H -°, L 6° | Tomorrow: 
H 18°, L 6°The era of the Big Ugly Box is now over in Madison. This past Tuesday, the City Council voted almost unanimously, 18-1, to pass a bill requiring large warehouse-style shopping stores to be set closer to the sidewalk and also mandates aesthetic improvements to their faces. No longer will you see a giant, bland Wal-Mart or Best Buy with large parking lots separating the store from the street and no aesthetic appeal whatsoever. This is another welcomed and much-needed step at ‘urbanizing’ some of the recent sprawl that has spread throughout the city.
“Urbanizing” is the current trend in city planning that is meant to beautify new business fronts with an attempt to have them naturally blend into the cityscape. By having different stores share a common façade, a specific atmosphere is created that fosters a community spirit.
According to the new ordinance, the faces of new buildings larger than 40,000 square feet must incorporate some design elements and varied rooflines. In addition to the overtly aesthetic elements, stores cannot be larger than 100,000 square feet unless they receive special permission by the City Council. The hope is that the impact on the land, if the store closes, will be limited if the overall size is constrained.
Another aspect of the measure is that these large stores can only have a few rows of parking between the sidewalk (which must be constructed with the building) and the front door, with additional parking available behind the store. Rather than being confronted by a sea of asphalt in the form of a parking lot in front of a super-store, customers will be able to just walk right up to the front door from the sidewalk. This will make large stores more pedestrian-friendly.
Many think that this is a futile attempt at making an ugly building pretty — that no matter what laws are passed, a giant ugly Wal-Mart will still be a giant ugly Wal-Mart. Ald. Austin King, District 8, and City Council President Brenda Konkel proposed amendments that would strengthen the law and make the requirements for these mega-stores more stringent, but after being struck down they still voted for the measure. The position some hold that these large superstores do not belong in the city and drive out local business is a respectable one, but it ignores the realities of the world.
Others may say that these measures go too far and will drive big business away and into neighboring towns. Ald. Zach Brandon, District 7, cast the lone dissenting vote for fear that business will be lost. While these additional requirements involve more work and more money from the builder, these costs will surely be neutralized by the drawing power of the Madison market.
While both of these positions are valid, they lack a balance of reality with the ideal. Realistically, people desire a wide variety of choices while shopping and mega-stores provide those options. Also, more often than not, these stores offer products at lower prices, which is a valuable reason to try to accommodate them so they do not leave Madison. Ideally, Madison would be full of family-owned, community-based shops that positively contribute to the neighborhood. This measure fuses these two concerns together and a practical compromise is forged.
The bottom line is that if this measure was not passed, large, boxy stores such as Home Depot and Wal-Mart will build in Madison without attempting to incorporate the feel of the neighborhood into the design and would remain dull and boring-looking. While this law does not do much to detract these stores from coming into town and running local shops out of business, it does make their intrusion more palatable.
Jackie Lantz ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in political science.
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After reading the headline, I thought this story was going to be about something else…
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Just another step in the city councils path of being anti-business. WTF are they trying to do? Bankrupt Madison? Higher minimum wage, no smoking, big box ordinance and this is all within the past year. It was already hard to do business in city limits and now all this. Has nobody else noticed the businesses leaving the city? They are moving just outside city limits, except for Rayovac they got the hell out of this whole state. I hope the city council will be happy when all these businesses are sitting empty in the years to come, but hey at least the new empty one’s will be aesthically pleasing.
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I assume by Anti-Business you mean pro-citizen. Madison has been ranking one of the top cities to live in in the country for years. There is a reason for that.
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Fitchburg, Middleton, Sun Prairie and Monona are probably jumping for joy.
I just love not having a decent place to get groceries within two miles of campus.
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“I assume by Anti-Business you mean pro-citizen. Madison has been ranking one of the top cities to live in in the country for years. There is a reason for that.”
You just don’t get it do you? Pro-citizen? WTF?! This city council is putting businesses in a tough position. The competition they have in surrounding communities is going to blow them away soon. That is why businesses are leaving. The city of Madison WILL have a higher unemployment rate in the next few years because there will be less business. Let’s see how great pro-citizen is when the citiznes are jobless.
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citizens are jobless. Sorry about the spelling.
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This is really going to help out our budget deficit also. The less business the less tax revenue. More people will be priced out of the city because they will have to put more of the burden on homeowners.
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“Another aspect of the measure is that these large stores can only have a few rows of parking between the sidewalk (which must be constructed with the building) and the front door, with additional parking available behind the store. Rather than being confronted by a sea of asphalt in the form of a parking lot in front of a super-store, customers will be able to just walk right up to the front door from the sidewalk. This will make large stores more pedestrian-friendly.”
Good idea! Let’s make people park in the back of the store to give the criminals more opportunity to mug, attack, or even kill them! Super duper! Heaven forbid people have to walk across a parking lot to a store. Do you really think a person is not going to frequent a business because there is a parking lot in the way? Please.
