Five months ago, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that Greenfield neighbors fighting a 135,000-square-foot Wal-Mart on the French King Highway had the right to their day in court.
The highest state court granted their request for another venue for their appeal — and denied the developer’s motion to dismiss the case. The SJC wrote: “the appropriate remedy is not to dismiss the case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction but to transfer the case to a court with jurisdiction. …”
This case has taken more twists and turns than a pair of Wal-Mart underwear making its journey from a Chinese factory to America. To give you a sense of the time span, the Greenfield Historical Society wrote a letter to the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) office in February of 2007. “We believe that project reductions in scale would greatly increase the probability that compatibility could be achieved,” the Historical Society wrote. Little did they know that this battle against Wal-Mart in Greenfield would become the longest such battle in American history, stretching back at least to 1992, when Wal-Mart first tried to sprawl on the French King Highway.
At one point in this litigation, the Housing Court judge observed: “the case has been delayed by various procedural machinations,” citing the developer’s motion for summary judgment as a prime example. “The defendant’s interest in an expeditious disposition of this case can be achieved in this court,” the judge asserted. But rather than take the expeditious route, the developer filed a motion to force the case out of Housing Court.
Today, 10 years after the developer first began surveying the French King property, we are nowhere near a Wal-Mart decision. The neighbors have chosen to have their case heard in Franklin County Superior Court, and on June 17 the Trial Court set a final pretrial conference for June 20, 2017 — one year from now.
It is likely that the developer’s Boston law firm will file a Summary Judgment, just like they did in March of 2012, trying once again to deny these seven neighbors their day in court. It will be like restarting the time clock, after five years of “procedural machinations.” The process from there could stretch out further than a cornfield in the height of summer.
Through this entire period, Wal-Mart has never admitted that it wants to build on the French King, even though Mayor Bill Martin disclosed at a Planning Board meeting that Wal-Mart told him personally that they would come to Greenfield with a 100,000-square-foot plan. Yet the media and public officials still insist they don’t know if it’s a Wal-Mart. Ironically, Wal-Mart has substantially reduced its new big box store expansions, building 40,000-square-foot Neighborhood Markets in many locations. About a week ago, Wal-Mart revealed plans to build a 190,000-square-foot store on the old General Electric/EPA site in Pittsfield — symbolic of the old industrial base being replaced by low-wage retail. But the other big box stores are not building in Massachusetts, and within a decade the Amazon-style warehouse delivery system will usher in the Ice Age for superstores. Robots will pick your grocery order, and Uber drivers or drones will drop it at your door. The superstores will be dark.
If a Wal-Mart superstore ever gets approved, it would take roughly a year to build. Whatever they construct on the French King in several years time will be obsolete the day it opens.
People wishing to donate to the French King Legal Defense Fund can go to: http://bit.ly/29irDgf
Al Norman, known nationally as a “sprawlbuster” consultant against Wal-Mart and other big box developments, is a Greenfield resident.