Strategies to Cope with WalMart
New Wal-Mart built on undeveloped township land.
Small Town magazine has dealt with the problem of malls coming to small towns in many of its issues. An article by Kotval and Mullin suggests the following measures be considered by communities as regulatory items to deal more directly with the impact felt by large malls and discounters. They suggest the following policies be adopted:
- The mall should not be allowed by right. It should be granted only under a special permit.
- The special permit should include criteria related to the environment, traffic, fiscal impacts and community characteerÑas well as the impacts on downtown. Furthermore, these impacts should be addressed assuming full build-out of the entire property.
- The mall should be governed by a site plan review. Provisions for buffer and open space restrictions, design and landscape architecture components and covenants should be included and enforced in perpetuity.
- The mall developer should be expected to pay for relevant technical and legal assistance required by the community.1
1 Zenia Kotval and John R. Mullin. 1992. "When the Mall comes to a Small Town: How to Shape Development with Carrots and Sticks." Small Town (September-October). p. 21.
