Denison, IA. Planning Commission Approves Wal-Mart’s Request

Wal-Mart annexation request passes board [Southwest Iowa News]

Denison’s Planning Commission voted Monday noon to approve Wal-Mart’s request for voluntary annexation of property located immediately north and west of the city limits.
The planning commission’s approval sends Wal-Mart’s annexation request along the trail of other steps to complete.

Wal-Mart is requesting voluntary annexation of two parcels of property located north of Fareway and the Region XII bus barn on Avenue C. Those properties are owned by Bradley J. and Juliann E. Nelson, and by Donna Ahart and Shirley Ahart. (A legal description of the property is included with this article.)

The main entrance to the new Wal-Mart store would be accessed by traveling north on Arrowhead Drive.

Ryan Horn, senior manager of public affairs for Wal-Mart, told the Denison Bulletin in a telephone interview Monday afternoon that the Denison Wal-Mart Supercenter is in the early stages of the planning process.

The new store will cover approximately 100,000 square feet. Horn said the current Denison Wal-Mart store is about 50,000 square feet.

Pat Stoll, chairman of the Planning & Zoning Commission, pointed out the old Highway 59 right of way (current Avenue C) has some large power lines and water mains for rural water. He wanted to make sure those easements remain.

Planning & Zoning member Ken Madsen asked if anybody would do something about the intersection of Highway 59/141 and Arrowhead Road. That is a DOT project, Stoll indicated.

Richard Petersen of the city’s code enforcement department pointed out that after the annexation is approved, Wal-Mart would have to come to the Planning & Zoning Commission again to have the property zoned C-1, Highway Commercial.

City Manager Greg Seefeldt told the Denison Bulletin that Wal-Mart had contacted the DOT about the traffic pattern at the new store location; Horn said he believes Wal-Mart’s engineers and land attorney had, indeed, talked to the DOT, and believes the traffic pattern will be better in the new location.

“Anytime you upgrade the infrastructure, you want it to be a better situation to handle the needs of the community, for a good ways into the future,” Horn said.

Seefeldt added that the city is not required to conduct studies such as the impact a new Wal-Mart store would have on the uptown area, nor is the city requiring Wal-Mart to conduct such a study at this point.

According to a copy of the Iowa Code section regarding voluntary annexation, there are a number of steps that have to be met in the process. The city has to provide written notice to the county board of supervisors and the township trustees, and set a time for a consultation on the proposed annexation between the city and the county and township.

Nonconsenting owners and public utilities must also be notified during the process.

The city must also set a public hearing on the application for voluntary annexation before approving it or denying it.

The motion to approve the voluntary annexation request and to move the process along was approved by a vote of 4-0, with two members abstaining. Yes votes came from Bob Hudson, Brenda Martens, Pat Stoll and Ken Madsen. Dan Ahart and Brad Bonner abstained due to conflict of interest. Another member, Chuck Pollack, was not present at Monday’s meeting.

Wal-Mart rep talks about new store plans

Ryan Horn, senior manager of public affairs for Wal-Mart, gave the Denison Bulletin some details about the plans to build a 100,000 square foot Supercenter in Denison.

He explained the 100,000 square foot Supercenter is the smallest Supercenter prototype. The Supercenter being constructed in Carroll, by comparison, is 150,000 square feet and represents the middle range of the Supercenter stores that Wal-Mart currently builds, Horn stated.

He said the top size for a Supercenter is 200,000 square feet, but currently 180,000 square feet is the largest size built.

“The smaller prototype is a great prototype for smaller towns and rural areas. It is a convenient size store to get in and out of,” said Horn.

He stated the new Denison Supercenter would be similar in size to one constructed in Pella.

“It will be a full Supercenter,” said Horn. “It will have a full grocery store, a deli and bakery - it would pretty much have everything you would expect in a Supercenter.”

The new store will not have an auto or tire center, and whether the store would have other services in the front, such as a hair salon or vision center, would depend on the final plan, Horn stated. He said if the new Denison store has a vestibule in the front for this service, there would be only one vestibule.

“The main area where people will see growth in the square footage compared to the old store is from adding the grocery store,” said Horn. “Typically, that varies around 25 percent of the total store space.”

“The store would have a similar product selection of the general merchandise,” he added. “It would have some expanded selection, particularly in paint, hardware, sporting goods and toys. The selection might be a little bit better in the new store. We’re looking, generally, at the same line of merchandise.”

Horn continued the aisles will be wider to accommodate more traffic and bigger carts, so customers can pass each other in the aisles. He said there would be more check-out stands in the front so customers don’t have to wait in line.

Horn said the annexation was requested because, in general, Wal-Mart likes to be in the city.

“There are exceptions in some cases,” he added. “But certainly the store prefers to be in the city. It helps the store be a better part of the community, and helps pay the taxes and infrastructure for the community.”

Horn said the land Wal-Mart is looking at is under contract and that there is a signed purchase agreement.

When the property is annexed into the city and the zoning granted, then Wal-Mart would close on the agreement.

Horn said Wal-Mart doesn’t set a construction timeline until the city approval process is completed.

“The process of working through plans with the city leaders takes time and needs to be given its time,” he stated.

When asked about energy-efficiency measures used by the store, Horn did say Wal-Mart was looking at the store being built in probably two or three years.

He said, comparing the differences in Wal-Mart store designs from two or three years ago to today, the stores today are more ‘green’.

“This is an ongoing process,” Horn said of the energy efficiency measures. “The Denison store won’t be an experimental store, per se, but we would fully expect a number of things that would go into the store would be on the edge of environmental efficiency.”

Wal-Mart currently has experimental stores for energy efficiency in Texas, Colorado and Kansas City.

Some of the improvements Horn mentioned are motion detectors in freezers, so the freezer lights only turn on when someone is in that aisle, and a light harvesting system, which adjusts the store lighting according to how much light is coming through the roof.

Wal-Mart owns its current building in Denison, and Horn said Wal-Mart will actively market the building, using a division of the company, Wal-Mart Realty.

“I think they will be successful here,” he stated. “It’s very good that Wal-Mart owns the building. It is much easier to sell or lease a building you own. An indicator in stores we’ve owned and relocated in the past two years, it’s hard to find one that wasn’t sold by the time we opened a new store.”

Horn mentioned stores in Pella as an example of that, and said that the Carroll building is already under contract and the new store hasn’t opened yet.

Wal-Mart is requesting voluntary annexation for the following property: The NE ¼ SW ¼ in Section 3-83-39, except that real estate deeded to the state of Iowa for highway purposes Lot 2 of subdivision of lot 2 of the subdivision of the S ½ SW ¼ of section 3-83-39 The annexation would be subject to any and all easements, restrictions and conditions of record. The first parcel of property is listed as owned by Bradley J. Nelson and Juliann E. Nelson. The latter property is listed as owned by Donna Ahart and Shirley Ahart.