What Wal-Mart Will Waffle On

Mikaela says:
Wal-Mart just gave in to urban design requirements in Ottowa. I guess it didn't affect their bottom line so much. Here's the link to the news story: http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/OttawaSun/News/2005/05/17/1042909-sun.html

Excerpts below:
The site in question is located south of the Ottawa Train Station between Terminal Ave. and Industrial Ave. and was rezoned by the former city of Ottawa to allow for a new type of development with a "main street" feel.

The city wanted the area to have a unique landscape and architectural design that fostered a pedestrian environment. The new building will have an earth-tone colour and some architectural highlights designed to break up the view of its exterior walls.

"It's a really great victory for the city," said Coun. Peter Hume, chairman of the planning committee. "When you get 99% of what you're asking for ... the only thing you can say about that is 'we win' and we won big."

[Or, perhaps you could say that they aren't asking for the right things...say, I don't know, high-wage jobs or perhaps a store that not only LOOKS pedestrian-friendly (which I still have my doubts about) but actually SUPPORTS the main street it's on..]

"I think both sides came out ahead on this one," said John Smit, a planning manager for the central area of Ottawa.

[Boy does he make planners sound stupid! What's he going to be saying in 3 years when Wal-Mart pulls out or builds a bigger store 5 miles away without the stupid color and landscaping changes?]

The city did give up a provision that the building have more access doors, he said. Those demands have proven unenforceable in the past when retailers built extra doors as required but never opened them to the public.

"We have combined a well-conceived site plan with an attractive store to create a Wal-Mart development that is in keeping with the pedestrian-friendly focus of the site," said Wal-Mart Canada spokesman Kevin Groh. "We share the city's vision of an attractive and well-designed site, and we're pleased to have found common ground on how the store will look."

[And then he threw his head back and cackled like the monomaniacal mouthpiece to the evil empire that he really is.]

Wow, another victory for the little guys, for good community planning, and for landscape design everywhere! See, that wasn't so hard, was it? Just ask Wal-Mart for stupid, pointless, token gestures of community focus and local government collaboration, and viola! You get a brown Wal-Mart that faces south. Go Main Street!