News Roundup

Tammany Fighting Battle of Big-Boxes

Citizens enraged over Wal-Mart plans

Sunday, May 14, 2006
By Charlie Chapple
St. Tammany bureau

Upscale boutiques. Fancy restaurants. Trendy cafes. Specialty stores featuring elegant clothing and home furnishings. All set among fountains and parklike plazas.

When developers last year announced plans to build a $200 million retail center south of Covington — comparable in size to Lakeside Shopping Center in Metairie and slightly bigger than The Esplanade mall in Kenner — it appeared to be a perfect fit for St. Tammany Parish.

Colonial Pinnacle Nord du Lac would be more than just a shopping stop, it would be a huge “lifestyle center” catering to the high-end shopper, the people who like the finer things in life, they said.

And what better place than rapidly growing western St. Tammany, where mega-SUVs and Starbucks are de rigueur and disposable income is as weighty as August humidity.

What developers didn’t mention initially, however, was that the plans included two “big-box” anchor stores that are decidedly more pedestrian and would make up about 30 percent of the 1.1 million-square-foot center.

And when the developers revealed that a Wal-Mart Supercenter and Sam’s Club were going to be a part of the project, heated and emotional opposition erupted, led by Covington-area residents who continue to wage an unprecedented battle to stop the development.

Unchartered ground

The residents, forming a new group call Smart Growth Tammany, so far have been unsuccessful in their attempts to halt the project at Interstate 12 and Louisiana 21. But they’ve taken their fight to a new, uncharted battleground that has parish officials shaking their heads and asking state courts to determine the legality of a major provision in St. Tammany’s home rule charter.

Unable to derail the center before the Zoning Commission, the Parish Council and state courts, the residents have turned to the St. Tammany’s home rule charter, which allows citizens’ initiatives to repeal parish ordinances.

Through the “initiative and referendum” provision of the charter, the citizens, if they can get enough signatures on a petition, can force the Parish Council to repeal, or call an election to repeal, a zoning change needed for the development.

“We knew this provision was in the charter,” said Rick Wilke, one of seven Smart Growth Tammany members leading the petition effort. “We asked ourselves, “Is this issue big enough (that) we want to use this?’ We said, ‘If there ever was a issue big enough, this is it.’ “

It’s the first time a citizens’ initiative has been attempted in Louisiana to reverse a rezoning ordinance, parish officials said. And the Parish Council has filed suit, questioning whether the process can be legally used to repeal zoning ordinances. The case, which could have repercussions in other parishes with similar provisions in their home rule charters, is scheduled to be heard Thursday in state district court in Covington.

Feeling railroaded

Wilke said the citizens are taking the extraordinary action because they’re still fuming about a project “that got greased right through” and approved by parish government despite traffic concerns and the other negative impacts the development, with its two big-box stores, could have on the area.

Had parish officials only listened to the concerns before approving the development, Wilke said, “You would still have people upset, but you wouldn’t have people doing what we’ve chosen to do, you wouldn’t have this large group of people who feel railroaded and got pissed off.”

“The issue is about good government and not allowing a group of elected officials to run roughshod over the people of this parish,” said Andrew Varvoutis, secretary for Smart Growth Tammany.

But others, including parish officials, say the real issue is Wal-Mart and a group of elitists who do not want the giant retailer near their neighborhoods.

“Most of the opponents just don’t want a Wal-Mart,” Parish President Kevin Davis said.

‘Boils down to Wal-Mart’

Parish Council Chairman Steve Stefancik of Slidell said he didn’t get one e-mail, phone call or letter opposed to the project until it was revealed that the Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club would be among the center’s main tenants.

“It all boils down to Wal-Mart,” said Parish Councilman Marty Gould of Mandeville. “It has something to do with social status … And they fear a Wal-Mart will bring a negative element to their neighborhoods.”

Councilman Marty Dean of Covington, who represents the area and supported his constituents’ efforts to stop the project, acknowledged “some people feel that way, but it’s more than that. A lot of it is about traffic and concrete being poured next to a scenic river.”

Ironically, the framework for the controversy was set a year ago with residents applauding parish government for getting preliminary approvals from state and federal highway officials to convert an Interstate 12 rest area next to the Tchefuncte River, just east of Louisiana 21, into a second interchange to alleviate congestion on the state highway.

And the parish president announced that the $2.4 million project would be financed by Wainer Brothers, which owns the property along the northern side of the interstate next to the rest area, and Stirling Properties, which owns the property along the southern side of the interstate by the rest area and just east of the Stirling Covington Center, a regional shopping center.

‘Sold a bill of goods’

Then in August, Colonial Properties Trust, a publicly traded company based in Birmingham, Ala., revealed plans to build its “lifestyle center” with more than 60 upscale stores, shops, restaurants and boutiques for the high-end shopper on the property owned by Wainers.

But when residents learned that the project would include a Wal-Mart and Sam’s, they became unglued. Especially incensed were residents of Flower Estates subdivision along the northern border of the center site and Tchefuncta Club Estates south of the interstate.

“The people felt like they got sold a bill of goods with the developers pulling a bait-and-switch on them,” Dean said.

“It was billed and sold to us as an upscale shopping center, and people got excited about a project that appeared to be a well-planned development and nonintrusive,” Varvoutis said. When residents learned about the big-box stores in the project, “we knew the fix was in,” Varvoutis said. “This was not an upscale lifestyle center, but the same crap they build everywhere else.”

