Supercenter foes take heart in Ravalli legislation

It's not Polson, but opponents of the proposed Wal-Mart supercenter were heartened by the anti-box store legislation passed by Ravalli County commissioners earlier this month that would limit store sizes to those less than 60,000 square feet.

While no such legislation is on the table for Lake County, opponents of the proposed supercenter say that the Ravalli County decision demonstrates that public input can influence legislative action, which could be a harbinger for the public meeting on Wal-Mart's application next month.

Wal-Mart has proposed to build a 156,000-sq. foot supercenter just south of Polson, and the decision to annex that property into the city limits will be made at a May 9 city/county planning board meeting, which will be held at Polson High School to accommodate the large crowd expected. Without annexation, the supercenter will not have access to city services such as water and sewer.

Wal-Mart has also proposed to build a supercenter in Hamilton, which was the subject of the public meeting on April 12, and several Polson supercenter opponents made the trip there to see how Ravalli County's commissioners would handle the issue there.

What they saw was encouraging, they said.

"The biggest thing that inspired me down there was that all I hear here in Polson is that 'it's a done deal' or there's nothing we can do about it. But in Ravalli County, they showed that if people stand up and have their voice heard, they can stop it," said Greg Hertz.

Hertz, president of Moody's Market, which operates Super 1 Foods and other grocery stores in the area, is a leading opponent of the supercenter, which would have its own grocery store. But he is upfront about the fact that he is fighting the proposed supercenter for business reasons.

He has said in past interviews that he fears having to lay off a lot of the current Super 1 staff if a supercenter is approved. But Hertz says he's also against the supercenter for the same reason hundreds of people showed up at the Hamilton meeting — quality of life.

"It's similar no matter where you go. People who are against big box stores basically talk about our natural beauty, why people live in rural areas, zoning and planning, and limiting sprawl and strip development," Hertz said. "And I think those ideas correlate exactly with why people like myself are against a supercenter."

He said people who spoke in favor of the Hamilton supercenter voiced the same reasons as proponents in Polson - price and convenience.

"They didn't talk about a rural lifestyle or quality of life or things like that that are important to people who live in these areas," Hertz said.

According to published reports of the meeting, a majority of the people who attended were against the Hamilton supercenter. However, Wal-Mart officials told the Leader before the meeting they sent out a survey to thousands of Ravalli County residents to gauge public interest in a supercenter - just like they did in Lake and Sanders counties - and that the feedback was overwhelmingly in favor of a Hamilton supercenter.

Hertz noted that opponents of the Hamilton supercenter - a group called Bitterroot Good Neighbors - asked other opponents to turn in the Wal-Mart survey cards to the county commissioners instead of sending them back to Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart officials have said they will go through with their plans to build a supercenter in Hamilton, despite the Ravalli County commissioners' decision because they said they started the building application process long before this legislation was enacted. In other words, the commissioners' decision was akin to changing the rules once the game had started.

Meanwhile, Hertz and other members of Lake County First have been gathering signatures on a petition they started in January, and Hertz said they have about 1,400 so far.

The city/county planning board has already begun implementing measures to accommodate the large crowd expected at the May 9th meeting in Polson. Hertz said he has no idea what the outcome of the meeting will be.

"I don't have a feeling whatsoever [on how the annexation vote will go]. None of them will share their thoughts," Hertz said. "But that's probably good politics. You wait to see the application, listen to public opinion and make a decision."

The meeting will start at 6 p.m. at the Polson High School auditorium.