But Robert Farrington, executive director of the Downtown Alliance, said the demise of local businesses is usually not enough to deter residents from shopping at big-box stores like Wal-Mart and Home Depot. In fact, he said, stores like Wal-Mart thrive in Utah neighborhoods despite the outcry from residents.

"If you don't want these stores, it can't just be an academic discussion," he said. "You have to vote with your feet and your pocketbook."

Farrington added that possible harm to local businesses is also no match for city leaders anxious to beef up city coffers. Losing sales tax dollars from a Wal-Mart or Home Depot often trumps residential concerns, he said.

Eighty percent of respondents ranked tax revenues as a very important or somewhat important factor in deciding to allow a big-box store in their town. The store's impact on traffic, noise and crime was weighed about equally, with 83 percent ranking it as an important consideration.

Competitive prices came in slightly lower, with 76 percent of those surveyed ranking it as an important factor.

Millcreek resident Dina Blaes, a vocal opponent of a new Home Depot opening today in her neighborhood, said the focus on sales tax revenues has led to "predatory practices" among cities intent on recruiting and keeping big-box retailers within city boundaries.

"Communities are looking for new commercial development that will boost sales tax revenue," she said. "That's why Cottonwood Heights incorporated. They didn't want to lose revenue to Sandy or Murray. They incorporated to protect themselves."

Sandy City Councilman Scott Cowdell is not shy about the fact that his vote to welcome the Wal-Mart into Sandy was a purely economic decision to prevent sales tax dollars from being poached by nearby towns.

"The bottom line is tax revenue. We would never allow these types of businesses if we didn't need money from them," Cowdell said.

Kinde Nebeker, president of the Salt Lake Vest Pocket Coalition, said the emphasis on tax revenues in the big-box debate is allowing big-box retailers to creep into towns across Utah and the nation.

"It makes one feel queasy inside because it reminds you of cancer or something the way it spreads over everything," she said. "It is not ultimately healthy for the community at large."

Nebeker said her group, along with the Downtown Alliance, is trying to refocus shoppers back to locally owned businesses that add character to communities. Warehouse retailers, she added, only take away from that community feel.

"Wal-Mart will cannibalize their own market and leave these large empty buildings which devastate the fabric of the community," she said. "But there is something about convenience and price that's hard to beat."

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Contributing: Leigh Dethman.

E-mail: estewart@desnews.com; jnii@desnews.com