Hiring an Expert

Examples & Resources

• Wetlands, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• Rockville Concerned Citizens For Responsible Development (2004)
• Operations Phase
• Yakima, WA Wal-Mart Supercenter Store Noise Study Report (2004)
• What Happened When Wal-Mart Came To Town? (1996)
• View All

You are not alone, but you will need expert assistance. Most of the ways to fight a Wal-Mart involve detailed matters of law. You will need a land use attorney and other specialists to help you defeat a Wal-Mart.

Land Use Attorney

The key expert who holds a local Wal-Mart battle together is the land use attorney. Wal-Mart wouldn’t move an inch without their land use attorney, and you shouldn’t either. Having a lawyer at your side at local public hearings sends a clear message that you are willing to go to court to defend the value of your property, and the character of your neighborhood and community. Your citizens group will need to sit down with a land use lawyer to talk about what the most fruitful legal arguments will be against the proposed Wal-Mart. If there are any special permits, conditional use permits, rezonings, annexations, or any discretionary actions a planning board or city council must make—then you have a legal opening to delay or kill a project. Any appeal to court will chew up six months to a year, and time is money to a developer.

Where to find a land use lawyer?

Ask around among lawyers that you know: who does land use, or zoning cases? This is not the same as real estate law. Unless you have a local land use lawyer you’ve had good results with, go out of town to find your expertise. Local lawyers may be indebted to the “good old boys” political network, and when the Mayor starts playing hardball, the lawyer will have to choose between you and local politics. Often it is a developer who hires a prominent local lawyer first, and presents the case to local planning boards or city councils. Wal-Mart often is not even in the room, especially during the rezoning, or site plan process the developer will do all the heavy lifting. The developer will hire a local lawyer who knows city officials well.

Here are some questions to ask a lawyer before retaining him or her:

• What land use cases have you handled that involved large scale retail projects?
• Can you provide us with a list of references for your major land use cases?
• Which developers have you represented?
• Which citizens groups have you represented?
• What is your hourly rate for community groups?
• Knowing you haven’t studied our case in detail—tell us what you think the most promising legal issues would be to pursue in this case?
• Who would handle our case as your backup if you were not available?

Don’t be put off if a lawyer tells you they have worked for big developers. This actually can be helpful. Look for specific citizen group representation, and the outcome of past cases, because you do not want someone who is getting on the job training.

Land Use lawyers can cost $275 an hour or more. Expect to spend $3,000 to $5,000 or more to get through the zoning hearing stage, and before any litigation is even filed.

Traffic Engineer

In addition to a land use attorney, you may need to retain a traffic engineer—since traffic is another sinkhole for many project reviews. You at least want your traffic engineer to do a “peer review” of whatever Wal-Mart tries to pass off as a traffic report. You can check around with local civil engineering firms in the area to find someone who is a licensed traffic engineer.

Here are some questions to ask anyone your are interviewing:

• What citizens’ groups have you represented in land use cases?
• What developers have you represented?
• What is your fee rate for community based groups?
• Without knowing many of the details of our case, what do you think might be the major traffic issues that might hurt this project?
• Have you ever done business with either this developer or Wal-Mart?
• Can you give us one or two references that can discuss your presentations at hearings?
• Can you give us a copy of a traffic study you have done for another group or developer?
• Are you a member of the Institute for Traffic Engineers (ITE)?

Developers often will claim that their proposal will actually improve traffic flow in the area, and if any problems are defined during the hearings, the developer’s traffic engineer will come in and testify that any problem can be “mitigated” by adding turning lanes, changing a signal light timing, etc. You need to find a traffic engineer who can explain in English what the impact of a Wal-Mart will be on the roadways. Most Planning Boards, and nearly all City Councils, will glaze over once the developer’s traffic engineer drones on for an hour about “pass by trips” and “level of service.” It is not likely that your group will have traffic expertise on its own, but a decent traffic engineer can poke holes in the developer’s assumptions, and leave doubts in the City Council’s mind. Traffic is the most common issue brought up during zoning cases, but it is often used by developers to present expert testimony that intimidates the lay boards who cannot follow it.

Other Experts: Water Issues

Among the water resource issues that will come up during a Wal-Mart case will be impact on wetlands, and stormwater runoff. To deal with wetlands issues, you will want to find a hydrologist, or hydrogeologist. One place to start in looking for a hydrologist to help you is at the nearest university. There are often professors or other academicians on staff who may want to help local groups, or be able to help you find the consultant you need. You can also contact civil engineering firms—but once again—you will probably want to go outside of your city or town to find such experts, because local experts may not want to take on the political establishment (and their future business interests) by siding with a neighborhood group.