Richard Yeilding, senior vice president for retail development for Colonial Properties Trust, said the company has maintained plans to build an upscale lifestyle center. Already committed to the center, which plans to open in fall 2007, are Dillard’s, a Barnes &d Noble book store, and a Kohl’s department store, Yeilding said. “Everyone will love us when we finish what we’re building,” he said.

Center opponents have said publicly that if Colonial Properties Trust takes Wal-Mart and Sam’s out of the development, they would drop their opposition to the project.

But Yeilding said the Wal-Mart and Sam’s, which will be located in the northeast corner of the 160-acre center, are necessary to make the project economically feasible and successful.

Officials bombarded

With the company maintaining that position, opponents launched a campaign attacking the project as a bad development that would increase traffic congestion, adversely affect the nearby Tchefuncte River and destroy the quality of life in the surrounding area. They predicted regular deaths on the interstate as westbound motorists, coming down an elevated bridge over the river, slam into vehicles at the center exit.

Opponents bombarded parish officials with e-mails, phone calls and letters, urging them to a deny a request by Wainers to rezone 76 acres, or about half the center site, from residential to highway commercial for the center.

Smart Growth Tammany also spent thousands of dollars, raised through donations, on full-page newspaper ads to drum up additional opposition to the zoning change and a zoning permit sought for the project.

Stefancik said he got about 1,200 letters, e-mails and telephone calls about the proposed development. “I’ve never gotten that many calls on any issue,” said Stefancik, who has served on the parish governing body since 1988.

Usually, “you only hear from the opponents,” he said. “Normally, when there’s opposition to a project, 95 percent of the calls are against with 0 to 5 percent for it. This time, it was about 60 percent against the project and 40 percent for.”

Gould said the feedback he got was 50-50, and most of the opposing comments came from residents of Tchefuncta Club Estates and Flower Estates. He said all but three messages from residents in his council district, between Covington and Mandeville, favored the project. The unusual number of letters and messages of support for the project apparently were triggered “by the opposition’s newspaper ads designed to create mass hysteria,” he said.

Interchange is key

Davis said he has been accused of pushing through the project in return for developers footing the costs of the new interchange. “That’s absolutely not true,” he said.

The new interchange is essential to the project because it will provide direct interstate access to the proposed development. The zoning permit for the project requires the interchange plus $7 million to $8 million in improvements pledged by the developers along the Louisiana 21 corridor. The interchange and improvements are to be completed before the center can open.

State and federal highway officials recently approved revised plans for the interchange, taking into account the additional traffic that will be generated by the center and development of the property along the southern side of the interstate.

Bill Farr, projects operations manager for the Federal Highway Administration’s Louisiana Division, said Thursday that the revised plans were approved with the conditions that the Army Corps of Engineers grants a wetlands permit for the project and the parish commits to building the entire interchange as one project.

Bruce Wainer of Wainer Brothers said that means the construction of the center is only two wetlands permits, including one for the development itself, away from reality. He said construction could start as early as late June or July.

War of ads

By then, Smart Growth Tammany hopes to be circulating a petition to repeal the rezoning for the development and stop the project. Varvoutis said the group is confident that if it gets the green light for the petition drive it will be successful.

But the Parish Council contends that the repeal of a zoning ordinance through initiative and referendum could violate the state Constitution and state laws that give sole authority in zoning matters to local governments. The council has filed suit, asking the court to determine whether the process can be legally used to repeal zoning change.

Smart Growth Tammany in recent newspaper ads has blasted the council and the district attorney’s office, which represents the parish government, for filing a suit challenging the validity of the home rule charter and trying to undermine the document and citizens’ initiative.

The attack prompted District Attorney Walter Reed to take out a full-page newspaper ad responding “to the mean spirited and misleading advertisement” by Smart Growth Tammany.

“I had nothing to do with the political decision to allow it,” Reed said Thursday. “But as the lawyer for the parish, I’m trying to protect them from a possible multimillion-dollar lawsuit … I’d be derelict in my duties if I didn’t.”

Without a court ruling that the process can be used to repeal zoning changes, Reed said the parish could be exposed to damages if the project is stopped through a citizens’ initiative that’s later ruled illegal.

‘A personal issue’

Wainer Brothers also sued, contesting the legality of the process. The suit has been combined with the parish’s. Meanwhile, attorneys for Smart Growth Tammany said there is nothing in state law to prevent the initiative clearly allowed by the home rule charter.

The ongoing controversy, Dean said, has resulted in growing distrust among constituents for parish government and developers. “Nobody trusts anybody right now,” he said.

Wainer, which helped develop Flower Estates, said if the project were proposed in another parish, “they’d roll out the red carpet for us.”

But “with all the growth in this parish, almost any major project is going to become an emotional issue. But I’ve never seen anything like this… . And for whatever reason, they’ve made this a personal issue. That’s the upsetting thing about all this.”

People are emotional “because this is the biggest thing to come down the pike in St. Tammany Parish, and they didn’t let the people talk,” said Wilke, who’s also president of the Association of Associations, a coalition of 27 homeowners groups in the Covington and Madisonville area.

“They just looked at the sales tax revenues,” Wilke said. “And they were in such a hurry to get tax dollars into parish coffers, they didn’t give a damn.”