Pittsfield, MI. Wal-Mart Store Plans Press On, Depsite Years of Delay

Wal-Mart building expected in 2008 [Ann Arbor News (Mich.)]

Construction of the new Wal-Mart store at State Road and US-12 in Pittsfield Township probably won’t get started until late winter or early spring 2008, a company spokesman said.

If so, that will be more than five years after the company first applied to build the store, spawning an intense opposition movement and a failed attempt to recall three township officials.

Wal-Mart spokesman Nick Infante acknowledged that the store has taken a long time to get built since it was first proposed in late 2002, but he said Wal-Mart is still committed to the project. “We’re still going,’’ Infante said. If work begins early next year, the store could open in mid-summer 2008, he said.

Infante said the company is still working with the Washtenaw County Road Commission on engineering plans for road improvements around the new store. He expects those plans to be done by the end of this month. After that, it may take the company one or two months to find a contractor to build the store and do the road work, Infante said.

Workers have already completed most of the grounds and parking lot work on the 32-acre site, he said.

“We’ve done about as much as we can do at this point,’’ Infante said.

The store got its first site plan approval in February 2006 and some site preparation began in July of that year. Wal-Mart filed a new site plan last October so it could expand the store into a supercenter and got conditional approval for that in April.

A building permit has been available since late July, said Paul Montagno, senior planner for Pittsfield Township, though Wal-Mart has not asked for it yet.

Wal-Mart agreed in November 2005 to pay for extensive road improvements around the store, including new traffic lanes and signals. Those improvements are expected to cost about $4 million.

Roy Townsend, director of engineering at the Road Commission, said the extent of the improvements, complications with underground utilities and the fact that the Michigan Department of Transportation also must approve the final engineering plans, have made issuing permits for the road work a long process.

“The plans are quite involved,’’ Townsend said.

Meanwhile, some building has begun for a smaller, adjacent commercial development called State Street Crossing along State Road close to US-12. That development is expected to contain restaurants and small retail businesses.

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Monday, September 10, 2007

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