Development is never easy in Marin County, and the fight over a Target store in San Rafael is pitting neighbor against neighbor.
The fight over whether Target will build a San Rafael store has been a bare-knuckle brawl, the scrap spilling out of City Hall onto Fourth Street, leaving a trail of blood and loose teeth and ending up in the Marin Courthouse. Along the way, the city council was knocked silly, the Chamber of Commerce ended up with a shiner, and Target was given a standing eight-count.
And the clash is far from over.
Development is never easy in Marin, a place where careful deliberation can sometimes take on a glacial pace. Add to that process the dynamics of big box retail versus local merchants, a city bleeding red ink versus hundreds of thousands of dollars in new sales tax, Old Fashioned Capitalism versus Mother Earth Environmentalism and Target Yes Team versus Keep It Local San Rafael, and you have the makings of a donnybrook that makes Ali versus Frazier look like errant schoolboys having a playground tiff.
Target, the discount department store chain based in Minneapolis, Minn., would like to build a 137,000-square-foot store at 125 Shoreline Parkway in East San Rafael. The city council voted 3-2 in April to let the project move forward. But a group called Keep It Local San Rafael, which opposes the project, is seeking to derail the council decision. Its first salvo was gathering signatures to qualify a referendum to go before voters in November regarding an ultimate decision about the new store. Hedging its bets, the group also filed a lawsuit in Marin Superior Court against the city of San Rafael alleging the documents used for the environmental review approving the project were inadequate.
The city of San Rafael hasn’t filed a reply to the lawsuit, and the ultimate outcome of any legal action over the Target store is years in the future.
In early July, a political campaign group called Citizens Opposed to San Rafael Target (COST; which is made up of many of the volunteers in Keep It Local San Rafael) turned in 3,330 signatures in favor of the referendum; it only needed 2,745 to be verified as registered San Rafael voters to qualify. On July 20, NorthBay biz received this update from Keep It Local spokesman Jonathan Frieman: “The latest on the referendum is that we’re between 15 to 20 signatures short. Litigation would cost $15,000, and we don’t have those resources to pursue what could very well be a losing battle, which is unfortunate.”
Pros and cons
Frieman is one of the most vocal critics of the project. Seated in the West End Deli and Grill’s window booth, he looks very at home in this little slice of the Middle East in suburban Marin. A madras fedora sits atop his noggin, which is decorated with a not-so-thick beard, round rimmed specs and a Star of David earring hanging from his left lobe. “We’ve been very upfront about the lawsuit,” he says, a glass of ice water at his elbow. “The city council wrongly believes that a traffic problem in that area, which can’t be mitigated, justifies a paltry amount of sales tax.”
Frieman is well known locally as a political activist, which isn’t to say the lawsuit is without merit. But if the strategy of delay and pray is to work, the suit will need to withstand legal scrutiny. The fact is, many opponents of the new Target store hope the legal action will push the project so far down the line at such a high cost, that Target officials will simply decide the store’s upside has been worn away.
This particular bit of strategy galls Mayor Al Boro, a retired Pacific Bell exec who’s been a fixture at City Hall for more than 25 years. (The Mission City is the only city in Marin that actually elects its mayor, the rest appoint the chief executive in a largely honorary role for a year.) “The proponents of the lawsuit have stated that this is a way to continue to delay the project,” a frustrated Boro says. “It makes a mockery of the process; it’s not right.” He points out the project is supposed to be LEED gold certified, the highest level of environmental efficiency fashioned by the construction industry and the first time Target has built a gold LEED building.
The lawsuit isn’t the only thing bothering Boro. Though he’s quick to point out that he has no trouble with vigorous public debate, the tone of this disagreement seems to have gotten to him. “Partisan politics don’t belong in this, but Marin MoveOn [Council] got involved.”
Boro, a registered Republican, has always steered clear of letting his political beliefs land in the middle of debate taking place in the Fifth Street city council chambers.
