By Hutton Marshall 

On the sunny, Sunday afternoon of March 8, approximately 100 South Park residents and local activists gathered for a rally on one of the neighborhood’s most contentious issues to date. The gathering was not only a passionate rebuke of the Target store planned for the former Gala Foods site, it served as the inaugural fundraising event for the South Park Town Council.

In late 2014, Target Corp. announced plans to open a TargetExpress — a smaller version of their discounted goods store — in an 18,000-square-foot building that housed the Gala Foods grocery store for 26 years. While some residents say the store will provide needed access to amenities like a pharmacy and low-cost groceries, others fear that the corporate giant will raise commercial rent prices, increase traffic congestion and detract from the neighborhood’s small business community.

The campaign thus far has been led by Care About South Park (CASP), a small organization of residents modeled after previous community efforts such as Care About North Park, which continues to fight against a local Jack in the Box remodel in 2013.

CASP co-founder Sabrina Diminico said the South Park organization had to come together in a hurry to react to Target’s plans to move into the neighborhood. She said a town council would prepare residents for similar battles in the future.

“This really kind of opened our eyes — Target kind of side swiping us,” Diminico said. “It came out of the blue and we don’t ever want to be caught like that again.

“We recognize the immediate need to get that town council formed so we’re never in this position again as a community where we don’t know what’s happening basically in our backyard.”

Organizers at the Sunday afternoon rally sought to raise $600 for the town council’s 501(c)(3) nonprofit status filings, which would allow the organization to apply for grants and accept tax-deductible donations. CASP representative Kate Callen said that although the official nonprofit status will give the group greater clout, fundraising will be far from its chief concern.

“The South Park Town Council will be strictly community education and community engagement,” Callen said. “We’re not lobbying, we’re not political.”

The town council’s inception amid a contentious fight isn’t a new phenomenon. In fact, a common enemy can often serve as a rallying cry spurring a community to band together.

In the northern portion of Uptown, the University Heights Community Association formed in the early 1980s as the neighborhood fought against two five-story housing complexes and eventually advocated successfully for the creation of Trolley Barn Park.

In 2006, Hillcrest residents fought successfully against another large housing development in their own backyard. According to local activist and co-founder of Hillquest.com Nancy Moors, the fight galvanized neighbors, leading to the creation of the Hillcrest Town Council.

Mark Arabo, president of the Neighborhood Markets Association and one of the loudest voices in the fight against TargetExpress, said town councils have become an effective way to stand up to well-financed, outside interests.

“I think nothing is stronger than a town council,” Arabo said. “It gives the power of the community to the people, and out of the hands of corporations.

“I think it will be instrumental in not just this fight, but future fights,” he added.

For Diminico and others leading the charge in CASP, the town council will likely add needed volunteers to community efforts like the one at hand. Diminico estimates she spends roughly 20 hours each week in the fight against Target — on top of a full time job.

Callen said at the rally that the small group driving CASP will likely become the town council’s inaugural directors, and that elections will be far from contentious.

“When we get to the point that there’s enough people where we might have elections, sure, but my sense is that we’re so consensus oriented, I can’t see us ever having elections where people run against each other,” Callen said.

Callen later stated through email that the town council wouldn’t exclude residents who didn’t share the views of members on issues like the TargetExpress opening, describing the organization as a “big tent” that welcomes a broad range of opinions.

“If a contentious issue comes before the council, members would discuss it and, in accordance with the bylaws, decide whether a response or plan of action is warranted and what that might be,” Callen wrote.

Meanwhile, the campaign to convince Target or the property’s owner to voluntarily back out of the South Park lease raged as strong as ever on Sunday. While Target representatives announced last month the store’s summer opening would be delayed until October to allow for more community input, Diminico and Arabo said CASP isn’t willing to make any concessions.

“We don’t want to negotiate. We don’t want to know what they’re going to do. We don’t want them here,” Diminico said. “There is no compromising with us.”

“We think at this point any deal is a bad deal because the community doesn’t want it,” Arabo said of Target, which he described as the “800-pound gorilla” in the room. “We think that Target would not want to go into a community that doesn’t want them.”

Several residents were also critical of Councilmember Todd Gloria’s involvement in the issue.

“I was one of Todd Gloria’s earliest supporters, and I still think he’s an incredibly gifted public servant, but I never would have dreamed he wouldn’t fight for us,” one South Park resident said. “I can’t get over that.”

In an emailed statement, Gloria reiterated his position that since Target will not change the use of the building (retail space), and since Target’s occupancy of the space will be the result of a lease agreement between two private entities, his ability to intervene in the situation is limited. He also praised the corporation’s concessions made on behalf the community.

“I was also pleased to hear that the store is being designed to serve the needs of the community,” Gloria said in the statement. “Specifically, dedicating 40 percent of the store to groceries and including a pharmacy will benefit the neighborhood. In what I feel is an important show of understanding of the neighborhood, Target has agreed not to include a Starbucks in the store. This ensures that the neighborhood establishments we know and love can continue to be the local coffee shops for South Park residents. At this time, the store will also include technology, health and beauty, as well as some clothing items.”

TargetExpress representatives project the store will open in October 2015.

—Contact Hutton Marshall at [email protected].

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