Livingston Weekly

Update: Wal-Mart Developmentin Livingston

As most of the community is aware, it is not the City Commission who will decide whether or not the land discussed in the recent Resolution 3937 is sold to any certain corporation. If and when the land is annexed to the city, the decision on what to build there, whether a Wal-Mart or a truck stop, will be up to the discretion of the landowners alone. However, public input in this matter could be of integral importance in this issue, and citizens of Livingston should be rightly informed of any meetings or hearings during which they might be able to voice opinions on the issue.

On Thursday morning April 24, City Commissioner Steve Caldwell contacted the editors of the Weekly to clarify certain points in the annexation issue that could lead to the annexation and development of commercial property west of Livingston. As the story has been developing over the past three days, the Weekly has been attempting to contact both the City of Livingston and the landowners, the Jessons, for a statement or clarification of points in the issue.

Caldwell emphasized that if the the property mentioned in Resolution 3937 goes through a process of annexation to the city, there will be many opportunities for public comment. At the discussions during the City Commission meeting on April 21, the commissioners amended the city growth policy to target the area for annexation. The continuing process, once the landowners submit an official petition for acquisition, will include defining the terms of such annexation, holding a public hearing to discuss the resolution to annex, a process of sending the resolution to the planning board, going through a platting and subdivision revision process and eventually discussing the matter once again or perhaps a number of times before a regular City Commission meeting, therefore allowing for a number of opportunities for public input.

"It's a long, orderly process," Commissioner Caldwell said, and indicated the process may even take up to a year, again stressing that during this process there would be many opportunities for public comment. Citizens interested in the city's annexation process may contact the City of Livingston offices at (406) 222-2005 for more information. Notices of meeting are also posted outside the city offices at the City/County building on Callender Street and posted in the local paper of record, the daily Enterprise, available around Livingston and Park County for 75¢.

While many citizens have expressed concern that there will not be ample time to protest this particular development in Livingston, according to Caldwell, there will be many opportunities to contribute opinion on the issue. Previous posts on this website have been edited to reflect this.

The Weekly will be presenting a special feature on preventing the encroachment of Wal-Mart into small towns in the Saturday, April 26 issue, and full investigative coverage of this issue will be presented in the Saturday, May 3 issue. Please comment on this website with further information or clarification or email news@livingstonweekly.com.

The editors at the Weekly are always open to fostering communication in the community, and rely upon our readers, city and county officials and citizens to contribute valuable information on issues of importance to this community. The editors at the Weekly feel compelled to look into any issue that will affect the community of Livingston, and attempt at all times to be fair and objective, and we welcome comments from the community on our attempts to do so.

Update: Annexation Key toWal-Mart Development

Recent information delivered to the Weekly offices notes the discussion of resolution 3937 at the recent City Commission meeting on April 21:

RESOLUTION NO. 3937 – A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF LIVINGSTON, MONTANA, AUTHORIZING CITY MANAGER TO ENTER INTO AN ANNEXATION AGREEMENT WITH MARGIE JESSON FOR PROPERTY LOCATED IN A PORTION OF SECTION 21 AND 22 OF TOWNSHIP 2 SOUTH, RANGE 9 EAST, M.P.M.

The above resolution refers to landowners Margie and John Jesson, currently in possession of 40 acres subject to the new zoning classification. According to Weekly sources, the Jessons have an informal contract with Wal-Mart for seven million dollars if the property is annexed by the city and zoned commercial. If an annexation agreement is reached between the City and the Jesson’s, the city will most likely have a a series of meetings to formally annex and zone the property.

These annexation and zoning meetings will be a chance for citizens to comment on the proposed development on a site near the 1-90 exit less than five miles west of Livingston. Citizens interested in the outcome of this development are encouraged to contact the City of Livingston offices at (406) 222-2005 for more information regarding the upcoming meeting.

The Weekly will continue to provide the community with updates regarding the developing story. The landowners in this issue, the Jessons, were unavailable for comment at the time of this posting.

Wal-Mart Coming to Livingston?

Editors at the Weekly learned today that a recent public hearing resolution discussed at the April 21, 2008 City Commission meeting may be a change in the yet-to-be-committed city/county growth policy to allow a Wal-Mart to be built within city limits:

Resolution No. 3936 — A resolution of the City Commission of the City of Livingston, Montana, amending its growth policy's future zoning map by including portions of sections 21 and 22, township 2 south, range 9 east lying northerly of Interstate 90 as light industrial/commercial.

The area noted above is located near the current offices of Printingforless.com at the Interstate 90 exit less than five miles west of the City of Livingston.

Although this information has yet to be confirmed, the staff of the Weekly encourages all citizens of Livingston to attend upcoming annexation meetings that may be held to discuss this Resolution 3936. Concerned citizens may contact the city offices at (406) 222-2005 or visit the city website at http://www.ci.livingston.mt.us/citycommissioners.shtml where phone numbers of each City Commissioner are listed.

As Livingston is a town of less than 10,000 year-round residents who rely much on local trade for subsistence, the addition of Wal-Mart in the community could cause a loss of jobs, the demise of many local small businesses and the desolation of Livingston's vibrant and historic downtown shopping district.

Wal-Mart is a large billion-dollar corporation, and it is often difficult for communities to prevent the encroachment of the superstore culture into their town. According to the Idaho Observer, the New York Times, and countless media outlets, Wal-Mart often works behind the scenes with planning and zoning fronts and real estate corporations in order to pass through enough local legislation to allow for proper zoning prior to actual building and construction approval.

By the time building approval is sought, it is frequently too late for the citizens of a community to do anything about the store opening. Wal-Mart has deep pockets for legal battles and even dedicated citizens' groups are sometimes outplayed and outlasted by the corporate giant's legal defense team.

Livingston's economy, after decades of slow to negative growth in the late 1980s through the 1990s, has rebounded and is poised to become a healthy and prosperous community. With three locally-owned hardware stores; a number of unique clothing boutiques for men, women and children; three local grocery stores, two of which are locally-owned; a new light department store, the Livingston Mercantile, which turned out to be a successful community-funded effort; many specialty stores with rich Livingston histories, including saddle and tack stores and stationary and book shops; a large discount store "Pamida" and scores of downtown shoppers there seems to be little need for a giant superstore to replace or supplement these options.

Citizens of Livingston, if they wish to retain the unique balance of economy in the town, will need to invest considerable time and effort into preventing the supposed arrival of Wal-Mart. For more information about preparations for preventing the building of Wal-Marts in small locally-based economies across America, visit http://www.sprawl-busters.com/.

Look for expanded reporting and follow-up of this story in the next issue of the Livingston Weekly due to hit the stands Saturday, April 26, 2008. We encourage residents to post comments here to voice their opinions regarding the addition of a Wal-Mart to the local economy.

—Reilly Neill