N.B. for headline-readers: the land use restrictions in question are deed covenants, not zoning restrictions.
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Also nobody was murdered
just metaphorically crushed under the boot of capitalism
And the boot of big government.
The vacant store has a 100 miles of literal desert in each direction and nobody can build a competing store because the environmental review process is weaponized.
that's not the issue -- it's much much more expensive to build a store on undeveloped land, even if it weren't restricted, than remodel an existing structure
are we reading the same article? It talks about lawsuits aimed to stop grocery store construction as well.
>In Mammoth Lakes, Vons is the main supermarket, and there are suspicions they have been working to limit the construction and growth of a competitor, Grocery Outlet, through environmental claims. In 2017, a group, Sustainable Mammoth Lakes, filed to prevent the construction of a small Grocery Outlet occupying slightly more than one acre, with just 49 parking spots, on a spot that had already had commercial building and was close to a highway.
that's a separate issue than leasing the empty KMart (another strategy for blocking competitors but a separate issue nonetheless)
My point is that they go hand in hand. I started my original statement with the word AND.
If you have a protracted legal battle for a new construction, intense zoning regulation, and laws against new development, then of course you will have all kinds of games played to control the existing supply.
See also: housing
You know, I miss the times where these big merger companies at least laid low for a few years before enacting obvious greed. I don't even think the merger is finalized yet and the fact that this kind of stuff isn't a death kiss for the trials is a failure in and of itself.