Duluth, GA. Wal-Mart Keeps Fighting

Wal-Mart, Duluth face off on issue [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

Wal-Mart may have lost the first round in Duluth last week.

But the retailer still plans to build a Supercenter on 27 acres at Peachtree Industrial Boulevard and Sugarloaf Parkway, said spokesman Glen Wilkins.

The city’s Zoning Board of Appeals sided with neighbors last Wednesday in deciding that the retailer had improperly received permission from the city’s interim planning director to deviate from city building standards. Any deviation from city code, the board ruled, needed to come from the zoning board, not a city administrator.

In light of that — and the city’s moratorium on buildings more than 75,000 square feet — is Wal-Mart even considering building anything smaller in that neighborhood?

No, said Wilkins.

“The market demands that we build a store that ensures we’re able to provide the best service to our customer,” he said. “By reducing the size, we’re not able to get the product on the shelf or have the parking our customers demand.”

Wal-Mart’s own appeal to the zoning board is still pending. The store appealed Duluth’s decision to deny it a building permit, but the board of appeals put off a decision last week. The board may take it up again next month.

The retailer says Duluth was wrong to reject its building permit in August because of a building moratorium Wal-Mart’s attorney called questionable.

If Wal-Mart decides to reapply for variances to the city’s code, which require certain roof pitches and materials, the matter would be considered at the November meeting as well.

Its next move, Wilkins said, is still being worked out.

Susan Garrett, the attorney who represents Smart Growth Gwinnett, a group of neighbors who oppose Wal-Mart, said her clients are waiting to see what Wal-Mart does next.

“If [Wal-Mart] goes ahead and applies for the variances, Smart Growth will oppose the approval before the Zoning Board of Appeals. Their other option . . . is going to Superior Court to appeal the board’s decision.”

If that happens, Garrett said, her clients and the others who appealed would ask the court to let them intervene in support of the board’s decision last week.

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Monday, October 29, 2007

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