Residents battling Wal-Mart win round

Residents battling Wal-Mart win round by collecting petition signatures and packing the public meetings. The citizens wanted the evaluations of the area's needs to be performed by people selected by city hall rather than the developers.

The issue isn't whether they want a Wal-Mart but whether they want any big box retailers. And they are taking the controls to decide for themselves rather than hoping Wal-Mart will be merciful when they decide to inflict themselves on the town.

"We got exactly what we wanted," resident Peter Meisenheimer said. "This will set a precedent on how the city will deal with (land that can be developed)."

Smart Centres [which builds big-box malls often anchored by Wal-Mart] says other developers won't invest in London if city hall takes over the process midstream.

"It puts many developers in a not-very-happy position," said Peter Nikolakakos of Smart Centres.

And that's just fine by me. I'm all for towns taking back control over development and just saying no to huge box stores that take money out of the local economy and send it to China forever.