Last week, the City Council of Kaua’i, Hawaii, passed an ordinance restricting retail construction to under 75,000 square feet:

A 75,000-square-foot floor-area limit on retail or wholesale operations. Business square footage would be added together if establishments are within 800 feet of each other and sell similar goods under common management, share check-out counters, or are under common ownership — meaning, for example, that a single retailer could not build two 75,000-square-foot stores around a single parking lot.

While the island already has Costco, Wal-Mart, and K-Mart, this bill seems to be aimed squarely at Wal-Mart’s plans to increase the size of the location there from 119,000 square feet to almost 200,000 square feet. The City Council wants to preserve the character of the small island community and preserve the local, mom and pop stores, that make up the community.

I recently commented on the plans by several retailers to build smaller concept stores. Anti-big box bills like this are just another reason why retailers need to have several construction ideas in their portfolio. One size does not fit every community.

More coverage of the bill from the Honolulu Advertiser. The quote above is from their coverage.