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Wal-Mart receives San Luis’ blessing
BY BLAKE SCHMIDT, SUN STAFF WRITER
Published on: January 25, 2006

SAN LUIS, Ariz. — "Large establishments" like Wal-Mart are no longer banned from building in this border city.

But before businesses can build projects 50,000 square feet and larger, they must ask the city council for permission.

Wednesday night the city council passed by a 5-1 vote an amendment to the “big box ordinance.” The original ordinance had prohibited the construction of any building larger than 50,000 square feet.

The amendment removed the ban, but will require that the construction of any building over 25,000 square feet be approved by the city council as part of a special use permit process.

Large establishment developers must apply to the city council for permission to build. Developers may be required to pay for infrastructure improvements, if the council sees them as a necessity, according to the ordinance.

Wal-Mart’s Land-Use Attorney Sean Lake said that Wal-Mart will begin construction on the SuperCenter this summer and hopes that the Wal-Mart will be open to shoppers by summer 2007.

Mayor Nieves Riedel said the special use permit "gives the city the upper hand to be able to negotiate under fair conditions."

She called the big box store ordinance a "tool" that the city had to use to bring Wal-Mart into negotiations with the city.

"Anyone who wants to build will have to go through the city," she said.

Councilman Carlos Bernal voted against the measure. By not signing on for unanimous passage of the amendment, it couldn’t pass as an emergency measure, thus giving citizens 30 days to take out a referendum against the amendment, he said.

"Why do we have to put so many obstacles in front of investors who come in and create jobs and tax revenue for the city?" Bernal asked.

In the two months since the big box ordinance passed, the city and Wal-Mart negotiated a deal in which Wal-Mart will invest an estimated $1.5 million in city infrastructure projects around the 197,000-square-foot store’s location at Highway 95 and County 22nd Street, said Lake.

He said the Wal-Mart will generate sales tax for the city and will provide anywhere from 300 to 500 jobs.

Lake told The Sun that on Monday, Wal-Mart sent the city a proposed development agreement in which the retail giant agreed to help fund a traffic signal at County 22nd Street and Highway 95, and make roadway improvements along County 22nd Street, which include a canal crossing.

A Wal-Mart will be "good for the people of San Luis," said property owner Robert Barkley, who is selling 25 acres of land to Wal-Mart.

In December, Barkley, president of Yuma agricultural company Barkley Ag. Enterprises, LLP, filed a complaint with the Yuma County Attorney’s Office alleging that Mayor Nieves Riedel and Vice Mayor Guillermina Fuentes may have broken the state’s conflict of interest laws by allegedly failing to disclose their respective conflicts of interest and for voting on the big box ordinance.

Riedel employs Fuentes and owns Riedel Plaza, a shopping center complex in East San Luis. Barkley said that passing an ordinance that banned Wal-Mart from coming to town effectively blocked what would have been competition for Riedel Plaza.

When the ordinance first passed, Riedel stated she voted in favor of the ordinance in order to protect small businesses against competition from Wal-Mart.

She has said that she and Fuentes acted within the law when voting for the ordinance, and that they "clearly disclosed" their conflict.

Yuma County Attorney Jon Smith forwarded Barkley’s complaint to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.

Andrea Esquer, spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s Office, confirmed that the office received the complaint this month.

But she said she could not comment on the conflict of interest complaint, because it is a criminal inquiry.

According to the Arizona Revised Statutes, an elected official who knowingly violates the conflict of interest law can be charged with a Class 6 felony or if they recklessly or negligently violated the conflict of interest law they can be charged with a Class 1 misdemeanor.

Blake Schmidt can be reached at 539-6852 or bschmidt@yumasun.com. Paige Lauren Deiner contributed to this story.



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