Wal-Mart expansion foes have their say.

Byline: Karen McCowan The Register-Guard

COTTAGE GROVE - Opponents of Wal-Mart's proposed expansion had their say Wednesday night during the continuation of a public hearing held last month that was taken up almost entirely by supporters.

"The corporation of Wal-Mart is pathologically incapable of being concerned about our community," Tony Wiley told the city's planning commission.

"It has only one overriding concern: to make lots and lots of money. Their corporate image is of a retail giant that goes out of its way to help the poor. In fact, it pays slave wages and doesn't allow union represen- tation."

As in the hearing Jan. 17, the City Hall Council Chamber could not contain all the residents who wanted to testify. Dozens of people stood outside, waiting their turn to speak. Many wore bright yellow buttons bearing the retailer's smiley face logo but proclaiming "Small Mart, Small Town" rather than "Wal-Mart."

And as it did last month, testimony stretched until 10:30 p.m., and the Cottage Grove Planning Commission postponed deliberating the zoning code changes Wal-Mart seeks to expand its 81,000-square-foot store into a 160,000-square-foot "supercenter."

The city's planning staff has recommended denying the proposal, citing traffic concerns and restrictions Cottage Grove imposed when approving the existing Wal-Mart in the city's "commercial tourist" zone just east of Interstate 5.

Wal-Mart seeks to overturn conditions that the store be set back from Row River Road to allow smaller, tourism-related businesses on two, 3-acre parcels along that frontage. A deed recorded in the Lane County Clerk's Office on Dec. 22 shows that Wal-Mart purchased those parcels from KCW Properties, a Eugene company managed by Andrew Woodard.

Expansion opponent Alan Jackson agreed with the staff position, saying a "massive, unattractive, standard-issue Wal-Mart box" with its parking lot expanded to front Row River Road would violate the spirit of that zone. In contrast, he pointed to the nearby Village Green, recently renovated as a garden resort, as an appropriate tourist business.

Matt Carrigan, who lives in a 107-year-old restored farmhouse, said a supercenter would hurt the historic preservation effort in downtown.

"Let Cottage Grove be known as a tourist destination, not as a place to buy cheap groceries and imported stuff," he said.

Cathy Bellavita challenged the claim by Wal-Mart officials and supporters that its low-cost groceries would benefit city residents.

"When you save a few pennies by shopping at Wal-Mart you are supporting a worldwide retail system that undermines American manufacturing jobs and sends them overseas to China," she said.

"Wal-Mart's business practices increase the number of low-income Americans, then make money off them by selling Wal-Mart products to them."

Small-business owner Adam Rubino said expansion of a store with "the majority of its product imported from China" would fly in the face of Cottage Grove's status as an All-American City.

He also said one study showed that California taxpayers were paying $86 million a year in social services - food stamps, housing subsidies, health care - to Wal-Mart employees who qualified due to low wages.

Walt Bernard, a resident of nearby Dorena, distinguished his opposition to Wal-Mart's expansion from his feelings about its workers.

"I'm against Wal-Mart's corporate mentality, but I'm not against their hard-working employees," he said, sparking some expressions of thanks from several employees at the hearing.

Wal-Mart's attorney, Jeff Evans, began the meeting by asking the planning commission also to take testimony from Wal-Mart supporters who - like some of the opponents speaking Wednesday - did not attend the Jan. 17 session.

Commission Chairman Matt Parsons declined to guarantee that but accepted Commissioner Mike Fleck's suggestion that they keep the hearing record open for another week so that supporters could provide written comment.