CONTROVERSIAL WAL-MART PROJECT BEGINS IN FENTON, MI

Fenton Wal-Mart project begins Wednesday [Flint Journal (Mich.)]

The supersizing of the city’s Wal-Mart by 52,000 square feet to make room for a grocery and pharmacy is expected to begin Wednesday.

The retailer pulled building permits Thursday, and a pre-construction meeting is set for Tuesday at City Hall, said Bradley Hissong, Fenton’s zoning and building administrator.

Construction starts Wednesday and should be completed in 11 months, said Shawn Pnacek of Three Rivers Company in Midland, the general contractor on the job.

The store will remain open during construction, Hissong said.

Wal-Mart received city approvals to proceed with a “supercenter” in April 2007 but has been negotiating with local officials on minimizing the impact of the construction and an enlarged Wal-Mart on neighbors to the immediate west in Silver Ridge subdivision, off Owen Road.

The negotiations, led by Hissong, resulted in Wal-Mart agreeing that construction workers will begin no earlier than 7 a.m. and quit by 7 p.m. on exterior work.

And, construction crews will exit and enter from Silver Parkway—the drive through Silver Lake Village shopping center—not Owen Road.

Silver Ridge residents have opposed the expansion from the outset, expressing concerns about groundwater contamination, increased traffic, noise and hours.
During and after the approval process for the supercenter, Wal-Mart agreed to several concessions, including:

• Reducing the expansion by 20,000 square feet—scrapping plans to enlarge the garden center and add an oil, lube and tire center.

• Shifting the position of the building addition from west to southwest.

• Eliminating 30 parking spaces on the west side of the building, per Hissong’s request.

• Widening the left-turn lane on Silver Parkway to accommodate more traffic.

• Banning delivery trucks from the west side of the building.

• Operating the store from 6 a.m.-midnight, not the 24 hours a day Wal-Mart first requested. The store currently is open from 7 a.m.-10 p.m.

• Adding more landscaping, and submitting a maintenance plan for a detention pond.

• Upgrading the exterior with a new look and improved building materials.

“I’m very pleased,” Hissong said.

“Along with the expansion and providing people in the city more access to groceries and creating new jobs, the concessions should make it less offensive to neighbors.”

Tammi Eggleston lives about four houses down from a brick-wall buffer Wal-Mart built to settle a lawsuit over its first proposal for a supercenter in the 1990s.

She said she appreciated the concessions the city has won, “if that’s the best they can do. But I’d rather have the Wal-Mart stay the way it is.”

Eggleston said she doesn’t know how the construction will affect her quality of life, but “if it’s unbearable, I won’t hesitate to call City Hall and complain.”

Pnacek tried to reassure neighbors.

“We’re going to be as accommodating as possible within the restrictions that have been set,” he said. “We want everybody to be happy.”