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PRESS CLIPPINGS
Wal-Mart Is in Store
VIRGINIA MCDONALD
GUELPH (Jul 21, 2006)
An out-of-court settlement has ended 11 years of legal wrangling over the building of a Wal-Mart next to the Ignatius Jesuit Centre.
Wal-Mart will spend up to a total of $150,000 to shield the 90-year-old retreat centre from noise and light from the big box store, now and in the future.
In return, a multifaith coalition will drop a Charter of Rights and Freedom challenge that the development at the corner of Woodlawn Road and Woolwich Street violated their freedom of religious practices.
And the Jesuits will no longer take part in an Ontario Municipal Board challenge against the city's new commercial policy, which identifies the Woodlawn-Woolwich area as one of four potential commercial power centre nodes.
Multifaith coalition lawyer Eric Gillespie said the "unprecedented" measures of not being able to see or hear the development give immediate protection to the retreat and set an "appropriate" standard for future protection. The focus has not been to stop commercial development, the focus has been to protect sacred spaces," he said.
The 600-acre, 90-year-old, world-renowned retreat centre and hermitage is used by several faith traditions for silent retreat, meditation, prayer, aboriginal ceremonies and other practices. To protect this, the coalition of clergy and practitioners from Christian and other faith traditions launched the charter challenge in February headed by Daoist priest Bill Hulet.
"It has been a real community-building experience," said Hulet, who has used the retreat centre for 15 years. That includes Wal-Mart, he added, "who have begun the process of entering into the community."
"We're pleased. It is a new beginning to a very long process," said Wal-Mart spokesperson Kevin Groh in a phone interview.
Both Wal-Mart and the city declined to attend Tuesday's news conference. Mayor Kate Quarrie was quoted in a news release as being "pleased" with the settlement and commending the parties for working to reach an "amicable solution".
Wal-Mart plans to open its 350,0000-sq.ft. store in late 2006. A further 20,000 square feet of development is planned at the site in the near future. Wal-Mart will spend $50,000 immediately to build a higher berm, plant mature, 20-foot cedar trees and a "living wall" of intertwined willows. The retail giant will lower the parking lot light standards so that the retreat centre won't lose more of its night sky for people practising meditation , prayer or aboriginal ceremonies. It will also spend up to $100,000 more to protect the centre from the noise and sight of future development at the rapidly growing commercial node at Highways 6 and 7 that is slated for a total of 400,000 square feet of development.
Gillespie told reporters gathered at the centre that the increased measures to protect the "peace, quiet and solitude" of the centre mean that "what you hear today is what you will hear tomorrow."
The legally binding settlement saves both sides "hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars" in legal costs for lengthy court challenges and from the risk of leaving the decision up to the courts, he said.
Ignatius Jesuit Centre director Fr. Jim Profit said the centre will be able to continue its ministries in spirituality, ecology and agriculture.
"Our issue was part of a larger issue of appropriate development," said Profit. "it would have been risky to have the courts decide on this issue.
"A trial has a winner and a loser," he noted. With this settlement, "hopefully we are all winners to a degree."
Negotiations took the equivalent of three days over the past few months, after some of the same players struck a settlement over the Hanlon Creek Business Park plan, mediated by the same OMB chair, Wilson Lee.
Gillespie, who represented Kortright Hills Residents Association against the city in that settlement, said the WalMart talks began after the parties spent a day walking around the Jesuit lands, seeing the impact of bulldozers on the land and "walking a mile in the other person's shoes, literally and figuratively."
Profit said that in recent weeks, "goodwill started to build that, frankly, wasn't there before."
While Wal-Mart had offered some buffer features five years ago, Gillespie noted that "back in 2001, these were just drawings on a paper." After three days of talks, it became "very clear technology has changed."
The berm and trees are higher, and the "living wall" is new. Wal-Mart consulted two expert firms, Terra Plan landscape architects and Valcoustics Canada acoustical engineers, to substantially increase measures offered five years ago in relation to an OMB hearing.
Profit speculated the result likely would have been the same even if the charter challenge had been won after years of litigation and costs donated by the community. Groh said while it was Wal-Mart's position that the challenges wouldn't stand up to scrutiny, "obviously for everyone involved a settlement was an ideal scenario."
In time for Christmas?
Wal-Mart hopes to be open in late 2006, "ideally" in time for the Christmas shopping season, says spokesperson Kevin Groh.
"But we're not writing any dates in ink yet," he added.
Wal-Mart started land grading and construction in May, when the city issued a building permit.
A McDonald's restaurant and an auto tire-lube express service bay will be part of the 135,000-sq-ft. store Groh describes as "our largest" most modern format," stocked with everything now available at other Wal-Mart stores.
The store's grocery section is a "pantry format" that will carry dried goods, snack food, diary and packaged deli meats, but not fresh produce, meat or bakery goods.
There will also be a vision centre, pharmacy, photo centre, portrait studio and "fun factory" where kids and birthday party groups can create their own stuffed animals.
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