Big-box input from community associations?

The latest idea in the long-running battle against big-box retailers revolves around giving community associations a critical role in the approval process. 

Valerie Ervin, president of the Montgomery County Council in Maryland, has proposed that any retailer wanting to open a store larger than 75,000 square feet would have to negotiate first with the surrounding community.

Ervin, a Democrat from Silver Spring, which borders Washington, DC, said the aim would be to control the size of retailers in the affluent county, home to 972,000 people. The Gazette pointed out that the 75,000-square-foot size means that community input would be required for any store larger than a football field.

“If these big box retailers want to move in, they have to sign a binding agreement with the community, and the community has a major say in what that store looks like,” the newspaper quoted Ervin as saying. The bill is the result of months of consultation with United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 400, which represents supermarket employees opposed to big-box stores.

At least one community association has endorsed the bill, citing the congrestion that's often associated with huge stores. Another council member, Craig Rice, expressed some unease about the proposal. “My concern is that if we give associations too much power they can hold hostage a development process,” Rice said. The bill is to be discussed in a public hearing in November.

According to Wikipedia, Montgomery County, which had a median household income of $91,440 in 2008, is the eighth-wealthiest county in the nation. It also has the highest proportion of residents over 25 years od who have post-graduate degrees (29.2 percent).

The arrival of Walmart stores has been a source of controversy in Washington itself, as reported by New Urban Network here and here. 

For more in-depth coverage on this topic:

• Subscribe to New Urban News to read all of the articles (print+online) on implementation of greener, stronger, cities and towns.

• Get New Urbanism: Best Practices Guide, packed with more than 800 informative photos, plans, tables, and other illustrations, this book is the best single guide to implementing better cities and towns.

• See the September 2011 issue of New Urban News. Topics: Walk Score, sprawl retrofit, livability grants, Katrina Cottages, how to get a transit village built, parking garages, the shrinking Wal-Mart, Complete Streets legislation, an urban capital fund, and much more.

• See the June 2011 issue of New Urban News. Mid-rise living, elevated walkways, Jane Jacobs and observational urbanism, Affordable transit-oriented development, the coming housing calamity, rental and TOD to dominate market, New Town in bankruptcy, regional approach for high-speed rail, the civic costs of sprawl, redevelopment of mall