Bitterroot Coalition Hails Withdrawal of Plans for Wal-Mart Supercenter

March 26, 2008

After two years of opposition, Wal-Mart has withdrawn plans to open a supercenter in Hamilton, Montana. "They cited economic conditions and a strategic plan into which we no longer fit, but I know that if we hadn't put up strong opposition for two years, they'd be open today," said Russ Lawrence, owner of Hamilton's Chapter One Book Store and ABA president.

Keeping Wal-Mart out of Hamilton required perseverance on the part of Lawrence and the Bitterroot Good Neighbor Coalition. In spring 2006, the county commissioners in Ravalli County, Montana, unanimously passed a regulation placing a size cap of 60,000 square feet on new retail outlets, a move that had the potential of keeping out the proposed Wal-Mart. The ordinance, crafted by Lawrence and the Bitterroot Good Neighbor Coalition, was ultimately repealed due in part to the efforts of the group Citizens for Economic Opportunity (CEO), which organized a petition drive to put the ordinance on the November ballot. Although the ordinance was repealed, Lawrence and the coalition kept up efforts to keep the Wal-Mart from opening.

According to the Bitterroot Star, Wal-Mart spokesperson Josh Phair said, "Basically it's a decision related to our announcement last June that we were going to kind of slow down on supercenter growth. Hamilton is one of the projects we're withdrawing."

However, Lawrence believes that the more than 150,000-square-foot store would have been built if not for unrelenting opposition. "We always tried to keep two or three levers in place just looking for a point where we could get some leverage and apply some muscle," he explained. "If one point didn't work, we put a lever somewhere else."

Ravalli's first effort at countywide planning is now underway, and the Bitterroot Good Neighbors Coalition is involved in the process. Rather than focusing on another size cap ordinance, "we're looking at a number of inventive ideas," Lawrence explained. "We're considering a conditional use permit, which allows a little more flexibility...."

Many in the Bitterroot Valley were relieved to have won the Wal-Mart fight, but Lawrence said that it is essential to capitalize on the momentum. "If we don't now take the opportunity to get the planning and regulations in place before the next big box proposal, the fault will be ours," he explained.

Acknowledging that there were challenges, including aligning a "fractious community," Lawrence underscored the importance of collectively deciding "what the community should look like" and then instituting the planning and regulations to ensure that vision. "It's never easy to get people to agree on something like that, but I think this has galvanized people into realizing what's at stake." --Karen Schechner

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