Bring on the Wal-Mart!

No matter where Wal-Mart attempts to go, NIMBY’s are sure to be found. Hamburg is no different. According to The Sun a group of 18 whopping people showed up at the Hamburg Planning Board meeting to protest Wal-Mart’s move to the ghost town known as Brierwood Plaza. The group cited several thinly veiled NIMBYistic concerns, all of which can be easily disputed.

“Hamburg First’s core message is that the 205,000 square foot Wal-Mart Supercenter isn’t a good fit for the plaza at the corner of Southwestern Boulevard and Rogers Road. The surrounding area is zoned primarily residential, and a better use for the property is a mix of retail, office and small commercial establishments, much like Snyder Square in Amherst.”

Brierwood Plaza already has largest commercial zoning designation that Hamburg has, and the existing plaza is already 152,000 sq ft. Commercial areas are generally surrounded by residential areas. The plaza has tried to be a mix of retail and small commercial establishments in the past, and it has simply disintigrated. We can either continue to let it rot, or we can let Wal-Mart completely revitalize it. They’ve even agreed to step up the architecture a bit and match it to the nearby Brierwood Country Club. (I know, the architecture purists are chortling out there, but we are talking about a suburban Wal-Mart here.)

“We are concerned that the current Wal-Mart at Seven Corners will be vacant, and we feel the Supercenter will result in the smaller Tops at that same intersection closing. There are far too many vacant retail storefronts in Hamburg at this time.”

Seven Corners is one of the most prominent intersections in the town, and highly unlikely that it would sit vacant for very long. Near McKinley Mall, Media Play’s location was quickly filled by FYE, and Oak Expression’s store with a new Dollar Tree. Additions were added to the mall to accomodate Bed Bath & Beyond and Best Buy, which will be opening later this year. Tops has been itching in the past to move out of it’s current smaller store at that intersection. Without Wal-Mart being on the same corner, it may have an increase in business, and even possibly take the opportunity to move into the larger space where Wal-Mart currently sits.

Hamburg First identified seven major concerns they have with the Wal-Mart supercenter. They believe the project would adversely affect the surrounding environment, increase crime, negatively impact local small businesses and reduce property values in the area, among other things.

The surrounding environment isn’t impacted by a deteriorating shell of a plaza? An active business replacing vacant buildings will cause an increase in crime? *coughNIMBYcough* But really, no NIMBY group can be complete without citing…

The No. 1 concern, however, is traffic. Elardo said his research has indicated that tens of thousands of cars will drive by there each day, straining two-lane residential streets such as Amsdell, Cloverbank and Rogers, not to mention how much worse traffic will be on Southwestern Boulevard.

Southwestern Boulevard! How ever will Southwestern Boulevard be able to handle an increase in traffic? Next thing you know, they’ll want to build one of these things on Transit Road in the middle of Lancaster! Surely, nobody living in the vicinity of Southwestern Boulevard would have ever expected there to be TRAFFIC there?

It’s sad, but it’s a page straight out of the NIMBY handbook. The only thing they left out was some mention of concern about asbestos or dust or rat poop from the demolition of the existing skeleton. The group calls itself “Hamburg First” but it’s really Hamburg Second, Me First. The scent of BANANAS is in the air.