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Nobody believes you “Madison is anti-business” whiners. Boo hoo, you get one less boat, car or vacation in order to pay someone a living wage. Get over it, greedy bastards.
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“Nobody believes you “Madison is anti-business” whiners. Boo hoo, you get one less boat, car or vacation in order to pay someone a living wage. Get over it, greedy bastards.”
We are not looking for people to “believe” us. We are looking at the facts. You are a complete idiot if you think that this is about not paying people what they are worth. If you don’t pay your employees what they are worth they will leave. Instead of me getting over it why don’t you wake up from your “progressive dream” and realize there is a real world out there?
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“Instead of me getting over it why don’t you wake up from your “progressive dream” and realize there is a real world out there?”
I have and the realization is that it’s not all about you. Booo hooo no new Hummer for you every year.
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“I have and the realization is that it’s not all about you. Booo hooo no new Hummer for you every year.”
Are you a real live person or am I responding to wall? Can’t tell the difference. I love how quick all of you crazy liberals are. Just because I oppose what this city council is doing you ASSUME that I am some old business owner. Idiot. I am student here, no new Hummer for me this or next. I am going on common sense and FACTS! If you can’t see that then I feel very sorry for you in the future.
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Madison will be just fine without a Wal-Mart supercenter and the like, thank you very much. There are better ways to live than to wait for breadcrumbs from developers and busiensses too cheap to pay a living wage. Go to another college if you can’t handle it.
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No shit! The big business suck ups here (Hello! Grainger is calling you!) can just go suck it. In fact, their market oriented point of view is better served by all of us by having them leave. There is absolutely no reason to think that ordering a living wage, or ordering a reduction in the size of the store are going to bankrupt Madison…as for creating jobs, they create shitty jobs so who gives a fuck if we ban the giant Menards?
Honestly, all these whiners on here need to get the fuck over themselves, and realize that their pro-business, race to the bottom bullshit is why 80% of this country works in the service industry as opposed to having a real job in the first place. Assholes.
Oh, and in Maryland, they just passed a law requiring business provide healthcare if they have over 10,000 employees, and if they don’t, they contribute 10% of their payroll to the state healthcare system provider for poor people. Who is the only employer affected? Wal-Mart? Why? 90% of their employees use the state healthcare system.
Now that’s a fucking travesty. (Wal-Mart being assholes, not the Maryland legislature deciding that sick poor people is probably a big drain on their economy and asking the leeches from Arkansas to help alleviate it).
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Conservatives: Walmart places a tax burden on you by pawning off health costs and other beenfit costs onto the state healthcare system. A conservative ideology calls for paying your own way. Walmart is not paying its own way when it relies on tax dollars for service that it should pay for. The reason they have low prices is that they engage in unethical business practices both by stronarming producers of goods and treating employees poorly.
Some of the savings is passed onto consumers, but more of it is passed onto Walmart’s shareholders.
All of the healthcare costs are passed onto you. None is taken out of shareholder profits.
Think about it. Walmart is bad for the community, the economy, and if nothing else motivates you, your wallet.
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Jackie,
Who are these girls who have had their big boxes banned? I want to know so I can avoid them when drunk.
-concerned student
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The reason most employees don’t have health care covered through Wal-mart is because they are only PART TIME employees. Except for being a TA what other part time job gives you full benefits? This article is not just about Wal-mart either. This ordinance is not the reason us “whiners” aka logical thinkers are pissed. This ordinance is just the icing on the cake. It’s not big businesses fault that the people they hire didn’t go to college or can’t qualify for a better job. After all of you graduate and move on please check in with Madison in 10 years and you will see that we are right. People will be bitching about not getting any work, and wondering why no businesses want to come here.
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The only thing the big box ban is going to do is keep Madison nice and anti-business. This is a terrible idea that is just on more step towards Progressive Dane’s and their allie’s totalitarian Madison. See http://badgerherald.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.cgi?search=big+box&IncludeBlogs=5
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http://badgerherald.com/oped/2004/09/01/thinkingoutsidethe.php
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2 problems i see with all the anti wal-mart postings are. #1) How exactly does changing the exterior of a building affect how the people are treated inside the building? and #2) If wal-mart treats their employees so bad how did they become one of our countries largest employer’s. Lastly, if the progressive(liberal) city council members who wish to rid Madison of the big box stores and national chains, and open all Mom and Pop locally owned stores, where would all the immigrants(legal and illegal) that the city council seem to coddle work?
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“If wal-mart treats their employees so bad how did they become one of our countries largest employer’s”
That’s like saying Ashlee Simpson has a good singing voice just because she’s sold 5 million albums. Sure, your ears may be bleeding and begging for mercy, but she sold those albums so it must be good.