Did anyone attend last night townhall meeting regarding Wal-Mart? I was looking forward to it, but at the last minute had to stay home with an ill child.

Was the meeting participatory? Or did they simply stand there and read another report?

Thanks..

Wal-Mart continued

This does not answer the question about the Wal-Mart meeting (I'll let some else explain what went down) BUT I wanted to add that I just returned from my Dentist who lives in Lakeway. They are so pissed off also about the push into Lakeway also. He mentioned that they tried to build it in Bee Caves so the city put a moratorium on ALL building that STOPPED the Wal-Mart. I know we can't do that here but the bully, WAL-MART scum money people seem to push into where they are not wanted! I was also speaking w/ the gal @ the front desk that mentioned that they came into her hometown in Brazil, they said they were the LOW COST store. Being that folks in her town weren?’t rich, they compared prices only to find WAL-MART IS NOT THE CHEAPIST. Wal-Mart then lowered their prices!

What is so interesting also, do you notice they want to be where the money is?

Wal-Mart Town Hall meeting

The Town Hall meeting went pretty smoothly. The committee presented their findings and reported on the details of the Wal-Mart Survey (80+% against the project and 66% for using CCHOA resources to fight it).

Daryl Slusher loaned one of the committee members a full copy of the actual site plan that is under review for the next few weeks. Steve Bartlett says that represented as much as $100,000 of work. He also offered to reveiw the plan carefully.

There were handouts with copies of the survey results, sample letters to write to Wal-Mart, Endeavor, City Council, and Travis County commissioners court. These and the PowerPoint presentation will be posted on the CCHOA web site.


Your interest and emails have resulted in a lot of interest in this kind of low cost/ low quality commercial development project.

The BOD now has all the evidence and community initiative to take on this nasty discount warehouse, and try get it turned around and hopefully, end up with community based, local, Austin like, environmentally friendly, and Circle C appropriate retail stores.

CCHOA has to fight any attempt to put up Big Boxes on the aquifer - they are too big, to ugly, and they generate way too much traffic for our neighborhoods.

Sendera's HOA will be leading the fight against Wal-Mart, fully aware that if that project is stopped, an identical Big Box (like LOWES or COSTCO ) is right behind this one.

We need to make sure that no Warehouse sized businesses come out this way, and certainly no 24x7 type stores.


There is more than enough room for good, solid, high-end restaurants, banks, drug stores, and hobby stores, without a Wal-Mart.

The Wal-Mart ad hoc commettee did a lot of work - hundreds of hours of research alone. They were great folks for me to work with and this project is well documented now. The notes, minutes, final report, and the meeting agenda have all been submitted to CCHOA.

Now you can do your part. Make the phone calls, send letters, send faxes. If you do send email, make sure your subject line and the body are substancial different than the sample letters (email servers are programmed to search out and delete duplicate emails, particularly with the same subject line)

Lowes loses one round....

Lowe's, another big Discount Warehouse, took a hit this week.

First, there was a very effective protest march at their store on William Canon near I-35. It was in all the local news (sorry, I was out of town and missed that fun).

Then, the Travis County Commissioner's court responded positively to a ton of email, letters, and phone calls. A bunch of people showed up for the item last Tuesday.

There is a new Texas law (really bad piece of Austin Bashing legistation) which says that stores like Lowe's, who are denied a building permit by one city, default to the county (rather than the other city that might have zoning authority, as Austin would in this case). The law stinks and it won't survive a court challenge.

However, Travis County surprised everyone and booted Lowe's out. They told them to work with Austin on the zoning issues.

Austin, hopefully, will set Lowe's straight, but we really have to watch this one. If Lowe's can build next to the HEB on William Canon and Brodie Lane, they will be looking a little further down MOPAC !!!


The lesson is that we need to keep the Big Boxes out of our area. The are just fine along major highways and off of the Edwards Aquifer recharge zones.

Incidently, I love shopping at the Big Boxes as much as anyone. Boycotting won't make a bit of difference, so don't bother cutting up your membership cards and mailing them in. Instead, you have to do a lot more to get their attention.

Look for public demonstrations soon. When you see them, pull over. Stop you car. Get out and go thank the neighbors who are hot and sunburnt, but making a statement. Some will be holding up signs - honk AND WAVE HI, when you go buy. Drive slowly and experience what the traffic jams would be like if Wal-Mart was out there already....

And be prepared to send money. There will be a special fund setup, soon, where you can help pay for professional help that the HOAs will be hiring on their own.

We are all in this together and it won't end any time soon. This is a fight for the long haul.

Watch out for empty promises from Wal-Mart much of what they have offered isn't backed up in a contract, and even if they break a contract, there isn't anyone prepared to enforce those contracts.

And send email to CCHOA often. Tell then how you feel and offer ideas, suggestions, and whatever details you can discover.

Wal-Mart can't pull of f a project of this size and complexity, without making big mistakes. We honestly don't think they can get it done without a varriance request of some kind, and we'll be waiting for them at City Council when they come begging for exceptions and extensions.

Wal-Mart is the posterchild of bad business practices, but the other warehouses aren't much better. They don't sell stuff cheap by treating their employees well (pay, benefits, work hours, or minority recruiting). But, they do have their place in the ecconomy - just not near MOPAC & Slaughter Lane.