Editor's note: The following report and opinion piece was submitted by leaders of SWARN(Solidarity of West Area Roseville Neighbors). The authors of the news release are Gary Grefenberg and Sue Gilbertson.
Some 50 to 60 Roseville citizens packed a meeting at City Hall earlier this week to hear and discuss the proposed Walmart store in the Twin Lakes Area.
The meeting Tuesday night was organized by the citizen action and neighborhood group SWARN or Solidarity of West Area Roseville Neighbors. SWARN organizers said they are trying to make sure that issues regarding the proposed Wal-Mart development are fully explored and that there is more public input.
The area slated for the proposed Wal-Mart mega-store is within the Twin Lakes district zoning district and is bounded by County Road C, Cleveland Avenue, Twin Lakes Parkway and Prior Avenue. Within that Roseville redevelopment area, the Walmart store itself would use use approximately 160,000 square on one level, an area larger than three football fields.
Eariy last month, the Roseville Planning Commission voted 5-1 to approve a preliminary plat for the proposed Wal-Mart store and now the issue will go to the Roseville City Council sometime in April, either at the April 16 or 23 meeting.
At Tuesday’s community meeting, a portion of a PBS Frontline program entitled: Is Walmart Good for America was shown. Several SWARN members also gave presentations on the Roseville Comprehensive Plan and zoning regulations, the economic and social impacts of Wal-Mart on other communities as found in certain academic studies, and the corporate history of Wal-Mart and comparisons with other retailers.
Much of the meeting was spent in questions and comments from the audience and organizing into various volunteer committees.
Comments from the residents indicated the Wal-Mart project does not follow the Roseville Comprehensive Plan which was created to provide a guide for the optimum future development of the city. Several audience members at this community forum also contended that the Wal-Mart proposal doesn't meet the Twin Lakes Master Plan, a community planning effort which they indicated they had participated in several years ago.
Some members of SWARN also worked in the successful effort to defeat an asphalt plant and pawn shop proposed for the western area of Roseville. The group's membership application includes this statement: . We have learned the value of joining with our friends and neighbors to protect and enhance our neighborhoods.
For more information, contact SWARN at swarn.info@gmail.com
To contact Roseville City Council Members at www.cityofroseville.com , click on the city government tab, then city council, and finally on members to send a message to all council members at once. Council members phone numbers are also listed on this city web site.
Given the current use (brownfield) of the property in question. Walmart will be a welcome improvment! SWARN, when was Roseville divided?
Our zoning ordinance divides the city into various districts. Our freeways, today’s equivalent of rivers, divide the city into various areas. Roseville’s Parks Master Plan divides the City into 16 different “constellations” or park service areas. And many residents identify with their neighbors and neighborhoods. SWARN’s founders, all west Roseville residents, decided to focus on that part of the city which has recently seen development projects which, in our opinion, would prove detrimental to our neighborhood’s quality of life. Over the past two years these projects ran the gamut of Asphalt plants to Pawn Shops and now to a Wal-Mart. SWARN decided to attempt to organize their neighbors on Roseville’s west side so their voice would be heard on the Wal-Mart issue which directly impacts their neighborhoods. Other residents are free to do the same. Isn’t that the way citizens in a democracy are supposed to act, or is petitioning our local government now restricted to corporations and their expensive lawyers/lobbyists? SWARN isn’t divisive, it’s neighborly Gary Grefenberg.