If the honks of passing motorists on Wednesday, Sept. 7 is any indication, people around Mill Creek don’t want Wal-Mart to build a store northeast of the city any more than does a group that was holding signs protesting against the giant retailer.
About 20 people stood at the corner of 132nd Street SE and 35th Avenue SE for about two hours the afternoon of Sept. 7 protesting against Wal-Mart.
“We believe another Wal-Mart coming into this area would affect not only the community but wages and benefits of the workers we represent,” said Heather Golden, a representative of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union in Seattle.
The union organized a Mill Creek chapter of an anti-Wal-Mart group called Wake Up Wal-Mart. Approximately 20 group members took their concerns about the company and its possible impacts on the community to the Mill Creek City Council on Tuesday night.
The union-backed group is working on two petitions.
One would ask that the property be rezoned to prevent such big-box stores, while the other would require that businesses in the area pay wages at a certain rate, which the protesters believe Wal-Mart would not be willing to match.
They hope to eventually submit the petitions to Snohomish County and to Mill Creek, which is considering annexing the area into the city.
Snohomish County has received an application for a 149,000-square-foot retail store on 132nd Street just east of 35th Avenue.
The application was submitted under the name of Gramor Development Northwest Inc. of Lynnwood, said Tom Barnett of the county planning office. Applications for large retail stores are often submitted by the developers who then lease to the retailers, Barnett said. Many of Wal-Mart’s stores are in the 150,000- to 200,000-square-foot range.
The store will be developed according to city of Mill Creek design guidelines per an agreement the City Council approved earlier this year. During that meeting, Mill Creek city officials referred to the site as a Wal-Mart.
The group opposing the store, however, faces an uphill battle.
Barnett said it would be “extremely difficult” to stop the project at this point. One avenue left is a public hearing, required for a store of the size proposed for the site, he said. The hearing has yet to be scheduled.
“The zoning was in place when they submitted their application, so they do have vested rights,” he said.
The developers have applied for a stoplight at the corner of 132nd Street SE and 39th Avenue SE near the site, Barnett said. The state turned them down on their first try, but they may resubmit, he said.
Some of the protest signs referred to traffic. One read: “Enjoy traffic? It could be a lot worse.”
“We have schools right here, there is already congestion and traffic, and we don’t want another stoplight just so Wal-Mart people can turn in and out,” said protester Lillian Kaufer, who lives in the area.
Penny Creek Elementary School is across 132nd Street SE from the proposed site, and Archbishop Murphy High School is also in the area.
Bill Sheets is a reporter with The Herald in Everett. Mill Creek Enterprise editor John Santana contributed to this report.
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