Wal-Mart in Hercules: Does a small city need a big box?

Hercules is in many ways a typical California bedroom community. Founded in 1881, it grew slowly and had only a few hundred residents until the 1970s - when it boomed, growing by over 1,000% in a decade. It is now a city of 22,000, built mostly on suburban models of the 1970s and 1980s. It has some scattered commercial development, but because it grew so quickly, not much of a downtown.

In the 1990s Hercules recognized a need for a civic and commercial heart. It engaged community members in developing a new model for future development, adopting codes to promote pedestrian-friendly design, mixed-use and live-work projects, construction of in-law units and denser housing, redevelopment of brownfield sites near the town's center, and investment in a new transit center.

Some efforts, such as those for denser housing, are already quite advanced. Others, including the mixed-use projects, are well under way. Overall the project is a big success; not only are residents pleased, but the San Francisco Chronicle has trumpeted Hercules as "the forefront of New Urbanism in the Bay Area", and national organizations such as the American Planning Association have also taken note.

Unfortunately, Wal-Mart has taken note as well.

The Waterfront is a mixed-use development, midway through construction on a former industrial site along the Bay. The project was approved in 2003 to include 335 homes including both single-family houses and apartments, a park, and 167,000 square feet of retail development in a community shopping center. The shopping center was projected to include a grocery store, a restaurant, and several smaller stores. The developer committed to find retail tenants by the end of 2005. As that deadline approaches, however, the grocery store has been dropped, and most of the other stores. Citing difficulties in locating another tenant, developer Lewis Company has proposed a Wal-Mart instead.

Local residents are upset that what they expected to be a convenient local grocery might turn out to be a not very convenient regional discount store drawing traffic and litter. Even worse, they worry that a Wal-Mart Supercenter will jinx efforts to draw the smaller-scale stores they wanted, diminish the chances of success for the mixed-use projects still in the planning stages, and harm the hardworking local businesses that have managed to succeed in Hercules. Local residents wonder if Hercules' success so far doesn't entitle it to expect better from developers. Steve Kirby, a member of the Club's West Contra Costa Group Executive Committee and longtime Hercules resident, says, "Hercules doesn't have to build a Wal-Mart to succeed financially. We could become something more like Broadway Plaza in Walnut Creek, Solano Avenue in Albany, or El Cerrito Plaza. We can draw people with a mix of stores and a good atmosphere, and have local businesses succeed too."

Last fall Kirby and other community members from the Friends of Franklin Canyon succeeded in a ballot-measure campaign to protect Franklin Canyon from what would have been Hercules' largest sprawl subdivision. Since then, they have broadened their focus and changed their name to the Friends of Hercules - and turned their attention to Wal-Mart. They are using many of the same grassroots tactics - homemade flyers and conversations over the back fence - to let other residents know about the Wal-Mart issue.

Hercules residents didn't object to original Waterfront proposal - but to get back to that concept, the city must fend off Wal-Mart. City staff is now reviewing the store's application. The original approvals for the Waterfront were completed when the city expected a grocery store. If the city determines that a Wal-Mart and a grocery store are basically the same, the approvals for a Wal-Mart could be processed quickly.

Unfortunately, a Wal-Mart would not be equivalent to a grocery store - it would have almost twice the square footage and draw customers from a much wider area, creating much greater traffic and air pollution. Wal-Mart should be required to undertake additional environmental review before a decision can be made. Last December, also, California's Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (Bakersfield) ruled that environmental review may be required to include assessment of a development's impacts on other commercial areas; if construction of a Wal-Mart could cause store closures and blight in other parts of town, that needs to be considered.

When the studies are done and all the information is on the table, it will ultimately be up to the Hercules City Council to decide whether the city can accommodate a Wal-Mart. With partial information in view, many residents are already skeptical; studies of Wal-Marts in other communities seem to support their concerns. The Sierra Club is supporting efforts to slow down Wal-Mart and see if something like the original plan can't be built instead. It would be a shame if Wal-Mart were to undermine Hercules' success.

What You Can Do

To join with the Sierra Club and Friends of Hercules in working for more appropriate plans for Hercules, contact Chapter conservation director Jonna Papaefthimiou at (510) 848-0800, ext. 312, or email jonna-at-sfbaysc.org

For more information visit www.FriendsofHercules.com

Jonna Papaefthimiou