Marin MoveOn was part of a rally against the project before the council voted in favor of the store. The protest on the steps of City Hall was designed to show support for downtown businesses in the face of the Target project. Wendi Kallins, the media rep for the group, told the Marin Independent Journal that, “Labor leaders all over the country are having rallies [as part of a coordinated effort to demonstrate support for labor in the face of the battle in Wisconsin over collective bargaining rights]. At the same time, we wanted to show our support for downtown, because Target is the second-largest nonunion retailer in the country. The jobs it would be bringing would be low-paying, nonunion jobs that wouldn’t have benefits and would mostly be part-time.”
When Boro cast the deciding vote, he told the standing room only crowd, “This council has been hammered with fear, intimidation, self-interest and elitism. To me, it’s unfortunate that an agenda of the progressive left wing of a political party was introduced into these discussions. To introduce ideology to local decisions is counter to the role of the city council, which is to decide what’s best for the community.”
In the journalism racket, commentaries prior to a public vote are sometimes referred to as “stem-winders,” alluding to the practice of those listening to the speeches, who stare at their watch and wind said stem. Councilman Marc Levine explained for 25 minutes how he thought long and hard about how to vote before coming down on the side of Target.
Councilmen Greg Brockbank and Damon Connolly both took their time as well, telling the rafter-hanging crowd that their votes against the project were the product of much soul searching. Councilwoman Barbara Heller was likewise communicative in letting those assembled understand that her vote in favor was certainly no snap decision.
Target has preferred to stay out of the public fight, letting its views be carried in part by Stephanie Plante, president of Cal-Pox, the San Rafael corporation that owns the land on which the Target story would be built. It’s a family-owned real estate development company, and the Target project is no small potatoes. Her company has built a website to keep the public informed of the efforts to get the project approved. Plante and Cal-Pox have enjoyed the support of the Marin Builders Association and the San Rafael Chamber as part of an organization called the Target Yes Team.
Following the initial collection of signatures falling short, Plante said publicly she was thrilled with the outcome, especially at a time when the city needed new jobs and retail sales. She also thanked those who had fought hard to see the store become a reality. Left unsaid was that her company was certainly a step closer to a payday that’s been a long time coming.
Pocket change
One of the cornerstones in this debate is how Target impacts any retail environment it enters, and then, of course, looking at possible or likely local impacts, and the phrase “big box retail” has of late been bandied about at the same pace that presidential hopeful Sarah Palin utters the phrase “lamestream media.” The local debate became so intense over whether the numbers proffered by Target were accurate, that the city hired consultant AECOM for $100,000 to conduct an independent economic analysis of how the new store would impact the city and the local economy. The city will be repaid by Cal-Pox.
Opponents of the project were unhappy with the AECOM hiring, asking why the city couldn’t spend those dollars with a local consultant. Moreover, they were unhappy because AECOM had helped prepare a portion of the environmental impact report (EIR). The city saw that collaboration as a positive, because some of the data needed for a new community impact report (CIR) could be pulled from the EIR. Opponents feel the EIR is flawed and now point at the CIR as being flawed as well.
The report, based on studies of Target stores in Novato, Napa, Davis, Walnut Creek, Livermore and San Mateo, concluded that the city would see $646,000 in new sales tax annually and showed that the new store would create 164 jobs, about 45 percent of which would be full-time. The study also showed the average Target worker would earn just $18,000 a year, 8 percent less than the $19,600 earned by the average general merchandise worker in San Rafael. But the factoid that most pleased proponents of the project? The consultant couldn’t find a single store in those areas that closed due to Target opening.
The new project would also be required by the city to contribute $2.3 million for road improvements and make a $773,766 contribution for affordable housing. The retailer will also pay for a new bus shelter. To further sweeten the pot, Boro talked Target officials into coming across with $25,000 per year for a decade to the San Rafael Library Foundation.
All’s fair
The final outcome of whether Target will actually wind up building a store near another big box, Home Depot, at the Shoreline Parkway is unknown at this point. What is known is how the fight has divided the community more than a just a little. Walk up and down Fourth Street, the main drag of San Rafael’s business district, and you’ll see signs in store windows stating “No Target.” The merchants against the national retailer range from small Mom-and-Pop shops known only to locals, to stores like T& B Sports, a premier sporting goods store that’s something of a regional draw.
