petition drive to put the ordinance on the November
ballot. Although the ordinance was repealed, Lawrence and
the coalition kept up efforts to keep the Wal-Mart from
opening.

According to the Bitterroot Star, Wal-Mart spokesperson
Josh Phair said, "Basically it's a decision related to
our announcement last June that we were going to kind of
slow down on supercenter growth. Hamilton is one of the
projects we're withdrawing."

However, Lawrence believes that the more than
150,000-square-foot store would have been built if not
for unrelenting opposition. "We always tried to keep two
or three levers in place just looking for a point where
we could get some leverage and apply some muscle," he
explained. "If one point didn't work, we put a lever
somewhere else."

Ravalli's first effort at countywide planning is now
underway, and the Bitterroot Good Neighbors Coalition is
involved in the process. Rather than focusing on another
size cap ordinance, "we're looking at a number of
inventive ideas," Lawrence explained. "We're considering
a conditional use permit, which allows a little more
flexibility...."

Many in the Bitterroot Valley were relieved to have won
the Wal-Mart fight, but Lawrence said that it is
essential to capitalize on the momentum. "If we don't now
take the opportunity to get the planning and regulations
in place before the next big box proposal, the fault will
be ours," he explained.

Acknowledging that there were challenges, including
aligning a "fractious community," Lawrence underscored
the importance of collectively deciding "what the
community should look like" and then instituting the
planning and regulations to ensure that vision. "It's
never easy to get people to agree on something like that,
but I think this has galvanized people into realizing
what's at stake." --Karen Schechner

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