Arkansans Against Wal-Mart

Residents of Bella Vista AR are angry about a zone-change being done to bring in a Wal Mart.

Doesn't this nonsense sound familiar? Do we have any advice for these people being plagued by Walmart and their underhanded political moves?

I think where we failed was in having the foresight to get a good lawyer expert in land use issues. We went with the ones provided by the unions. While the unions were ok with elections, they were not on land use. Also, this was a side effect of being unable or unwilling to raise money for our own attorneys.

Now, that said, maybe we didn't have a great shot, because the zoning was correct - it went counter to the General Plan, so they could have fought on that point. Also, WM owned the land (and I think they did that ahead of time so they'd have an edge).

We were dissuading from fighting not only by the city, but by our allies. Still, we were not deterred, and kept fighting. We mounted a strong political campaign, and kept the store from going 24-hours.

The environmental impact of the WM has been increase traffic, lots of noise suffered by the people who live across the street from the structure, and political problems.