Lawsuit will stall Wal-Mart project until summer

BARSTOW • An ongoing lawsuit will stall the construction of a Wal-Mart distribution center in Barstow at least until May.

The advocacy group Build Barstow Smart filed a lawsuit against the city of Barstow and Wal-Mart in August 2008, alleging that the city approved the project without adequate environmental review. The 1-million-square-foot distribution center was slated for construction on about 140 acres on Lenwood Road.

The case is scheduled for trial May 8. In the meantime, Wal-Mart spokesman Aaron Rios and city attorney Yvette Abich said the distribution center project will remain on hold. Rios said that because Wal-Mart knew there was a potential for litigation over the project, they had never set firm construction dates.

“We definitely won’t do anything until we go through the legal process,” he said.

The Build Barstow Smart complaint alleged that the environmental impact report approved by the city July 21 violated the California Environmental Quality Act by not adequately analyzing a range of environmental impacts from air and water quality to traffic. It also alleged violations of laws governing subdivisions, but that portion of the complaint was later dismissed at the request of the plaintiffs.

Finally, the suit alleged that the city did not post adequate notice of the public hearing where the City Council approved the project. That allegation was also raised in a related lawsuit filed by a Jason R. Hodge on Oct. 8, 2008, according to Attorney Cory Briggs with Briggs Law Corporation, which represents both Hodge and Build Barstow Smart.

The law firm has represented parties in suits against several California cities over proposed Wal-Mart projects, including Rosemead, Ontario and Victorville, according to case files on the Briggs Law Corporation Web site. In the 2004 suit against Victorville, Briggs represented local resident Edward Smith, who sued the city for failing to do a full environmental study on a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter on Bear Valley Road. The case was settled in 2005 and Victorville rescinded its approval of the project.

Rios said Friday that the Victorville project is still in the works but has not been built.

Briggs said that Hodge lives in Barstow and would have liked to give his input to the City Council on the project prior to its approval. He declined to state whether his client was a member of Build Barstow Smart, whose membership he said was private. Hodge could not be reached for comment.

The aim of the Build Barstow Smart lawsuit is to force a “legally adequate environmental review” of the project, he said. Briggs cited a failure to address energy consumption issues as the largest issue with the approved environmental impact report.

“They’re not using any renewable energy, and their own environmental document said this project could cause blackouts,” he said. “... Why they wouldn’t put solar on something that’s basically a box that’s perfect for solar, I don’t know.”

The city of Barstow issued a statement when the Build Barstow Smart lawsuit was filed, calling it a baseless waste of taxpayers’ money. The city hoped to see the distribution center create 500 full-time jobs initially, with the number potentially growing to 700 in its first three years.
Rios said he did not anticipate that the lawsuit will pose a major setback to the project.

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