Big-box retailing is back as a big issue in Tucson. Again.

Wal-Mart has started a petition drive that, if approved by voters in November, would repeal a key provision of Tucson 's big-box ordinance.

Wal-Mart filed papers late last week to create the "Consumer Choice Initiative," which would repeal the portion of the city's big-box ordinance restricting food and beverage sales to no more than 10 percent of the store's total space.

Delia Garcia, spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, said the law stifles consumer choice.

She said Wal-Mart has gotten into the game late — it needs to collect 11,615 valid signatures from registered city voters by July 5 — because the company doesn't want to wait for another election cycle for the initiative.

"Maybe now it's time for citizens to have their voice heard," Garcia said, adding that customers have consistently told the company they like the convenience of having everything in one big-box store.

This won't be the first time the big-box issue has roiled Tucson's political scene — with the city's most recent battle over whether to give developer Eastbourne Investments Ltd. a waiver of the same 10 percent restriction on groceries for a retail store larger than 100,000 square feet.

After nearly two years of acrimonious back and forth over the exemption, the City Council voted 6-1, just two months ago, to give Eastbourne a waiver from the 10 percent restriction.

Councilwoman Karin Uhlich, the only council member to vote no on Eastbourne , said the initiative shows Wal-Mart feels it doesn't have to play by the same rules as everybody else.

"This has to do with Wal-Mart's desires to write local laws so they benefit the corporation … regardless of what the community desires," Uhlich said. "There's no need whatsoever to amend our big-box ordinance."

Mayor Bob Walkup, who has supported big-box stores for Eastbourne and at El Con Mall in 2000, said he feels the initiative is unnecessary because the council has already demonstrated good judgment on big boxes.

"The council already has figured out how to do the right thing," Walkup said. "I'm comfortable the way it is. There's right places for big boxes that sell groceries and there are wrong places. The next one we might turn down."

Walkup said he felt the community was beyond the polarizing big-box debate.

Councilman Steve Leal, a leader in creating the big-box ordinance, who was at the center of the Eastbourne controversy, didn't return phone calls.

Uhlich said she feels the council decision to grant Eastbourne a big-box waiver could have encouraged and emboldened the company to put forth this initiative.

Wal-Mart's Garcia said the Eastbourne decision "indicated" to Wal-Mart there is support from the community for big-box stores because residents in the surrounding area voiced strong support for the big-box store in their neighborhood.

"Tucson is a very important market for us," Garcia said, because of the area's strong population growth and because the region is underserved by big-box retail and grocery stores.

This is the second time Wal-Mart has tried to use the initiative route to thwart the big-box regulations. In 1999 and 2000, the company waged a pitched battle with neighborhood residents and big-box critics over building a Wal-Mart at El Con Mall. An initiative petition drive to overturn the law failed when an Arizona Court of Appeals ultimately threw out the company's petitions as not meeting the legal requirements.

Pete Zimmerman, a political consultant hired by Wal-Mart to run the petition drive, said he doesn't believe the initiative will reopen old wounds because this petition deals with only one aspect of the big-box ordinance, not the whole thing.

"The only thing affected will be grocery provision," Zimmerman said. "All other provisions will remain."

Zimmerman, who will employ private contractors to collect the needed signatures, said he thinks there is enough time to get them, but July 5 will be a tight deadline.

Councilwoman Shirley Scott said she knew little of Wal-Mart's petition drive, but said it's far from a slam-dunk. "First they have to get it on the ballot and then the voters have to pass it — that's two big ifs," she said.

Did you know ?
The big-box ordinance was approved on a 5-2 City Council vote in 1999 in response to concerns from neighborhoods over traffic and noise from the stores, and concerns from small businesses that mega-stores would put them out of business.

The ordinance affects stores with more than 100,000 square feet of floor space.

The biggest bone of contention has been a provision limiting grocery space to no more than 10 percent of floor space in the stores.

It also allows the city to restrict hours of operation along with noise, traffic, lighting, and imposes other design requirements.

© 2007 Arizona Star

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