WAL-MART EYES SOLEDAD, CA

SOLEDAD: Wal-Mart has eye on Soledad [The Salinas Californian]

The fast-growing city of Soledad wants to expand its retail base giving residents more opportunities for work and shopping.

After negotiations between Target stores and Soledad officials fell through earlier this year, developers are seeking Wal-Mart as a possible anchor store at the proposed Soledad Plaza Shopping Center, slated to be built at San Vicente Road and Front Street.

If approved, the proposal could replace what’s now a 45-acre lettuce field with a 215,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Superstore, similar to one in Gilroy, by summer 2009.

Not all residents are pleased with the prospect of a super Wal-Mart coming to town.

In a letter to the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, former Soledad Mayor Jack Franscioni said the impacts of building such a large store need to be carefully examined.

“Once this store opens, how soon before our beautiful landscape is pitted with other giant box stores,” Franscioni said in the letter.

During a Soledad City Council meeting in May, a Wal-Mart spokesman said the store would create about 400 jobs and bring tax revenue to the city.

Supporters of the project say Wal-Mart will bring low-cost shopping to a city where many residents are on limited budgets.

In a May 29 letter to The Salinas Californian, four residents said the city’s fast-growing population needs options to contribute to the city’s retail tax base, and the store will save people money.

“The biggest majority of us need to save money where we can,” Beverly and Jim Willitts, Brenda Pierce and April Liedke said in the letter.

The City Council has yet to vote on the future of the proposed shopping center. But residents shared concerns for more than an hour during a meeting last month.

City Councilman Juan Saavedra said the project’s environmental impact report is being circulated but the council hasn’t yet received a formal presentation about the document.

“We’re not even at that level to know (these) things,” Saavedra said, declining to comment further.

Soledad’s city manager and economic development director did not return calls seeking comment.

Mayor Richard Ortiz was also not available for comment.

Posted by Joel Nezianya on Monday, June 16, 2008

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