MUTINY IN VENICE, FL?

Venice Wal-Mart project gets the critics on its side [Herald Tribune (Fla.)]

In a stunning reversal, neighborhood groups that for nearly a year fought Mike Miller’s 73-acre Wal-Mart Renaissance project on east Laurel Road showed up at Tuesday’s City Council meeting to urge its approval.

After four hours of nothing but positive comments from residents, business leaders, city staff and Council members, the Council did just that and approved the project unanimously.

Miller made a number of changes since Wal-Mart first proposed building a 200,000- square-foot store, which the Planning Commission denied last fall. The Council was scheduled to hear Miller’s appeal of that denial and another issue by neighboring residents of the Venetian Golf and River Club, but both sides announced they had reached an agreement before the Council took up the issue Tuesday.

After a brief recess so City Attorney Bob Anderson could review the agreement and figure out how the Council needed to consider the issue, the Council took up the Renaissance project.

Miller agreed to 10 stipulations that included widening Laurel Road from two to four lanes in front of the development. He also agreed to: add more landscape buffering and a higher berm so the retail store was less visible from Laurel Road; move a park closer to the project’s eastern border with Willow Chase subdivision; create a faux main street with varying roofing pitches and building colors that cloak the big-box store look; add more sidewalks throughout the project and work with an advisory group of residents as outparcels of the project come forward for council approval.

Miller and the residents started meeting in June to work through their differences.

“The previous team failed to communicate the benefits of the project,” Miller said. He estimated it would bring 300 jobs a year to the area and millions of dollars in tax revenue.

Planning and Zoning Director Tom Slaughter told the Council the project met all the zoning requirements. Miller’s landscape and traffic engineers answered Council questions. Then resident after resident and businessperson after businessperson spoke in favor of the project, many also praising Miller’s flexibility.

“I’m here to say thank you to Mr. Miller,” said Imogene Rigdon, a Venetian Golf and River Club resident who had been critical of the project. “I am uplifted in my spirits.”

Marshall Happer, another River Club resident who protested the project last year said Miller “acted in good faith” and let him and other residents question his traffic engineers and contractors independently.

“He proved to us that the existing infrastructure can handle this development,” Happer said.

The approval does not mean construction of a Wal-Mart—or other big block anchor store—will begin anytime soon, however.

After the Planning Commission denied the project last fall, Wal-Mart let its option on the land expire. With the housing downturn and few commercial projects advancing, it is not clear when an anchor retailer will begin building.

“We’re all going to go to Bentonville to see if we can get Wal-Mart back,” Miller said after the Council’s vote.

Posted by Tony Calero on Wednesday, August 13, 2008