Stores that have taken to posting the No Target signs are usually thought of as bread and butter members of the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce. But last October, the chamber board decided it was supporting the Target project. In a press release, the chamber chalked up the move, in part, to its support of overall economic vitality. Chamber CEO Rick Wells wrote, “Target representatives have committed to make significant contributions to not only the economy but to community organizations, nonprofits and education as well. We plan to work with Target to clarify and monitor those long-term commitments.”
The chamber also said it “plans to work with existing local merchants and city officials to help educate smaller businesses and mitigate any potentially negative impacts through possible workshops and publications.”
San Rafael Vice Mayor Greg Brockbank says he’s had a tough time understanding how the chamber could support Target when he believes that the large retailer will hurt other chamber members. “To me, [the chamber] backing the project was self-defeating. This will impact their members—and what does Target do for the chamber and its members?”
The San Rafael lawyer is a fair guy. Prior to the vote on Target, he questioned one of the premises of those leading the fight against the project: “I don’t believe Target is going to destroy downtown San Rafael. Even though I’m a proud liberal and progressive, it’s important to recognize that we live in a capitalist society. Every person who goes into business wants to take market share away from somebody else—and that’s all Target’s doing. We can’t blame them for that.”
Brockbank says his opposition to the project boils down to the fact that he was unconvinced that the jobs created by Target would do the local economy enough good. “People like to point to the fact that the store will be located near the Canal, and that people in the Canal will benefit from the jobs. I’m sure some of the jobs could be filled by residents of the Canal, but not that many are going to be eligible for those jobs.”
This statement alludes to one of the two open secrets that haven’t been talked about in the debate: Target requires its employees to be fully documented in terms of social security and U.S. residency. This is a hurdle that can prove difficult for some residents of the Canal, a neighborhood at the eastern end of San Rafael that includes a large immigrant population. The city of San Rafael has taken an official position with respect to raids by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service that, while the city acknowledges that the Canal is home to people who may not be here under traditional legal status, the city will not aid the federal government in any of its raids.
So point in fact, the promise of Target’s new jobs for the Canal isn’t the gold rush that’s been painted in the debate.
The second open secret is that, despite the perception Marin consumers are all about local businesses, farmer’s markets and building strong downtowns, Marin also likes its discounts. While you’ll find people buying fresh organic veggies at the Civic Center Farmer’s Market, you’ll also have a hard time finding a parking space at Costco in Novato.
The hue and cry over big box retail is real as well. There’s a growing movement nationally to forego stores like Target and Walmart based on the idea that the big boxes harm local merchants, cause environmental harm by importing cheap goods from abroad and take away from retail diversity. And that movement is alive and well and using the San Rafael Target project as an example of why big box retail is bad for a community and its businesses.
Keep It Local San Rafael has attacked the project (and big box, in general) using social media. The group has used “Target in San Rafael—Heck No” on Facebook very effectively.
Keep It Local’s Frieman is quick to point out that he and his group aren’t anti-business. “In fact, we have many local businesses on our coalition—and most of downtown is against Target coming in,” he asserts.
“Big box is bad for communities, Target and Walmart are very similar and they’re bad for communities. Target will come in and create minimum-wage, part-time work, with a 60 to 70 percent annual turnover rate—and those jobs will supplant good-paying jobs in locally owned businesses.”
He also points out that local businesses impact the local economy in a positive way by circulating dollars at a rate three times higher than national businesses like Target (that tend to vacuum dollars out).
Frieman calls the fight over Target “a theater of the absurd,” and he has a point. Spend enough time talking to people from the city, to Target advocates and Target opponents, and the process begins to feel like reading Alice in Wonderland, complete with rabbit holes.
The ultimate decision regarding Target is still off in the future, and whether it involves a November referendum, a lawsuit over the EIR or a ploy that hasn’t surfaced yet, one thing is certain: The San Rafael community (and, perhaps more accurately, the San Rafael business community) has been fractured. And at a time when the economy is struggling, the state is broke and the political process has become so partisan it essentially no longer works, this kind of split hurts the community deeply.
Bill Meagher is a contributing editor for NorthBay biz. He pens the Only in Marin column and works for DealFlow Media in Petaluma. He’s at work on a book project and hopes the Giants begin to hit at some point this season. He lives in San Rafael with his wife, Cindy, and Miles the Wondercat.
