Home Depot Shoots Other Foot!
My apologies for interrupting all the Paris Hilton/Rocky Delgadillo/AV Breaking News, but here is a little story that you may enjoy.
First a little background:
The community of Sunland-Tujunga has been fighting the multiple attempts by Home Depot to open a store in our little town for nearly 3 years.
Earlier this year, we were able to prove to a Zoning Administrator that what Home Depot had proposed for the site far exceeded the definition of simple "Tenant Improvements", should be relabeled a "Project", and must be subject to more intense environmental scrutiny.
Home Depot's building permits were immediately revoked, and they were ordered to vacate the property.
Home Depot immediately appealed the decision, and this is where my story begins.
An Appeal Hearing was scheduled for June 7th, before the North Valley Area Planning Commission at the Marvin Braude building in Van Nuys.
As you may recall, the purpose of the Hearing before the North Valley Area Planning Commission was to determine whether the earlier decision by the City to revoke Home Depot's building permits, for their proposed store in Sunland-Tujunga, was arrived at in a correct manner.
Home Depot brought in almost 200 paid supporters to that hearing. They brought them in on 3 chartered buses, had them don "Stop Racism" and "For Our Community" T-shirts, and sent them to occupy all the seats in the Hearing room, an hour and a half before the Hearing was scheduled to begin.
Never mind that none of these people were from the Sunland-Tujunga area, never mind that few, if any, of these paid supporters even knew why they were there; Home Depot had packed
the room with a sea of orange shirted people, and were hoping that the Planning Commission would see this overwhelming "support", side with Home Depot, and allow their "Project" to proceed.
At 4:00 pm, the residents of Sunland-Tujunga began to arrive. Most of them were not allowed entry to the Hearing room as it was already at capacity. Then, of course, the Fire Marshall shows up, shuts the Hearing down, the media pack up their cameras, the paid supporters of HD get back on their buses, and the whole Circus cames to a grinding halt. The Planning Commission has no choice, much to the chagrin of Home Depot's law firm, Latham & Watkins, but to postpone the hearing until July 19th, while they search for a larger venue.
Fast forward to today, and we now learn that the larger venue that the Planning Commission has selected for the Hearing is a school auditorium in Sunland-Tujunga!
That's right folks! Home Depot shot themselves in the foot with their ridiculous antics at the June 7th Hearing, and they just shot themselves again. The Hearing is coming home to the actual community that their proposed store will affect!
Talk about karma in action!
See you on July 19th!
If you haven't yet heard my interview on the John & Ken Show about Home Depot's tactics, here is the link: http://no2homedepot.com/files/JohnandKen61307.mp3
Labels: rocky delgadillo
Posted by Unknown @ 6/26/2007 01:09:00 AM
15 Comments:
Home Depot is disgusting!
They are going down on this one!
Didn't HOme Depot contribute to Antonio and a city council members campaign? The tactics used by Home Depot is exactly what Antonio does when he wants a lot of his supporters at meetings. He pays them and buses them in. He did in Washington with ACORN on the LAUSD issue. He did it during his campaign and any issue he supports. No news on Conference of Mayors yet Antonio gave Home Depot an award for Community Excellence. What an idiot!!!
Higby,
I know you're buddies with Alger can you have failed actor Barrett put an end to the Home Depot shit? Its getting old. Tell Joe he's earned his check; Do-It is proud.
Joe, would you and Paris Hilton please go away!
No Home Depot in Sunland-Tujunga! We want/need a general merchandise store. We have Do-It Center. We have OSH. We have Trader Joe's. We have grocery stores. We have greeting cards. We have 99-cent stores. We want/need a general merchandise store. No Home Depot in S-T.
Hey Home Depot, get rid of Dakota Communications and that dumb ass Rick Taylor. You guys look like complete bungling fools to the entire city.
yea hire mayor sam he has more influence than roderick, paris hilton and tammy bruce, dakota are fools
Rumor has it that 2 attorneys with Latham & Watkins, that were in charge of the Home Depot case have left the firm! Fired maybe?
I heard that it was Patricia Tegart and Francis Parks! The heads are rolling!
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
You guys rock!
Why doesn't Home Depot give up already? Is the site really that great of a place to put in a store??? How much money have they lost fighting this never ending battle? Give up and give in to Target, it would be a smart move.
Home Depot won't give up because they don't want to have to look like losers. Plus they have about 20 more K-Marts that they want to turn into Home Depots and they don't want every community fighting them like Sunland has. They want to set an example here with this town and show the rest of LA that they better get in line and start obeying the will of the Home Depot.
I hope this town kicks their fucking ass all the way back to Atlanta!
Whomever is the Real Estate
Agent(s) or wheeler dealer(s) for Home Depot should be fired.
The idiot(s) bought Kmarts that were in Retail Residential Areas where Home Depot does not fit in. Sunland-Tujunga isn't the only community that they want to go into where they are not wanted.
Atwater area's Community Plan calls for a nice walking retail community center to compliment their new branch of Los Angeles City College. The Crenshaw area has a very nice retail area that H.D. is also trying to go into. Upon validating my sources, I found H.D. is not wanted or needed in either of those areas either.
Home Depot should stick to industrial- wholesale areas where they belong and are welcomed. They don't belong in retail-residential areas. But, first they need to improve their integrity, qualtiy and service or they lose to Lowes and Do It Centers no matter how hard they fight. Their PR is pitiful and it's going to cost them in their pocketbook.
Well said 10:23!
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