AFSCME 3357-HOF'S BLOG

Abandoned Big Box Stores Blight the Nation: Walmart and Target are among the worst offenders.

Over the July 4th weekend, I happened to stop for gas in Shelbyville, Indiana. I saw a busy Walmart store just off the Interstate. I drove for about 20 seconds more, and I saw another Walmart store. This one was all boarded up, in a strip center, not a quarter mile away. In the Denver Post article below, it says that Walmart has built about a thousand stores in the past five years, but has abandoned 361.

We need to brainstorm legislative and community grass-roots strategies to combat the abandoned big box stores that blight our neighborhoods.

Here are some off the cuff suggestions to solve the problem of abandoned big box stores:

* Charge a higher property tax rate for stores over x sq. ft. That are not owner occupied or under a long-term lease.

* Require all large commercial developers to pay a portion of their property taxes into a fund specially earmarked for demolishing the building if it has been unoccupied for more than a year. If they go 20 years and are still actively in business in that location, the funds can be earmarked to rehab rather than demolition. Twenty years isn't a magic number, just a starting point.

* Charge a special fee of some kinds for green-field developments unless there is a showing that suitable sites are unavailable in brown-field or existing unoccupied commercial property.

Require enhanced public hearing processes for developments over x sq. feet and set the notice and time requirements in such a way that neighborhood organizations have more chances to mobilize and organize grass-roots resistance.


DenverPost.com - BUSINESS