Once again the concerns of Poway residents are minimized and ridiculed. These people voiced serious concerns and the mayor calls it "monsters under the bed".. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the issue, it is the duty of the city council to listen to and treat all Powegians with respect. It's no wonder that so many feel too intimidated to speak at the meetings.

I'm delighted, this will help families buy their groceries without having to pay exuberant prices, especially the young couples with many children. Also for the seniors who are on S.Security. Once again the City did a great job voting for this expansion. Well Done!! and Thank You very much. Sincerely, Annette O'Brien

My compliments to the City Council to use fact over fiction to approve the Wal-Mart expansion by a 4-1 vote. I believe councilman Grosch would have, also voted for it had he not been obligated to do otherwise.
There are two things that I believe are fairly certain. The first being that Wal-Mart would never ever consider moving to the Industrial Park. They are too smart for that. Have you seen the cashiers at Home Depot filing their nails waiting for a customer?. What will happen when Lowes moves in and is more convenient than HD?
Secondly, there will be a Super Wal-Mart in our area no matter what. Did you notice how the San Diego Council caved in when confronted with a possible referendum that would negate their vote to ban Wal-Mart? They know what the people really want.
Would you prefer a Wal-Mart in Mt Carmel or in Poway where we get the tax revenue needed to maintain and improve our infrastructure?
Let's put it to bed and not have another frivolous lawsuit, implied by Nick Stravos, and move on.

I've never had one doubt this Council would vote for approval. Walmart bought the Plowboy Market years ago (a great local market for produce and food items), for the expansion. Would not make good business sense for Walmart to buy out a competitor if they were not 100% assured the expansion was a done deal. We already have semi trucks using Midland illegally for deliveries. This will just exacerbate a problem we are already having in this area. Smart council built almost all low-income housing in South Poway and then says we need the Walmart expansion to service all the low-income housing. Nice set-up, Council. They go through themotions of putting these high-impact projects up for debate, say they are listening to concerns, and then throw out a little name calling to ridicule the opposition, and approve, approve, approve! These special interest groups keep the Council in their elected seats!

The opposition was less than a 1,000 and their arguments were weak. The Walmart site is logical for an expansion and remodel. It gives shoppers a choice. I shop Walmart occasionally, Vons mostly and also Stater Bros. I shop based on what I need and who offers the best deal. I will not stop shopping at Vons or Stater Bros. because Walmart expands and most likely neither will other loyal customers. It's just simply time to upgrade that tired building. The argument that mainly non-Poway residents shop there is patently false. And for once Higginson's inarticulate comments were spot on - the anti-Walmart people are looking for monsters under the bed.

Let's get that LOWES approved and built ASAP. We need a hardware store nearby since Dixieline moved out.

You can bet that within 2 years most small mom and pop stores will give way to WalMart. Did you ever hear the news about the WalMart in a small town in, I believe if I remember correctly, Kentucky. Well, WalMart moved in, lowered their prices below their cost, and drove the small town businesses out of town. The small business owners later sued Walmart for unfair business practices and won. Hang on Poway. The car dealers are gone with the recession, and the small businesses will be gone with Walmart.

I find it funny that everyone complains about the small business owners being impacted by Super Walmart when the only real difference between a Wal-Mart and a Super Wal-Mart is the groceries, plus more big box items like Costco sells. Small business owners were impacted when Wal-Mart first came to Poway. And did anyone notice that Target is renovating and adding groceries to their store? Why can Target add groceries and become a Super Target w/ no opposition? I think the main issue is people just don't like Wal-Mart.

Tom, the EIR says that there is NOT a parking problem because it meets the city standards, and the expanded walmart store will lose 80 parking spots and STILL be within city standards, even though anecdotal evidence shows otherwise. So there's NO problem with the parking, the city says so.
Now, trying to find a parking spot at target during the holidays is just as fun, I wind up having to park by outback and walk to the store. I have no idea what the parking will be like once they open the grocery section. There's always empty spots in front of albertsons also.

Thanks Joe. I was not speaking of Walmart, but Walmart Jr.(Target) Since there won't bean an EIR for Target we will never know what the experts would come up with.
In any case I am saturated so why don't we move on to something less controversial like term limits? :))