After spending four years and literally hundreds of thousands of dollars, hiring a world class architect to design a state-of-the-art green facility the likes of which exist nowhere else on the planet, acquiring a sizeable piece of insanely over-priced Vancouver real estate, and jumping through every hoop that the iron fisted Vancouver city council imposed upon them, Wal Mart is turned down on their development application for the individual idealogical reasons of some council members. Councillor Tim Louis went so far as to call the retailer a corporate criminal. He went on to say "The largest contributor to the Bush regime in his re-election campaign was Wal-Mart." What in the name of fuck does this have to do with anything? 
The store was meant to set a new standard for environmentally-friendly big box stores, and had been specifically designed for Vancouver.
Proposed for a site on Southeast Marine Dr., the design featured windmills on the roof and natural light.The plans for this facility are quite interesting, and can be found in the appendix (around page 30) of the City proposal report found here: http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20050614/documents/ph2.pdf
The message that this sends out to future investment in this city could not be a worse one. We will not fully feel the damage done by this decision for years to come, when the current council members will likely no longer be accountable. Instead of making it personal, the council should have worked with Wal Mart to develop a plan that made sense economically. They have totally overstepped their authority on this one.
And FYI, I am not an advocate of giant corporate entities like Wal Mart. I hate the fuckers. But this application was significant in changing the way they look and do business, and for nothing but positive reasons that could have become a precedent to future facilities around the world, benefitting both the environment and the people they employ.
The store was meant to set a new standard for environmentally-friendly big box stores, and had been specifically designed for Vancouver.
Proposed for a site on Southeast Marine Dr., the design featured windmills on the roof and natural light.The plans for this facility are quite interesting, and can be found in the appendix (around page 30) of the City proposal report found here: http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20050614/documents/ph2.pdf
The message that this sends out to future investment in this city could not be a worse one. We will not fully feel the damage done by this decision for years to come, when the current council members will likely no longer be accountable. Instead of making it personal, the council should have worked with Wal Mart to develop a plan that made sense economically. They have totally overstepped their authority on this one.
And FYI, I am not an advocate of giant corporate entities like Wal Mart. I hate the fuckers. But this application was significant in changing the way they look and do business, and for nothing but positive reasons that could have become a precedent to future facilities around the world, benefitting both the environment and the people they employ.
