Voters Approve 2 ‘Big Box’ Store Plans, Reject 2 Others

Two “big box” retail development plans were approved and two were defeated this week in California cities where local officials left the decision in the hands of voters.

In East Palo Alto, a struggling municipality bordered by some of Silicon Valley’s most affluent neighborhoods, voters Tuesday narrowly approved construction of an Ikea furniture store that was controversial because some residents feared it would worsen traffic. In the Imperial County town of Calexico, a measure backed by Wal-Mart also carried the day.

Home Depot was the big loser: A proposed store in Agoura Hills was handcuffed by size limits approved by voters in that Los Angeles County city, and a construction proposal in the Bay Area community of Mountain View was resoundingly defeated, even though Home Depot sent videotapes to 14,000 voter households seeking support.

In fact, dueling campaign forces in Mountain View spent more than $700,000 in what became the city’s most expensive political battle.

In the end, a measure that would have allowed Home Depot to build on the site of an abandoned department store lost in a landslide--opposed by 65% of voters.

“In a campaign such as this, the ‘no’ side has the definite advantage,” said campaign consultant Victor Ajlouny, who headed Home Depot’s Mountain View campaign. “All they have to do is confuse voters. ‘No’ is the status quo, and that’s a comfort zone for people. And a quarter of a million dollars buys you a lot of confusion.”

Cities have increasingly turned to the ballot as a way of deciding controversial planning measures including the so-called big box retail stores, especially in California, where it is relatively easy to bring initiatives to a vote.

East Palo Alto has long struggled to stay afloat as other Bay Area communities have prospered. The city’s unemployment rate is about double the countywide figure.

Opponents worried that the giant store next to the Bayshore Freeway would bring more congestion to a city already choked by commuter traffic.

But the project also offered the promise of about 550 jobs, and guaranteed at least $1 million in annual revenue to the city for eight years. Additional money for job training and city services has also been pledged.

Even then, East Palo Alto voters endorsed the plan to build the 300,000-square-foot Ikea store by a margin of just 75 votes out of 2,715 cast. An unknown number of absentee ballots remained to be counted today, but proponents of the store expressed confidence that their advantage would hold.

Mountain View, just two towns away, is considered more affluent but has suffered recently from the slowdown in high-technology businesses. By some accounts the city’s commercial vacancy rate soared from less than 2% at the height of the boom to more than 25% early this year.

But the jobs and tax revenue offered by a Home Depot were not enough to sway voters.

“As communities become more affluent and more economically secure, they reach a level where other kinds of values and concerns take priority,” said Rich DeLeon, a political science professor at San Francisco State who studies community development. “As your basic security needs are satisfied, new higher needs turn out to be increasingly important motivators, such as aesthetics and other concerns not related specifically to survival.”

The East Palo Alto campaign was decidedly low-tech--and far less costly than Mountain View’s--but no less contentious.

“In my 20 years of politics, it’s the hardest election I’ve ever run,” said Ikea’s campaign consultant, Ed McGovern. “It seems like every person in that town takes political issues very personally.”

Agoura Hills voters approved Measure H, a ballot initiative that would prohibit construction of any retail building larger than 60,000 square feet. The issue arose from business owners and residents ruffled by a preliminary proposal to build a Home Depot that would include a 115,000-square-foot anchor store alongside a 24,000-square-foot garden center.

Mayor Denis Weber said Wednesday that he was disappointed because voters would have to approve a new ballot measure before a developer could plan to build a similar business. “We’re handcuffed,” he said, adding that the city needs the sales tax for police, fire, road improvements and other city services.

In Calexico, meanwhile, 65% of voters approved a measure backed by Wal-Mart, overturning limits on the amount of floor space that large retailers can devote to grocery sales.

There is already a Wal-Mart in Calexico, and the corporation has not decided whether to build a bigger store there.

“We just wanted to have our options available to us,” said Wal-Mart spokesman Peter Kanelos.

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Times staff writer Kristina Sauerwein contributed to this report.