Magda Konieczna

Welcome to Wal-Mart

appeared in The Mercury July 19, 2006

Wal-Mart is coming to Guelph. After a decade of opposition, the last challenge against the giant retailer has been withdrawn.

A bigger earth berm and $50,000 of landscaping -- that's what it took for a multi-faith group to drop its opposition to the big-box store in Guelph's north end.

In exchange, the city will get a 135,000-square-foot Wal-Mart store, plus a further 20,000 square feet of development at the corner of Woolwich Street and Woodlawn Road.

The group, made up of members of 11 different faiths, argued a Wal-Mart store next to the Ignatius Jesuit Centre violated their freedom of religion as guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

That's because they would be able to see and hear the giant store from the Jesuit centre, a place where people often go on retreat or meditate in silence.

Their challenge, filed in February, was set to play out in court. But yesterday, after years of debate and argument that sometimes became acrimonious or even downright unfriendly, the two groups announced they'd hashed things out with a mediator from the Ontario Municipal Board.

During a press conference at the Jesuit centre, each side talked about the "goodwill" that had formed between them.

"It boiled down to an effort to extend the goodwill that began five years ago," said Kevin Groh, a spokesperson for Wal-Mart Canada.

"A very positive and constructive resolution has been achieved," said Eric Gillespie, lawyer for the multi-faith challenge. "There was legitimate goodwill. It really was refreshing."

In the agreement, obtained by the Mercury, the Jesuits will remove their opposition to the city's Commercial Policy Review, which puts one of four nodes for new commercial development in the city at the corner of Woolwich and Woodlawn.

In exchange, Wal-Mart will put in barriers to protect the Jesuit centre from noise at the Wal-Mart site, and to block view of the store from the site.

That involves a berm -- a raised embankment to block view of the store from the Jesuit centre, and also to block sound.

Wal-Mart also agreed to plant full-grown, six-metre high cedar trees around the Wal-Mart store and a so-called "living wall" -- intertwined willows further block view of the store.

Wal-Mart will spend up to $50,000 on those extra features.

They've also agreed to spend up to $100,000 more to screen the view and noise from possible future development in that area -- a total of up to 400,000 square feet of commercial space as allowed for by the city's commercial plan.

Those features are not significantly different from what Wal-Mart proposed in hearings with the Ontario Municipal Board in 2001, said Kevin Groh, a spokesperson for Wal-Mart Canada.

But he said the berm that will be built at the store, already under construction, is larger, and the living wall is a new addition.

The store is expected to open by the end of the year.

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The negotiations took three full days over the last couple of months, said Jim Profit, director of the Jesuit centre.

They were helped along by the fact the store was already under construction so those involved could see just how visible the store would be from the centre, Gillespie said.

"People in this process stood on the land and saw the bulldozers," he said.

The groups started talking because many of the same players -- Gillespie, the lawyers who represent 6 & 7 Developments, and a mediator from the Ontario Municipal Board -- managed to negotiate an out-of-court settlement on the Hanlon Creek business park development earlier this year.

"That example gave people the impetus to start a dialogue," Gillespie said.

It wasn't easy.

"This is 10 years of history you have to overcome."

But those involved in the multi-faith challenge realized this was the best they were likely to get.

"Even if the challenge was 100 per cent successful, it's unlikely it would have achieved anything greater," Gillespie said.

"A trial has a winner and a loser. In this resolution hopefully we are all winners to a certain degree," Profit said.

"Many people in our city want a Wal-Mart in this area. Not all of us are in agreement but we can respect their willingness to have that."

From Wal-Mart's perspective, the store was already being built and it was just a matter of time before a settlement was reached.

"We were already in the process of building the store with the understanding this store would go forward and would not be held back by significant obstacles or challenges," Wal-Mart Canada spokesperson Groh said.

"The bottom line seems to be that when we were able to match up our opinions, they were compatible. But that has taken many years."

City representatives, who were involved in negotiations because the multi-faith group was effectively battling a city bylaw allowing the retailer to build on that corner, were not surprised the challenge was settled out of court.

"I've been around long enough to know there's always discussion and, more often than not, (disputes) resolve themselves before they go to full hearing," said Craig Manley, the city's manager of policy planning.

And Lois Payne, head of the city's legal department, said she doesn't think the 10 years of disagreement will leave a significant gash in the Guelph community.

"I certainly think this is an amicable resolution and that the parties can move forward."

* * *

But after the press conference was over yesterday, Profit looked out across the 600 acres of Jesuit lands, established in 1913, at the Wal-Mart building rising in the distance.

He conceded this development was just the beginning.

"This will start to develop a standard for development around this property," he said.

"We are on the edge of the city, so we have to expect some development. The question always has been what is appropriate development.

"You can look at the Home Depot from here. The reality is there will be more development."