Belfast groups vie over ‘big box’ vote

BELFAST – Both sides of the big box issue are lining up supporters for the stretch drive to next week’s referendum vote.

Both Belfast First, the group opposed to allowing big box retailers in the city, and New Shopping Opportunities for Belfast, which favors them, were hard at work during the weekend, rallying the troops and urging people to get out the vote.

The binding referendum calls for changing the city’s comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance to permit construction of retail stores up to 200,000 square feet in size.

The specific area designated for such stores would be a 90-acre site off U.S. Route 1 on the city’s east side. The city already has ordinances that limit the size of retail stores to 75,000 square feet.

Next Tuesday’s election marks the second time in three years the big box issue has come before Belfast voters.

When the city held a nonbinding referendum on the matter in 2001, residents supported the 75,000-square-foot limit by a vote of 1,296-770.

“Three years ago we defeated this and we feel we can defeat this again,” Belfast First member Petra Hall told a gathering of supporters Saturday.

This year’s referendum question was prepared by Camden lawyer Terry Calderwood, at the behest of Dana Keene, one of the founders of the New Shopping group. Keene is the nephew of Dana Skinner, the owner of the largest parcel of land targeted for the big box zone change.

Despite the familial connection, Keene on Monday insisted that he was not an agent for Skinner.

“I’ve got a lot of my own money invested in this,” said Keene. “I don’t own that land. Dana Skinner has been my uncle for 57 years. I didn’t spend one dime for Dana Skinner.”

New Shopping spokesman Lewis Baker, a candidate for City Council, said he joined the group because he believes Belfast and the surrounding population need a large department store. He said the city has had such a large store, from the days of Woolworth’s in the 1950s to Ames, which closed two years ago.

“I don’t understand what the big worry is,” he said. “You plunk down a big department store on the east side and in two years nobody is going to notice it.”

Tim Wilson disagrees. Wilson, a member of Belfast First, told a gathering at the Belfast Free Library on Saturday that allowing large stores on Route 1 would create big traffic problems that contain hidden costs that generations of local taxpayers would have to pay for.

Wilson said recent studies indicate that one 200,000-square-foot retail store would double the traffic flow on Route 1 and that the way the referendum was worded in Belfast, “This vote means up to four stores,” he said.

Those attending the gathering were shown the film “Talking to the Wall,” by Steve Alves. The movie charts how residents of Greenfield, Mass., mounted a successful campaign to keep Wal-Mart Stories Inc. from building a department store on Greenfield’s outskirts.

The documentary contrasted Wal-Mart’s claim that the store would benefit Greenfield with “new shopping opportunities,” with the town’s home-grown business owners’ claims that a Wal-Mart would devastate their thriving downtown.

In the end, Greenfield voters rejected the zone change Wal-Mart needed by a handful of votes.

Belfast First also argues that stores such as Wal-Mart harm downtowns. Supporters argue that large stores kill competition by selling low-cost products and take money from the community. They said that profits from items bought from locally owned businesses tend to circulate within a community.

Belfast First member Rhonda Fieman questioned the methods of people who support the Belfast referendum. She noted that by taking the matter directly to the voters, the shopping group bypassed the comprehensive plan committee and planning board.

“It says those regulations don’t apply to us. … It also says we don’t have to go through the process,” Fieman said. “This referendum takes the entire checks and balances system and says it doesn’t apply to us.”

Baker said the city charter enables issues to be determined by referendum and that his group has followed the letter of the law. He said people have a right to express themselves on the matter and that he intends to support the outcome.

As to the complaints about low-cost goods made in sweatshops, Baker said that was an international trade issue more properly addressed in Washington than in Belfast.

“Besides,” he said, “how many stores can you go in in Belfast and not find something from China or Vietnam?”