From a statement released by Wal-Mart today:

Portland, Ore. (June 20, 2007) - "We're proud of the store we proposed for Gresham, a contemporary, compact, urban design (see conceptual drawings at www.walmart-oregon.com), that would have made it one of the most unique Wal-Mart stores in the Northwest. The Gresham store would have greatly improved the area's shopping options, provided high-quality new jobs and increased tax revenue to the community."

"Although LUBA previously remanded the City of Gresham's Hearings Officer's decision to reject our application for a store on West Powell Boulevard, after careful review Wal-Mart has decided not to appeal to LUBA the Hearings Officer's remand decision denying our application. It is unfortunate that this custom designed store will not be built. It was supported by the City planning staff and local residents, and satisfied all the land use approval criteria except for one traffic issue that was not discussed during the hearings process."

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From the city of Gresham's web site:

Today the City’s Hearings Officer Joe Turner issued a denial on Wal-Mart’s application to build a supercenter at 182nd Avenue and Powell Boulevard. In April the Land Use Hearings Board remanded the decision back to the City’s hearings officer. This decision reaffirms his November 16, 2006 decision that denied the application.

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From the city of Gresham's web site:

Today LUBA issued a Final Opinion and Order on cases 2006-224/225 remanding the decision regarding Wal-Mart’s appeal regarding their application to build a supercenter at 182nd Avenue and Powell Boulevard back to City’s Hearings Officer Joe Turner.

According to LUBA, the Hearings Officer "misunderstood" Wal-Mart’s arguments regarding the opponents’ travel time analysis. LUBA decided that because of the technical nature of this issue and not knowing the extent to which the Hearings Officer’s decision to deny was based on his misunderstanding, it is best remand the decision back to the Hearings Officer. This will allow the Hearings Officer to evaluate his decision based on the correct understanding of Wal-Mart’s argument regarding travel time analysis and signal coordination.

The Hearings Officer has 90 days from the issue date of the order to make a final decision. LUBA did not dictate that the Hearings Office accept additional evidence or hold another hearing in this matter. The parties have 21 days from today to file an appeal with the Court of Appeal on LUBA’s final opinion and order.

LUBA’s report is available at the City’s Web site here: http://www.ci.gresham.or.us/w-m/20070404LUBAdecision.pdf

Site Editor's note: the headline is from the newspaper story, not from me.

Issue heads back to Gresham’s hearing officer

By Chad Abraham

The Gresham Outlook, Apr 6, 2007
Original story, including reader comments, here.

Wal-Mart's stubborn effort to build a store at an unpopular site in Gresham was rewarded Thursday, April 5, when the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals sided with the conglomerate in its dispute with the city and neighbors.

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The decision on the Wal-Mart at 182nd/Powell is expected today.

It will be posted on LUBA's web site.

I'll also post information here as soon as I can.

The decision by the Land Use Board of Appeals was expected on March 22nd. However, LUBA requested an extension and the city of Gresham granted the extension.

The decision is now due out April 5th.

I think Gresham First had a great write-up on the happenings at the appeal. It is copied below:

Oral arguments were heard on February 22 before the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals in Salem. LUBA is like an appellate court, and is not a political body. A LUBA appeal challenges the legal sufficiency of a local government’s decision. (By law, local decision makers can choose which evidence they wish to believe, so long as the evidence they rely on is "substantial evidence." Substantial evidence is evidence that a reasonable person could rely on to support a conclusion.)

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As was expected, Wal-Mart appealed the denial of their application to the Oregon State Land Use Board of Appeals. They will hear the appeal on February 22nd.

Gresham First, the local organization that has been fighting this Wal-Mart location, has been participating heavily in the process. They filed the appeal when the store's application was originally approved by city staff last year.

Gresham First also filed an appeal on the decision made late last year to deny the smaller Wal-Mart store. Why would they do that? you ask?

From Gresham First:

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I have noticed that there seems to be a lot of activity of roads already being built up etc. on Powell... are you really telling me that none of that money has already come from Walmart??

Also, what I have found interesting is that right around the future store is all these poor rentals being built... customers automatically for Walmart?

One more interesting note I see on Powell, you cannot get to any local businesses anymore easily because of all the supposed cement dividers with planters in the future??? Looks like another way for Walmart to have more customers.

People don't want to hassle having to turn around to get to say Gresham Miller paint. People are not stupid.

I received the following e-mail on August 22nd. I would have had this up sooner, but I just realized that when my computer went down and the hard drive had to be replaced that I forgot to set up this e-mail account in my Outlook. Guess that's what happens when you have too many accounts...

I think it's funny that I received one of these, and that they put so much weight on the 470 supporters, and overlook the thousands who wrote in opposition.

Well, here is the e-mail in its entirety:

Gresham Wal-Mart Supporters:

Gresham city staff recently approved plans for a new Wal-Mart Supercenter in Gresham at 3900 West Powell Boulevard to the delight of more than 470 community members who have expressed support and provided valuable feedback to the store. However, the decision to approve Wal-Mart has been appealed to the city.

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