Commissioners Pushed to Defend Position on Walmart

The Redlands Planning Commission may have been focused on scrutinizing plans for a proposed Walmart at a Tuesday night meeting, but accusations of conflicts of interest pushed all seven commissioners to defend their impartiality.

According to commissioners, several letters accused the board of having vested interest in Walmart or of having their own agenda. Others accused them of already having made up their minds, according to the commissioners.

It couldn’t be further from the truth, said commissioner Carol Dyer.

“I’ve read every comment. I’ve listened to every person, some multiple times now,” she said before addressing a number of individual accusations.

“I hold no equity,” added commissioner Conrad Guzkowski. “That’s not one of those pleasures I worry about on a daily basis.”

On Tuesday, the commission unanimously voted to support the environmental report and the socio-economic cost/benefit study done for the Walmart project. They also voted 6-1 in favor of granting developers the conditional use permit and of supporting a recommendation that the 45-acre project area be divided into 11 parcels. Commissioner Julie Rock voted against over concerns over the project design.

The Walmart would be part of Redlands Crossing commercial center. It will include a grocery section, a garden center, auto center, pharmacy and banking center, according to staff reports. Developers propose to build on 33 acres at the southeast corner of San Bernardino Avenue and Tennessee Street.

“One of the issues that has been repeatedly brought up has been the downtown businesses will be ruined and the grocery stores will go out of business,” Dyer said. “I think the EIR adequately discusses this issue. I was very pleased with the urban decay section which went through this in good detail.”

If this were true, the businesses would have gone out of businesses when Walmart first arrived in Redlands, she said. There are big box stores that currently co-exist with the small businesses contrary to the claims that Walmart often wipes out local business.

“The example touted, and we saw one tonight, that this is an effect of Walmarts are usually in some remote area where there are few shopping opportunities,” Dyer said. “It’s not the case here. It hasn’t happened.”

Walmart decimated her Kansas hometown, Redlands resident Amanda Frye told the commission as she displayed a trifold board with photos of the town’s business center.

Dyer had the support of her fellow commissioners following her speech. Commissioners explained that negative impacts were inevitable, but mitigated as best as they could be.

“I personally feel from what I’ve seen on (the EIR) that it has been thoroughly analyzed. I don’t like that there’s air quality impacts, I don’t like that there’s traffic impacts but I do believe they’re unavoidable with this size of a project,” she said.

And they reminded residents that the Planning Commission dealt with land use issues and could not make decisions based on a company’s treatment of employees.

“Like the issue of the workers in China and Walmart’s treatment of them, that’s not a planning issue,” Dyer said. “If you don’t like those things, don’t go to those stores.”