Kentucky Site Fight: Wal-Mart Opponents Will Be Ready

August date set for Wal-Mart public Hearing [Cincinnati (Ohio) Enquirer]

Opponents of a planned Wal-Mart Supercenter in Florence say they will be ready when Boone County Planning Commission holds a hearing on the plan Aug. 1.

On Thursday, the commission set the new date after the scheduled hearing was canceled last week.

The hearing will be at 7:30 p.m. at Burlington Elementary School. Anyone for or against the Wal-Mart will be allowed to speak.

Wal-Mart wants to build a second Supercenter in Florence, at the intersection of U.S. 42 and Weaver Road. The store is asking the commission and City Council for a zone change for the 35-acre site, which is zoned industrial.

Rachel Warren, who heads Boone County Residents for Responsible Growth, came to Thursday’s meeting so she could tell the more than 100 members about the new date.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if a couple hundred people show up,” she said.

The group has gathered thousands of names on a petition against the store.

Last Friday, Wal-Mart asked that the hearing, which had been planned for Thursday, be canceled so it could revise the traffic study it submitted to the commission.

Both the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and the city of Florence asked for more information than was included in the study prepared by CESO Inc. for Wal-Mart.

Florence’s traffic consultant listed 25 problems with Wal-Mart’s study and determined he could not completely analyze the study because of “concerns for accuracy.”

Traffic has become the most important issue concerning the Wal-Mart.

Residents say the store will create more traffic than already congested U.S. 42 can handle.

The site is in unincorporated Boone County, but Florence has taken a first reading to annex it. Florence City Council will have final say on the zone change.

Posted by Corey Himrod on Monday, July 09, 2007

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