Westfield Opposes Community Benefits Agreement Bill

One of the side effects of recent debate over the Montgomery County Council’s community benefits agreements bill has been uncertainty over whether Westfield is moving forward with the construction of the  at its Wheaton mall.

And although Wal-Mart attracted the most targeted opposition signs at last night’s public hearing in Rockville for Bill 33-11, Costco received a fair amount of attention as well.

Speaking to the council, Westfield's regional vice president, Clive Mackenzie, expressed Westfield’s opposition to a bill which he said “would, if adopted, make it very difficult to attract national anchor stores to Montgomery County” and would “create uncertainty for tenants and lenders as to whether, when and how a store might open.”

Included in Mackenzie’s written statement, but not delivered in his address to the council was the following: “...as you know, all construction on the Costco facility was suspended last week as a result of the uncertainty created by this proposed bill. After discussions with many Council members during which we made our concerns on the bill clear, Westfield has ordered construction to proceed.”

Danila Sheveiko, a member of the Kensington Heights Civic Association, spoke out against the special exception process for Costco's proposed gas station, as did Joseph Horgan, who said he lives in the Homewood neighborhood, close to the Costco site.

Costco, which did not sign a community benefits agreement but which held a community meeting in keeping with the terms of the county's $4 million subsidy to Westfield, does not have any obligation to resolve residents' concerns, according to Steve Silverman, director of the County’s Department of Economic Development, as reported in the Gazette.

During the three minutes of time allotted to each speaker at the public hearing, Horgan offered “qualified support” for the bill, which he said gives too much leeway for big-box stores to pick and choose the civic associations that would be most cooperative.

Both Sheveiko and Horgan received strong applause from the crowd.