MEMPHIS OFFICE OF PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT REJECTS ‘UNSUSTAINABLE’ WAL-MART PLAN
The Memphis and Shelby County Office of Planning and Development recommends to reject Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s proposed supercenter store at Macon and Houston Levee in Cordova.
The mega-retailer’s revised site plan, which has been reduced to 151,908 square feet, will come before the Land Use Control Board Thursday. A previous application was withdrawn from consideration earlier this year.
According to a Monday report by Chip Saliba, manager of land use controls at the OPD, the intersection will not sustain a supercenter with a regional draw despite improvements made to the proposed site plan in comparison to Wal-Mart’s prior submittal. These improvements include a smaller structure, greater building setback from the west, more landscaping, reduced parking and a commitment to provide off-site intersection improvements to all four legs of the Houston Levee/Macon Road intersection. The proposed building would also bear Wal-Mart’s new corporate logo, that the Memphis Business Journal reported June 26, and incorporate new design elements that aim to lessen its “big-box” effect.
Still, “it remains the opinion of the staff that the existing public facilities (namely roads), cannot absorb the impact of introducing a regional-sized retail facility such as this Wal-Mart Super Center,” Saliba stated.
While commercial development is authorized for the Cordova site, “it should be phased or of a smaller scale to permit the construction of public facilities to keep pace with development of the property and surrounding area,” the report states. “More mixed uses in smaller buildings or tenant spaces with varied business hours of operation, rather than a dominant single user, would better disperse traffic and lessen demand on the transportation infrastructure.”
Dennis Alpert, a spokesman for Wal-Mart, said the company is “disappointed in the LUCB staff report recommendation.”
“We’ve made significant improvements to our original submittal and, in a number of areas, have made these improvements proactively and in addition to requests made by the planning commission and LUCB,” he said. “We look forward to Thursday’s meeting as an opportunity to present the facts of this proposal and improvements made to the plan as well as the road improvements we have committed to make in order to improve the overall feasibility of our project.”
Alpert said Wal-Mart has gathered more than 2,000 signatures from nearby residents supporting the project. Gray’s Creek Association and the Cordova Leadership Council are still holding out, according to OPD documents and the MBJ report from June 26.
Based in Bentonville, Ark., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) is the world’s largest public company, according to Fortune 500, and its largest retailer.
Posted by Joel Nezianya on Tuesday, July 08, 2008
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