Santa Clara enacts big-box ban

San Jose, Calif. City Council members of Santa Clara, Calif. voted 5-2 to prohibit construction of stores of a minimum of 80,000 sq. ft. that devote at least 5% of their sales floor to grocery items, according a report in the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal.

The vote made Santa Clara the latest Bay Area city to stop Wal-Mart-type supercenters from being built.

Wal-Mart was not mentioned by name in the city's ordinance and had no plans to build a supercenter in Santa Clara, according to the report. But it has been the target of opposition by traditional grocery chains such as Safeway, as well as labor unions and religious, social justice and homeowner organizations.

California cities that have already banned these stores include Livermore, Antioch, Martinez, Oakland, Alameda, San Diego, Turlock and Inglewood.

In the greater Bay Area, Wal-Mart has built supercenters in Tracy, Fairfield and a 220,000-sq.-ft. location in Gilroy that opened in 2005.