A step closer to Walmart on Randall & Bowes
It seems like we’ve been waiting forever for this Walmart project to go forward, and finally it looks like there may be a groundbreaking in as little as six months.
In terms of business, a new Walmart and a Sam’s Club at Randall and Bowes has been on the drawing board since 2006. Since then, the company has rebranded its look, and the plan brought before the council Wednesday night “is the Walmart of the future — a much better store with a brand new look,” architect Rich Hayes said.
“This is a much-improved proposal,” Councilman Dave Kaptain said.
Still, Kaptain and his fellow councilmen want the company to make more tweaks to the plan before granting it final approval.
Kaptain suggested that a remote part of the parking lot be constructed with a more ecologically friendly permeable paver. Kaptain pointed out that Walmart has such surfacing at a site in Aurora, Colo., as does the parking lot at U.S. Cellular Field, home of the Chicago White Sox.
At the suggestion of residents from two subdivisions close to where the Walmart and Sam’s would stand, the council also wants city staff and the developer to work toward having a smaller sign along the Bowes Road side of the property.
With such revisions, the annexation agreement should be back to the council sometime in January. If all goes as planned, construction could begin in late spring or early summer.
Some people hate Walmart. I welcome it, especially since they develop medium format film (and just about anything else you throw at them) for less than a dollar. They are helping to keep film alive! And the new branding is definitely a cut above the old rural midsouthern look. I can’t help but think that a lot of the anger at Walmart is just snobbishness on the part of those who look down on the proletariat. They hate Walmart, in short, because of the proles who shop there.
I’ve criticized some “green” aspects of the GBL Rakow Branch Library–namely the geothermal heating system, but I think Dave Kaptain’s suggestion for permeable pavers is an idea worth considering. The question though is whether it makes sense for our region. It’s a nice idea because it reduces the amount of runoff water, which can cause flooding and carry contaminants, but it may not be appropriate around here because we have to deal with snow. Pavers and snow plows don’t seem like a good combination, but I don’t know, maybe the experts know otherwise. I have seen developments in the region use permeable pavers. I don’t know if they have had any problems with them or not.
Anyway, it’s a huge site with high visibility so I do hope the city council will make appropriate requests to ensure that the Walmart/Sam’s Club development is a good, attractive development. Chain stores often vary their designs significantly in response to local requirements. Some cities like Bozeman, Boulder, Santa Fe etc. have ended up with attractive chain stores that fit in with their local environment. Though we do not have a prevailing regional style of architecture (the Prairie Style was never versatile enough to be become widespread), we can still ask for something that is attractive. We shouldn’t preclude either the idea of incorporating Prairie Style elements, especially in the landscaping and entrance areas. Geneva Commons and if I’m not mistaken, Dear Park Town Center are good examples of modern commercial developments incorporating Prairie Style elements with success. And of course, the Sears campus in Hoffman Estates is in spirit if not in actuality, a successful Prairie Style development.
Possibly related posts:
Loading ...
Loading ...
You missed the most important part(see Daily herald)!
>>the site, are estimated to produce more than $1 million a year more in sales taxes for the city.<>He said about 75 to 100 employees will be added to the 225 already at the current Walmart store, while Sam’s Club will have about 175 workers.<<
If it weren’t for Kaptain, the store would probably already be open.
Ask Councilman Dave where he has his city of Elgin putting in pavers in parking lots and streets!
He doesn’t?
“Walmart has scaled back its store along 73 acres at the southwest corner of Randall and Bowes from 203,619 square feet to 177,557 square feet”
Maybe they’ll cut out the film department!
Who benefits and who is harmed in the scale back? Harmed: every person who will shop there. Benefit: Kaptain and his pukeGreen ilk shoving their fascist agenda down the throats of us lowlife proletariats.
proletariat is working class…the kaptains are working class. just because they’ve retired doesn’t mean they get bumped up to bourgeois.
if you want to criticize the factors surrounding wal-mart that’s fine, but when you’re comments make no sense it discredits your arguments.
oops, “your” not you’re
“proletariat is working class…”
You are confusing communism with fascism.
“When you’re comments make no sense it discredits your arguments.”
Maybe. But given your already displayed ignorance, it is more likely your inability to comprehend common thought that prevents you from understanding my argument.
What specifically doesn’t make sense? That you refuse to say while criticising me for not making sense, is what truly doesn’t make sense.
Rather, you engage in your own liberal fascsim. You don’t speak one word on the issue at hand (new Walmart in Elgin). All you do is attack me with derogatory comments without providing ANY basis whatsoever for your derogatory comments. Who does that discredit!
i’m not confusing communism with fascism and in fact i’m not referring to either of them.
i’m talking about the word proletariat, and how it means people who must sell their labor to make a living.
i don’t “refuse” to spell out why i think your comment didn’t make sense. actually i think i made it quit clear–it doesn’t make sense to imply the kaptains are not working class.
i can comprehend “common thought.” you’re upset because you view dave kaptain (whose vote alone cannot pass anything, i might add) as forcing wal-mart to do something the city doesn’t do, which will hurt common folk. and you obviously think the kaptains are not common folk because…he’s on city council? i don’t know. you didn’t explain why.
i’m curious how you believe he personally benefits from this. if the benefit is reduced runoff water and all that goes with it, that would be good for anyone who lives in the area.
“it doesn’t make sense to imply the kaptains are not working class. ”
Because I didn’t imply they were or weren’t.
Hitler was a low life proletariat too, prior to him being elected leader of the National Socialist party.
But nice try in attempting to co-opt the view that our elected representatives are working class too and thus justified in doing whatever they want because whatever they do, it is therefore in the interest of the working class. And for me to speak out against anything they do would be anti-populist.
“i’m curious how you believe he personally benefits from this. ”
Similar in the same manner Hitler personally benefited by exterminating Jews. The benefit is forcing his agenda down the throats of the Elgin public, regardless of what the public wants.
“if the benefit is reduced runoff water and all that goes with it, that would be good for anyone who lives in the area.”
Then don’t build the Walmart at all and we’ll all really benefit!!! Clearly, that is the logical extension of your argument. And I have no doubts, that is Kaptain’s true position. By himself he can’t stop it (yet) but he can throw up as many road blocks as possible, increase the costs, reduce the size, lower their profitablity, hoping that Walmart will throw in the towel, take their jobs and tax revenue and move elsewhere. 1 million additional dollars in tax revenue is chump change to Elgin!
If only our other government working class leaders wouldn’t sell out to the capitalist inerests!
When I read Jessica’s post about the Kaptains being “working class,” I was laughing so much I had to wonder if she were auditioning for some new standup schtick. Replace Conan and Jay maybe in that troublesome NBC 10:35 pm time slot?
Anyway, we are talking about “the kaptains” as in Dave and Sandy, right? As for them being “proletariat” or “working class,” it has been awhile since I’ve paid attention to Marxist class labels, but it was always my understanding that the “proletariat” was more blue-collar than blue blazer. With his college degree, slacks and blazer ensembles, pruney expression and “professorial” hairstyle (i.e., bald), Dave the Chemist is never going to be mistaken for Joe the Plumber. Of course, if Jessica is extending “proletariat” to anyone who must “sell their labor to make a living” I guess we can include all those toiling masses at Goldman Sachs, too. What this all means in respect to Walmart’s arrival is a bit uncertain, though Dave always has seemed much more a Target than Walmart kinda guy.
neither of you make sence
If we had more ways for groundwater to enter the ground rather than flow into the older sewers that still have combined storm water and sewage in Elgin I would imagine those sewers might not back up when it rains too hard.
This post will be a good test for the new purgatorium rule.