The proposed Wal-Mart development at Eight Corners has been having a relatively easy time moving through the Planning Board so far, despite concerns from a number of residents.

Some of the concerns expressed by opponents are related to the project’s environmental and economic impacts and whether the town’s ordinances are even equipped to handle a project the size and scope of a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

“The sheer size of this project really warrants some further study and analysis by the town,” said David Merrill, one of the more outspoken opponents of the project.

The new Wal-Mart would make redundant the store building on Payne Road, which has 100,000 square feet, supplanting it with a new 212,000-square-foot facility on what is now more than 90 acres of woodland across Spring Street from the present store.

There has been no word so far about what Wal-Mart will do with the empty building on Payne Road. The company owns 325 empty stores around the country, with total area of about 25 million square feet.

The Scarborough Gallery development, which would also include a Lowe’s and some smaller businesses and restaurants, is in a B-2 zone, which does not have any limits on how large structures can be.

The Planning Board must work within the town’s current zoning, which means they cannot consider the economic impact of a proposal.

“To oversimplify the process we’re simply a board that takes our ordinances and applies them to an applicant that wants to do business in town,” said Scarborough Planning Board Chairman Michael Wood.

Wood said the board has been reviewing the project for about a year now and there has been little public comment. But most of the concerns that have come forward are mainly based on people’s personal feelings against Wal-Mart as a corporation and less about the project’s validity. Moreover, they are issues that the Planning Board does not have power over.

“The social implications, they really lie in the hands of the Town Council,” Wood said.

But the issue of regulating large building projects is arising during discussions of the Comprehensive Plan Update Committee, especially in light of the Orion Center redevelopment plan, which would have 100,000 square feet in five buildings, and the construction of a 400,000-square-foot post office distribution center off Mussey Road.

The committee is reviewing various types of commercial zoning, to determine it should remain the same or be a combination of different types of zoning, as is seen in the Town and Village District, which allows for a mixture of residential and commercial development, said Sylvia Most, co-chairman of the Comprehensive Plan Update Committee.

Some committee members want to encourage the creation of small businesses while trying to discourage the further development of big box stores.

Merrill, who is a member of the Comprehensive Plan Update Committee, said he is going to strive for some changes to the town’s zoning to stop sprawl from coming further into Scarborough.

“Somewhere we have to stop the creep from the mall,” he said. “In the long run it doesn’t have the benefit.”

These discussions are probably too late for the Scarborough Gallery project, Merrill said. In the future, he and other opponents would like to see big-box proposals like the Wal-Mart undergo a number of reviews before the town approves them. Merrill said some municipalities require community impact studies that review the effects on the environment, joblessness, fiscal challenges and social costs of a big-box development.

Maine effects

There have been many economic analyses on the effects of Wal-Mart focusing on what it does to local business, and the results depend on who performs the analysis and where it is done.

In Maine a couple of economic impact analyses have been conducted in order to quantify the effect a Wal-Mart has on a community. One was a study was conducted by the institute for Local Self Reliance, a national non-profit organization promoting smart growth.

The study focused on eight local businesses in Rockport, Camden and Belfast. In 2002 these businesses earned $5.7 million and employed 62 people. These companies spent 44.6 percent of their revenue within the surrounding counties of Knox and Waldo. In addition, the businesses supported a variety of local businesses, including banks, repair people, and printers. The remainder of the money left the state for a number of reasons, including mortgage interest, rent, credit card fees, insurance and equipment leasing.

The study then compared what the major retailers do with their money. But because major corporations do not provide detailed financial information, the study assumed that hourly employees were earning $8 an hour with some benefits and part-time employees were earning $7.50 an hour with fewer benefits. Based on this scenario a major retailer spends 14.1 percent of its revenue within the state, mostly in the form of wages. The rest leaves the state, going to out-of state suppliers or to headquarters.

The study also found that big-box retailers made fewer charitable donations than the local companies. The eight local businesses donated $24,000 in cash or 0.4 percent of their total revenue to charities, which is four times as much as Wal-Mart gave in terms of relative sales and twice as much as Target.

“When residents of the Midcoast region spend $100 at a big box retailer, their purchase generates $14 in local spending by the retailers,” the study concludes. “That same $100 spent at a locally owned business generates $45 in spending, or three times as much. Dollars spent at a local retailer support not only that store, but a variety of other local businesses, including banks, accountants, printers, and internet suppliers.”

Another study conducted by Georgeranne Artz, a doctoral student at Iowa State University, and James McConnon, an associate professor at the University of Maine, showed there were negative and positive impacts when a Wal-Mart moves into a community.

This study found that some businesses benefited from the presence of Wal-Mart, while others did not. Most host towns experienced increased rates of growth in their general merchandise sector after Wal-Mart arrived, according to the report.

But at the same time Wal-Mart captured an average of $7.8 million in existing and new general merchandise spending in the host town during the first year of operation. The general merchandise sector of neighboring communities declined or grew at a slower rate than did the same sector in the host towns.