Spring Valley Lake Association - Plans For Super Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart is working with the City of Victorville to build a Super Wal-Mart at the entrance of Spring Valley Lake. The Board of Directors have outlined their concerns and objections in a letter addressed to the Victorville Planning Department. Residents have also formed a citizens group to address this issue, for more information you can go to the Discussions Groups on the web site. You will find resident responses under Ask the General Manager as well as under Spring Valley Lake - Jewel of the High Desert.

A meeting was held on 3/5/08 at City Hall to present Victorville’s plan for adopting the new Victorville General Plan 2030. This plan will examine the future growth of the city over the next 20 years and as part of the process will examine potential problem areas the city must deal with during that time period. The plan will not look at specific uses of land areas (e.g., Wal-Mart), but will look at the “big picture” of land use within and around the city over the next 20 years.

A small part of the proposed General Plan update involves changing the allowable land use for some of the parcels of land near Tamarisk and Bear Valley Rd currently owned by Wal-Mart. The land use designation would need to change from Office/Professional to Commercial to allow Wal-Mart to build a supercenter at this location.

The meeting today was to request input from the public on the proposed General Plan changes. Approx 8 people spoke against the proposed change for Wal-Mart’s land. No decisions will be made on the plan until it goes to the City Council in about 3-4 months.

The next step in the General Plan 2030 process is to perform an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the proposed changes. Comments on the scope of the EIR should be made by March 14^th directly to the Planning Dept in writing at:
City of Victorville
Attn: C. Borchert
14343 Civic Drive
Victorville Ca 92393

Since no Wal-Mart project is yet approved for this location, comments should not be specifically anti-Wal-Mart at this time since the plan is only considering whether the change of land use to Commercial is reasonable given the location and surrounding land uses. However, suggestions for areas the EIR should investigate regarding degraded traffic, congestion, noise, lights, etc are legitimate based on the possible conversion of the land to Commercial use. Once the DRAFT EIR is published in about a month, the public will have approx 45 days to comment on the document.

Note: I have been contacted by a reporter wishing to speak with people opposed to the Wal-Mart project on Bear Valley Rd and Tamarisk who live outside of Spring Valley Lake. If you live in any of the surrounding areas and would be willing to speak to this reporter about your concerns and issues with the proposed location, please contact me via email.

Thanks.
Scott Eckert

As you know, Citizens for Sensible Development sponsored a community forum on the proposed Super Wal-Mart at Tamarisk and Spring Valley Parkway on Sunday, January 21, 2007. The crowd was estimated at around 200 people, according to the Daily Press.

CSD presented a briefing on the proposed project and where it's located. The three main points of the opposition are 1) Traffic 2) Safety 3) Re-zoning. Of all three, I think Safety is the most significant. There are over 15,000 children and students within 1200 feet of the proposed Wal-Mart site. This puts our chilren and students at an unacceptable safety risk.

The project is currently moving very slowly and no meetings are planned by Victorville, Wal-Mart, or the developer (Rothbart Development) at this time.

CSD also summarized all the activties it has been involved in over the last few months:

- Petition drive: 3,000+

- Briefed most of the affected school boards

- Info pkgs to City Planning

- Contacted new County Supervisor

- Contacted most RE brokers with ZERO response

CSD needs to raise money to advertise, print flyers, and hire technical experts like traffic engineers and land use experts to fight this project. We raised money through cash donations at Sunday's forum and received pledges of even more money to come. Please help if you can.

We need more volunteers to continue our efforts at an even greater pace in 2007. Please volunteer - even if only for a few hours.

Thansk again to everyone that attended the forum - it was a smashing success.

Scott Eckert

Jennifer Medeiros

Citizens for Sensible Development

At the August Board meeting, a formal Resolution was passed opposing the placement of a Super Wal-Mart near the entrance to Spring Valley Lake. This action was taken in response to multiple contacts from our residents who feel this is an inappropriate location for such a large commercial facility. Following this Board action, I wrote the following letter to Bill Webb, Director of Planning for the City of Victorville. Our General Manager, Gordon Ryan, is working with legal counsel to submit our response to the Environmental Impact Statement, voicing our opposition to the project. We will keep you advised as this issue progresses. The text of my letter to the city follows:

As you are aware, a Super Wal-Mart is proposed for construction on Bear Valley Road near the entrance to Spring Valley Lake Association. The prospect of this development raises serious concerns for Spring Valley Lake on several fronts. Perhaps foremost among our concerns is the legal liability attendant to flood prevention and protection of our homeowners property. The City of Victorville, San Bernardino County, and Spring Valley Lake Association are currently defendants in a law suit intent on assigning responsibility for the flood damage of 2004. That case is yet to be resolved.

You are likely also aware that the San Bernardino Flood Control plan is inadequate in several regards, specifically east and north of the intersection of Bear Valley Road and Ridgecrest, the specific area requested for the proposed Super Wal-Mart. Without elaboration (details of which are available) the increasing placement of large sections of asphalt in support of commercial establishments, without the necessary drainage, flood control, and mitigating measures, will only exacerbate the situation.

If we add to the above stated legal concerns, further consideration of traffic flow, noise levels, 24 hour operation in a residential neighborhood, proximity of both elementary and secondary schools (immediately adjacent to the location) and commercial vehicle deliveries, then one can see how approval of this facility without the required infrastructure support is not in the best interest of either the City of Victorville or your contiguous neighbors in Spring Valley Lake.

The Spring Valley Lake Board of Directors has taken an official stance against the placement of this Super Wal-Mart at this particular location. We respectfully request that the City of Victorville Planning Commission give consideration to our objections and, in light of two other geographic alternatives, reject the application of Wal-Mart at this specific location.

Thank you for your consideration and your willingness to listen to our concerns. We would be happy to meet with either you, the Planning Commission, or your staff to further discuss this issue.

Citizens for Sensible Development, the resident group formed to fight the placement of Super Wal-Mart at the corner of Bear Valley and Tamarisk roads, has collected about 1,600 signatures for their petition to stop the project. They plan to collect as many signatures as possible to demonstrate the amount of opposition to the project. More signatures means a greater impact on local politicians and their decisions as well as attracting more media coverage to the issue, according to CSD organizers.

So far, no dates have been announced for public meetings regarding the Super Wal-Mart project.

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