Venice, CA. Wal-Mart Meets More Opposition

More challenges to Wal-Mart filed in Venice [Charlotte Sun-Herald (Calif.)]

It’s not about the proposed Wal-Mart or the planned hotel, say representatives of a group of Venetian Golf & River Club residents who filed two appeals. It’s about creating a mixed-use neighborhood versus a big box, regional shopping center.

Last week it was the Renaissance project developer who filed an appeal over a planning commission decision denying its Wal-Mart site plan.

Now it’s neighbors of the proposed 73-acre Renaissance project who are filing the appeals.

On Nov. 21 Marshall Happer turned in the appeals paperwork, along with a petition containing 183 signatures of residents who live in neighboring Venetian Golf & River Club on Laurel Road, and a check covering the $600 filing fee.

Their strategy is to bring the entire project before city council for review instead of challenging the project piecemeal.

The proposed development was divided up into four phases by the planning department, but now that the newest site plans have changed for one of the phases, Happer is concerned the other phases could change significantly down the road, altering the entire project irreversibly.

“The concept we understood was this was going to be mixed use,” Happer said. “The fundamental issue is whether the area will be a neighborhood or a regional shopping center.”

He’s also concerned the planning commission didn’t adequately address traffic congestion.

“Two of the greatest reasons (not to create a regional shopping center) is Knights Trail and Laurel Roads.

“If you are going to pick a location for a regional shopping center with box stores, you don’t want to pick a location with dead ends.”

Happer said the developer has proposed selling the property by tracts.

“None of that has been placed on the table and looked at,” he said.

The nature of things
Michael Rigdon, who signed the appeals on behalf of the Venetian Golf & River Club petitioners, questioned the development based on the overall master plan for that part of the city. He called it mostly nonexistent.

“It (the comprehensive plan) increases density toward Interstate 75, and changes from residential on the island to commercial to industrial,” he said. “To me, that’s not a master plan, it’s a sketch. We believe there should be a plan for this area of the city.

“I understand the area is (zoned) commercial general. I support some commercial development in the area because we need it desperately. We need stores and a neighborhood shopping center, not a big box superstore. That’s what’s (planned) in there now.”

“The Knights Trail Village in the draft comprehensive plan ... what we worry about is next we will have a series of regional big-box retail centers that would change the nature of this area, and mark it as a retail rather than a neighborhood,” Rigdon said.

Specifics
The group is appealing the commission’s approval on Nov. 6 of the Renaissance development’s phase 1A site plan involving a hotel and retail stores on the western portion of the project. It claims the height exceptions originally granted were contingent upon the 700-unit residential component of the plan that was later pared down to 200 units, and a central park that was replaced with a Wal-Mart.

Now that the park and residential units are scaled back, there’s no longer a reason to grant the height exception in phase 1A, Rigdon said.

The other appeal supports the Nov. 6 planning commission decision that denied the 1B portion of the plan—the Wal-Mart retail center site plan.

Last week, attorney for Waterford Companies Mark Barnebey appealed that decision, arguing the proposed retail center is a permitted use in the commercial general zoning district, a designation allowed under the property’s land use designation.

Filing the second appeal could provide Marshall and his followers a chance to be heard before city council on the matter.

“If we hadn’t filed an appeal, city council would be stuck with that and not look at the whole picture,” Happer said. “We don’t think any of that has been properly looked at. Now is the time to study it and deal with it as a whole, not in bits.”