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Lowe's Developer To Pay Massachusetts Town A Record $410,000
May 13, 2004
The developer of a Lowe's Home Improvement Store has agreed to pay the town of Hadley, Massachusetts, an unprecedented $410,000 to compensate for the loss of farmland where a new store is to be built. The $410,000 payment is believed to be the largest such community impact agreement in Massachusetts and the second largest payment of its kind in the United States. (Last December, Lowe's agreed to pay Austin, Texas, $1 million to build a new store in that city.)
On May 5, Hadley Town Meeting voters approved by a narrow six-vote margin the rezoning of 12.8 acres of a local farm. The vote allows Paradigm Development of Colden, New York, to build a larger Lowe's store than zoning would normally permit on Route 9, the town's main thoroughfare. The vote was linked to a legal agreement hammered out with the developer by town officials and citizens to provide substantial funds for farmland protection, recreational amenities and long range planning. The agreement also includes a permanent restriction of 181,000 square feet on total development of the site.
"Lowe's first came in asking for special favors and offering nothing in return," says Jade Barker, a member of Hadley Neighbors for Sensible Development. "We're still not happy about the outcome but there is a silver lining. The money will help protect some of Hadley's farmland, which is among the best topsoil in the world. But we still think it's wrong to sell zoning. Zoning should benefit everyone - not just the highest bidder."
Citizens in Hadley have waged a 10-month struggle against Lowe's, which forced the town to vote four times on rezoning. Hadley Neighbors, with a core group of 20 members and many other supporters, worked to successfully block the rezoning at the first three Town Meetings. At the first vote, in August 2003, no impact payments were offered. After the third rezoning attempt failed, the developer increased the payment offer from $150,000 to $410,000 when it appeared that the fourth vote would also fail. Several town officials have credited citizens with forcing Lowe's to finally pay up.
Hadley's battle and subsequent record payment are further signs that citizen-based efforts to resist big box sprawl are increasingly successful. In April 2004, voters in Inglewood, California, rejected aWal-Mart-sponsored ballot question that would have loosened local environmental and traffic review requirements for the retailer's super centers. In December 2003, Lowe's agreed to pay $1 million to Austin, Texas, so a store could be built on land atop a local aquifer near a Home Depot.
In New England, Lowe's plans to open 75 new stores. Nationally, Lowe's operates 975 stores in 45 states and is opening new stores at the rate of two per week. The company's 2004 budget for new stores is $3.7 billion. The payment to Hadley represents .01% of that budget. Lowe's CEO, Bob Tillman, was paid $4.4 million in 2003, according to Forbes Magazine.
Many Hadley citizens do not view the $410,000 agreement as a victory because Lowe's can now build a larger store than zoning ordinarily allows. Lowe's will be located less than a mile from a new Home Depot, generating combined traffic increases of 50% to 80%. Because of the size of the Lowe's store - more than four football fields - the developer will also have to make numerous traffic safety improvements, erect noise and visual buffers, perform utility upgrades and improve other infrastructure. These measures are not included in the farmland protection agreement. The store will sit on a two-lane stretch of Route 9 where traffic already backs up and accidents occur frequently. Hadley has just 5,000 residents; Lowe's expects 3,000 to 4,000 shoppers a day."Large retail stores like Lowe's put incredible strains on roads, town services and the environment. They also force some types of locally owned stores out of business and off the tax rolls. So it's only fair that large retailers be required to give something back to the communities they are inconveniencing," says David Elvin, a member of Hadley Neighbors.More information is available at www.HadleyNeighbors.org
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