No Big Boxes in My Back Yard

The New Rules Project Institute for Local Self-Reliance reports on three recent developments where localities have succeeded in keeping out big box stores:

1) A California appeals court upheld (against a challenge by Walmart) a local ordinance that banned supercenters on the grounds that the ordinance was reasonably related the city's efforts to maintain stores throughout the community to support neighborhoods, and to avoid excessive driving and air pollution. (Anti-Supercenter Ordinance Upheld).

2) A Montana County unanimously adopted a 60,000-square-foot size store cap following a public hearing (Crowd of 1,400 Turns Out as Montana County Bans Big Boxes).

3) A Maine town adopted a 35,000 sq. ft. limit in an election that may have been the largest turn-out in the town's history, and three nearby towns are considering similar legislation (Damariscotta, Maine, Rejects Wal-Mart and Endorses Size Cap).  The ordinance was enacted in spite of a study, issued two weeks before the election, that was comissioned by the town and paid for by Wal-Mart, and concluded that the supercenter would be a boon to the local economy and would raise wages in both the retail and non-retail sectors. The citizens group supporting the ordiance quickly issued two rebuttals to the study, one produced by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.