Environment

Examples & Resources

• International Dark-Sky Association (IDA)
• K-Mart Corporation v. City of Westlake, OH, 1997
• Wal-Mart Stores v. The Vermont Environmental Board, 1996
• Bakersfield Citizens for Local Control v. City of Bakersfield and Panama 99 Properties (2004)
• Effectiveness of Compensatory Wetland Mitigation in Massachusetts
• View All

Retail sprawl wreaks havoc on the natural environment: fragmenting and polluting biologically diverse ecosystems, which support a variety of plant and animal life and replenishes drinking water. In many cases developers obtain permits to build on ecologically sensitive areas simply because there is no countervailing document or presentation explaining the negative impacts of the proposed development on the environment. When up against Wal-Mart’s hydrologists, civil engineers, and other highly paid experts, the basic strategy is to counter with your own experts who can point out the importance of protecting the land under the threat of development and the destructive effect of Wal-Mart’s proposal. This section is intended to give you an overview of environmental issues to consider when designing your own strategy.

Air Quality

Air quality can be an important issue to raise during a Wal-Mart zoning hearing, especially if your community is already sensitive to the “air quality index.” In Bakersfield, CA, for example, a judge in the 5th District Court of Appeals sent a Wal-Mart appeal back to local authorities, in part based on the inadequate analysis done in air quality during the environmental impact report. The judge sent the case back for new environmental reviews, instructing Increases in automobile traffic and truck deliveries can significantly increase air pollutants, referred to as “criteria pollutants” - ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and lead. What is known is that children are specially vulnerable due to: increased susceptibility as their lungs develop and their bodies grow, higher doses per body weight; smaller diameter airways; being more active and closer to the ground level sources of vehicle exhaust. Some zoning codes will require a developer to do a study of air quality impacts. If you are going to raise this issue, you will need to find an expert in air quality impacts, because the testimony of non-experts or residents will not hold up in a court appeal. During the hearings, you group should ask local officials to require the developer to pay for an independent air quality study.

Light Pollution

Making an argument about the disturbing effects of light and glare onto neighboring yards from the proposed development, is similar to the noise issue in that you are in a much stronger position to make the case if your existing zoning by-laws specify standards for light control. Realistically, it’s unlikely that a development project will be denied a permit due to its lighting plan, but if you learn the basics of lower wattage and shielded lights, you can have a significant impact on the plan that may get approved. 

Ask your Planning Board to make a night visit to any Wal-Mart supercenter within 20 miles of your location, so they can see first-hand how these huge developments eliminate the night sky for great distances around the store. Residents can testify that the technology exists to deal with light pollution, and that there are cost and health issues to consider.

Noise

If you plan to raise noise as an issue, your presentation will be greatly strengthened if your town has noise regulations in its zoning codes. If this is the situation, you will need to find a expert who possesses the right technology and can testify that specified noise decibel levels established in your town’s by-laws will be exceeded by the proposed development. If your town or city does not have noise standards, it is still worth it to raise the issue if you can find an expert who will make a compelling case that noise generated by the traffic, truck deliveries, etc...will be a general disturbance to the neighborhood. At the very least, you should be able to request that a noise assessment be done which includes recommendations for: operational restrictions, relocation of facilities (such as loading docks), and sound barrier walls.

Stormwater Runoff

Stormwater runoff refers to the water that drains off of big box roofs and parking lots, across impervious surfaces, into storm drains, and then into a watershed. Watersheds are natural systems that support human and other forms of life. An inability to safeguard stormwater runoff can adversely affect drinking water, plant and animal habitat, and places of recreation and natural beauty. The goals, therefore, for a developer’s stormwater management are: 

• Maintaining groundwater recharge and quality
• Reducing stormwater pollutant loads
• Protecting stream channels
• Preventing increased overbank flooding
• Safely conveying extreme floods through Stormwater management practices

Stormwater runoff issues involve both the construction and operations phase of the development. Each of these issues should be raised during the proposal hearing and will be strengthened by testimony from a civil engineer, hydrologist, or environmental scientist who can point out the operational flaws in Wal-Mart’s plan.

Wetlands

Wal-Mart often submits a plan that calls for wetlands to be destroyed, and replicated somewhere else. Citizens groups should insist that whatever design has been submitted, it be reworked to avoid the wetland area completely. It may also be necessary for the citizens group to either hire a hydrologist to “delineate” the wetlands--which means to map exactly where it is--or ask the town to require the developer to have the wetland delineated by an independent contractor. If your site has wetlands on it, you definitely want to retain a hydrologist to stop any development in the wetlands area. Local Conservation Commissions, which go by various names in different parts of the country, are generally the board that determines what happens to wetlands.