Everybody in this town that stands to lose if a WalMart is allowed to open should pen an e-mail or phone the City to let them know your opinion. Only by speaking up will they know. There is not enough parking for a WalMart and they are asking for the City to grant a waiver. We all lose with the increased traffic and road improvements the City will be forced to invest in. Its a lose-lose situation with WalMart.
I like the idea of putting a WalMart next to the Forum. Encinitas will get the revenue, and Carlsbad will lower their high horse. When Home Depot came in people said places like Vista Paint, Contract Carpet and Leucadia Glass would fold. They haven't. Circuit City did though, and Home Depot didn't have one wide-screen for sale. I challenge you to name 5 businesses that will fail if WalMart opens here. And no fair naming businesses who's writing is on the wall. If locals are smart enough to not patronize foreign retail outlets, that's fine too. Better a Big Lots and a WalMart in our big empty buildings than nothing. Especially when the buildings are already present. Far be it from Quail Gardens Drive to become another commercial strip. Besides, big box warehouses are not the problem. Pensions are. Opps, I may have started something....
BTW, the flood plain issue was (and is) the real problem with the placement of Home Depot. The General Plan permitted 1,000 ADTs per day on that corner but HD generates 10,000. But council as you know can rewrite the General Plan at the drop of a hat.
Competition I'm all for to keep prices down and Carlsbad residents buying in our town would be great. But WalMart has never played fair and always wants something to give it a leg up on the other businesses. Target paid plenty to move to their new location and provided the required parking as do most retailers. But WalMart wants to open with a substandard size parking lot. The traffic will be much worse and we will use our scarce tax dollars to modify the entrances, exits and traffic lights. If WalMart moves in, Encinitas loses.
Parking concessions were made to Carltas/Eckes to allow development of the Home Depot Expo on that site originally. That parking was substandard, but accepted by the Planning Commission.
Later, that portion of the shopping center was allowed to expand to include the REI and Islands Restaurant, also based on an underparked and substandard parking provision accepted by the Planning Commission.
Walmart's only chance is to get Patrick Murphy to accept (and pass on to the Planning Commission) a new study that shows the existing parking to be adequate. At this point it would require someone to look the other way to find the parking adequate.
The reason a theatre could not be successful in that space is that a parking structure would have to be built to accomodate the huge number of cars.
I think a few of you need to get off your high horse and stop hating wal mart just to fit into your pseudo-environmental (aka hippie) cliques. wal mart is going into an EMPTY building that is generating NO income for the city of encinitas. would you rather it stay empty? personally, i think you should set aside your issues and look objectively. it will give jobs to people that need them (this IS a recession, after all) while providing a good source of sale's tax for the city.
Everybody in this town that stands to lose if a WalMart is allowed to open should pen an e-mail or phone the City to let them know your opinion. Only by speaking up will they know. There is not enough parking for a WalMart and they are asking for the City to grant a waiver. We all lose with the increased traffic and road improvements the City will be forced to invest in. Its a lose-lose situation with WalMart.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of putting a WalMart next to the Forum. Encinitas will get the revenue, and Carlsbad will lower their high horse. When Home Depot came in people said places like Vista Paint, Contract Carpet and Leucadia Glass would fold. They haven't. Circuit City did though, and Home Depot didn't have one wide-screen for sale. I challenge you to name 5 businesses that will fail if WalMart opens here. And no fair naming businesses who's writing is on the wall. If locals are smart enough to not patronize foreign retail outlets, that's fine too. Better a Big Lots and a WalMart in our big empty buildings than nothing. Especially when the buildings are already present. Far be it from Quail Gardens Drive to become another commercial strip. Besides, big box warehouses are not the problem. Pensions are. Opps, I may have started something....
ReplyDeleteBTW, the flood plain issue was (and is) the real problem with the placement of Home Depot. The General Plan permitted 1,000 ADTs per day on that corner but HD generates 10,000. But council as you know can rewrite the General Plan at the drop of a hat.
ReplyDeleteCompetition I'm all for to keep prices down and Carlsbad residents buying in our town would be great. But WalMart has never played fair and always wants something to give it a leg up on the other businesses. Target paid plenty to move to their new location and provided the required parking as do most retailers. But WalMart wants to open with a substandard size parking lot. The traffic will be much worse and we will use our scarce tax dollars to modify the entrances, exits and traffic lights. If WalMart moves in, Encinitas loses.
ReplyDeletei would encourage anyone that thinks a walmart in encinitas is a "good" idea to watch this documentary:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.walmartmovie.com/
the old expo building would make a SICK indoor skatepark.
ReplyDeletei know it will never happen, i'm just saying.
Parking concessions were made to Carltas/Eckes to allow development of the Home Depot Expo on that site originally. That parking was substandard, but accepted by the Planning Commission.
ReplyDeleteLater, that portion of the shopping center was allowed to expand to include the REI and Islands Restaurant, also based on an underparked and substandard parking provision accepted by the Planning Commission.
Walmart's only chance is to get Patrick Murphy to accept (and pass on to the Planning Commission) a new study that shows the existing parking to be adequate. At this point it would require someone to look the other way to find the parking adequate.
The reason a theatre could not be successful in that space is that a parking structure would have to be built to accomodate the huge number of cars.
I think a few of you need to get off your high horse and stop hating wal mart just to fit into your pseudo-environmental (aka hippie) cliques. wal mart is going into an EMPTY building that is generating NO income for the city of encinitas. would you rather it stay empty? personally, i think you should set aside your issues and look objectively. it will give jobs to people that need them (this IS a recession, after all) while providing a good source of sale's tax for the city.
ReplyDelete