On Tuesday's Masonite discussion
Last night I moderated a discussion of the possibilities of retail or other development at the Masonite property now owned by the developers known as DDR. They have not yet submitted a formal plan for the site but have made it clear they are looking at a big box regional mall.
Last night’s session was another in a series of Citizen U seminars hosted by The Ukiah Valley Smart Growth Coalition, The Ukiah Main Street Program and others. The two speakers were Michael Shuman, an author and economist who wrote “Small Mart Revolution,” an anti-chain store book. He is paid by local groups to travel around to sessions like these and explain why chain stores, especially big box are almost always a bad idea. He also made a presentation earlier in the day to a Main Street-hosted session. Also on the panel was Marie Jones, a City of Fort Bragg planner who is working on that city’s redevelopment of the waterfront property that used to be the Georgia-Pacific mill.
Shuman and Jones both gave interesting and coherent presentations about why a big box mall at the Masonite site would be a planning and/or financial disaster for the Valley.
Some of Shuman’s reasoning on things like retail leakage from Ukiah to Santa Rosa - he believes it is largely a myth - escaped me, and he seemed convinced that 70-90 percent of Ukiah Valley residents already oppose a mall there, which I’m not sure is realistic.
Both Shuman and Jones were singing to the choir of an audience of about 200, most of whom are already staunchly opposed to any DDR plan they can imagine.
And regardless of whether you support retail there or not - and I have not personally made up my mind - there were some really good discussions about what as a community we ought to be doing to take our development future into our own hands.
One thing that was said which struck me, was that communities everywhere should stop simply using land use as the measurement for economic development. Zoning should come after all the decisions about how you want your community to look, what kind of businesses you want to attract or allow, and where. Not the other way around.
Jones said she saw no reason why the county couldn’t simply let the old Masonite site sit there for a few years and see what the future brings. Shuman suggested a non-profit fund that would attract big investment dollars that would buy up in fill properties and other local sites that might make good economic development areas for specific projects to be decided by the community. Jones disagreed on the idea of non-profits - essentially government - buying up property.
Both agreed that the site should not be allowed to simply lay idle for a couple of decades. That would not be productive.
And both assured those in the room that the only way DDR can move forward with retail is if the county supervisors decide to allow a rezoning. They said mixed use could work to bring some smaller retail - some chain, some not - with light industrial and perhaps some housing, but that would take a really concentrated and community involved process.
Comments
Us usual 200 people who scream the loudest (professional protesters) wanting their hemp stores and candle outlets with no real direction/suggestions (just complaints). Their stories are getting very old. People want products they use on a daily basis. They also want variety. With the current economy, they also want a good deal.
Ukiah is a hub whether people like it or not. Real people with "real" jobs are getting very tired of the hemp-pushing, candle-making ex-hippies of yesterday.
Posted by: Mickey Blount | January 30, 2008 08:43 PM
My recollection of the discussion of benefits or not of letting the Masonite site sit for a while and remain in the industrial category differ from yours.
I distinctly recall Marie Jones saying she saw nothing wrong with leaving the site in its present zoning category of "industrial" for 10 years or longer, noting that the economy works in cycles and that within 10 years we would want an industrial site for industry.
Posted by: Janie Sheppard | February 1, 2008 10:57 AM
Dear KC,
Thanks again for your very helpful role in last Tuesday’s event. I especially appreciated your bringing some important and interesting questions to the table.
I also appreciate your blog entry, because it alerts me to several points that I apparently did not make as clearly as I had hoped. So in the spirit of moving the debate along:
• I’m definitely not “paid by local groups to travel around to sessions like these and explain why chain stores, especially big box, are almost always a bad idea.” Most groups I work with are focused, laser-like, on improving the competitiveness of local business, not on fighting businesses. As I explained to the forum, I rarely oppose chain stores or encourage communities to embrace this oppositional strategy. (If you don’t believe me, check out pp. 172-177 in my book, The Small-Mart Revolution.) This particular proposal is different, because it is so ill conceived.
• Nor did I argue, as you report, that Ukiah does not have retail leakage to Santa Rosa. Of course it does. What I said was a “myth” was DDR’s suggestion that its retail megamall – perhaps three big boxes, plus a bunch of baby boxes – would do anything to plug that leakage. The data suggest that there’s leakage in automobiles, restaurants, and a bunch of other categories that DDR’s project won’t touch.
• What’s so awful about the DDR project is that it will cannibalize existing retail in the Ukiah area – perhaps some big boxes but certainly what’s left of your already clobbered downtown area. The 700 jobs DDR claims it will create will lead to a significantly greater loss of jobs elsewhere, probably in the city of Ukiah.
• My guess that a majority of residents are against this project already, perhaps a supermajority, comes from several simple observations. DDR’s “public events” have been one-sided, orchestrated top-down, and poorly attended. The public forum you wrote about was designed to be two-sided, welcomed audience participation, and was mobbed. That DDR agreed to participate, and then backed out, underscores their lack of confidence in public support for their own position. So does the news report a few days back that they are now engaged in “push polling,” in which they feed interviewees slanted arguments without disclosing the source.
• Finally, on the fund that I suggested the community set up to purchase properties like Masonite so that its development choices could proceed with greater sensitivity to local businesses, I did not say anything about its ownership. Marie Jones assumed I meant a public or nonprofit fund, but in fact I would recommend that such a fund be for-profit and strive to take full advantage of New Market Tax Credits and similar programs.
My main point, really, is that this project is a terrible distraction from the real economic development work Ukiah should be doing: promoting businesses that do plug leaks (not just in retail, which is 7% of a typical economy); creating new mechanisms to train entrepreneurs and build local business alliances; encouraging consumers and businesses to buy “local first”; mobilizing investment funds for new local businesses; and rethinking public policies top to bottom. If nothing else, tabling the DDR project will allow the community to start thinking more clearly about initiatives that actually can improve the local economy.
Best, Michael Shuman
shuman@igc.org
www.smallmart.org
Posted by: Michael Shuman | February 4, 2008 02:56 AM
It would seem prudent to handle the future of the masonite property with local input, would it not? That is the crux of the argument at hand; who decides the future of the valley, big business and local government or the people that elect local officials. This is a decision that will have huge impact on the way Ukiah grows...and to make haste (and be dislocated from the efforts and opinions of the masses that will be effected by the developement) so often leads to the loss of community, culture and "samll-town" lifestyle that we live in today. I am a small, downtown business owner. I don't sell hemp. I pay taxes. I have seen many small towns across the country turn into mall environments with ghostly, empty town centers. It can happen here...let us slow down the process, even if it seems inevitable...
Posted by: jim tuhtan | February 14, 2008 01:53 PM