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The 120 sandwiches, T-shirts and buttons — passed out by Walmart advocates at the Main Library — made little difference.
Across the street Tuesday evening, about 175 residents packed Salt Lake City Hall's three-hour public hearing, where the majority implored the City Council to reject the mega-retailer's latest rezone request to construct a new big-box store at 2705 E. Parleys Way.
The feedback prompted two councilmen — Soren Simonsen and Luke Garrott — to announce their opposition.
The council is expected to put the four-year saga to rest with a vote this fall. And that decision surely won't be made with a lack of neighborhood input.
"If you want a commercial big box, you can go to 300 West," said Richard Kanner, who lives three blocks from the east-bench property that now houses a vacant 43-year-old Kmart, which Walmart owns. "They will crush small businesses ... and the profits will be going to Arkansas."
"These people have come — they are not my neighbors," resident Carol Anderson said about Walmart. "Foothill is a disaster. Please, help keep us wholesome and well."
Rezone supporters say the anti-Walmart rhetoric is over the top — hatred for the discount retailer cloaked as urban planning. Rezone critics, Darla Thomas told the council, say "the neighborhoods will be destroyed and all hell will break lose. This is not true."
If the council approves Walmart's two petitions — for a rezone and a master-plan change — the company could begin construction and have what it pledges will be a 92,000-square-foot store in place of the mothballed 120,000-square-foot Kmart sometime next year. (The actual site plan would have to be reviewed by the Planning Commission).
Walmart insists a smaller building design would be more energy efficient, generate 24 percent less traffic and include lush landscaping, trail connections and room for a possible park-and-ride lot.
Opponents fear the rezone would cement big boxes over boutiques for decades, clog traffic, kill walkability and open the door to a possible gas station in the sprawling parking lot.
In 2008, the Planning Commission rejected Walmart's initial zoning-change request. It rejected the retailer again in February — that time for the smaller store. A council vote could be Walmart's last chance to crack the city's east bench — and the odds appear steep.
"It's been said that this issue isn't about Walmart but it is," Garrott said. "I'll be voting hell no."
Simonsen also declared his opposition, saying a rezone would not be acceptable long term, especially along a city gateway. "Their plans for another big, ugly concrete box will simply not be an improvement. Not even close," he said to eventual applause.
Walmart officials say they will occupy the property either way. The company has a permit to remodel the Kmart that expires at year's end. Rezone advocates argue it is better for the neighborhood to have a "green" building with a smaller footprint than a new store shoved into an outdated shell.
"There is going to be a Walmart there," resident Bill Bleak said. "I would rather see a new, efficient, seismically safe building than that decrepit building."
But plenty of longtime residents argued the Kmart — approved in the late 1960s, and later deemed "nonconforming" — was a mistake. They don't buy Walmart's claims that it cannot afford a proper remodel of the aging Kmart, noting the company's multibillion-dollar quarterly profits.
They will do what they have to do to get customers in there," resident Leslie Stewart said. "And they have the money to do it."
Resident Kathy Adams compared the council's decision to its denial of the St. Joseph Villa petition for expansion, noting the rational then was keeping neighborhoods in balance. Choking tears, she said her mother is living her last days in the Villa, "and it's not pretty."
"If the council's responsibility is to protect neighborhoods against the frailest of our citizens," she said. "I have to expect we will be protected against a retail giant."
Walmart a campaign issue?
The rezone question for a Walmart at 2705 E. Parleys Way may affect more than the surrounding neighborhoods. It could sway the City Council District 6 race.
Incumbent J.T. Martin, whose district borders the property, remains undecided about whether to grant a rezone. "I have not made a decision," he says, noting there are "compelling" arguments on both sides.
But one of his opponents, Charlie Luke, cast the lone favorable vote earlier this year as a member of the Planning Commission. Luke argued a rezone would give the city more control over the eventual store design.
Whether that vote could be construed as pro-Walmart — and whether it could prompt Martin to vote "no" — has yet to be seen.
The primary election, which includes a third District 6 candidate, Tracey Harty, is Sept. 13.
Derek P. Jensen