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November 29, 2006
San Diego says no to big box grocery stores
In a move probably aimed at Wal*Mart Supercenters, the San Diego City Council has voted 5-3 to ban huge stores that sell groceries.The law, modeled after one in the northern California town of Turlock, would ban any store over 90,000 square feet that uses 10 percent of its space to sell groceries and other non-taxable items.
Wal*Mart filed a challenge to the Turlock law; a judge said the zoning change did not violate Wal*Mart's constitutional rights, and the state supreme court refused to hear an appeal.
Because really, the Constitution doesn't actually grant the right to build something as big as you want wherever you want. That's why we have zoning laws.
Councilman Tony Young, who joined the 5-3 majority, countered, "I have a vision for San Diego and that vision is about walkable, livable communities, not big, mega-structures that inhibit people's lives."So is that.
The council has to vote on it again for it to become law. Mayor Fred Sainz has said he will veto the ban, saying it's "social engineering, not good public policy."
It takes five votes to override the veto, which, so far, the council has.
One of the dissenting councilors said he didn't think the council should "dictate where people do their grocery shopping."
Well, of course not. But there are no doubt quite a few options outside of town that would not be allowed in town under the new ban. Hell, there are probably a couple in town – it is, after all, the eighth largest market in the country, and we have a couple of grocery stores in li'l ol' Central New York that top 90,000 square feet – that doesn't mean the city has to allow more undesirable development.
Gosh. Imagine living in a place with unreasonable good weather and having people around you wanting to make the city walkable so that you could enjoy it once in a while. The horror! The horror!
Posted by josh at November 29, 2006 02:45 PM
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