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Tuesday, 13 June 2006 20:00 |
 The issue that never goes away, Wal-Mart, has once again reared its head to cause controversy in Buncombe County ?? with similar cause for concern.
Just over a month ago, the retail giant withdrew its application to build a supercenter in West Asheville, just hours before a City Council vote that probably would have gone against it.
Now,
Wal-Mart has applied for permission from Buncombe County, which has far
fewer zoning rules than Asheville, to build a supercenter on Airport
Road.
In addition to
the supercenter in East Asheville, this would make Wal-Mart??s second
such store in the county. The company also owns a Sam??s Club in West
Asheville and a regular-size Wal-Mart store in South Asheville.
Because of its
size, its reputation for driving small businesses out and allegations
of poor treatment of employees, Wal-Mart is a controversial issue at
any time.
However, its
opponents are free to not shop there and encourage others to do the
same. Like any other company, Wal-Mart should have a place to do
business, even though there is plenty of room for debate over how large
that place should be ?? and where it should be located.
The Airport Road area is already burdened by heavy traffic ?? something that a supercenter would only increase.
But a larger issue is Wal-Mart??s attitude towards local zoning and community attitudes.
In its previous
quest for a West Asheville supercenter, Wal-Mart requested a larger
building than the city??s zoning would have allowed ?? on the grounds
that because it would have included a McDonald??s and an optician??s
center, it counted as a building with multiple vendors.
The attempted
exploitation of such a loophole ?? and the disrespect of a city??s rules
that it demonstrated ?? rankled some council members and may have helped
sink Wal-Mart??s cause.
Now the same company is asking for exceptions from even the county??s far more permissive zoning.
Wal-Mart needs
to realize that if it wants to improve its reputation among
communities, it needs to work with their rules ?? instead of trying to
slide through loopholes.
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