WASHINGTON SITE FIGHT: LOOKING AT NEXT STEPS

Tumwater residents consider next step in Wal-Mart plans [The Olympian]

TUMWATER — Residents say they are reviewing a final environmental report released Friday on a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter before deciding on a next step.

“We’re paying attention, and we’re working with the community,” said Sherry Buckner, a leader of Tumwater Liveable Community, a citizens group that opposes the project. “We’re also communicating with other organizations that have concerns about Wal-Mart.”

The deadline to appeal the final environmental-impact statement is June 29. If there isn’t an appeal, the project will move forward to the city’s development services department for it to process a construction permit application.

“This is an allowed use for that zoning district,” said Roger Gellenbeck, the city’s development services director.

“We don’t regulate the size of the building, but we do regulate tree preservation and minimums and maximums for parking spaces.”

As part of the building-permit process, Wal-Mart likely would ask the City Council for a decision on relocating Kingswood Drive, which bisects the proposed parking lot, City Manager Doug Baker said. Three of the five site-design options released Friday call for Kingswood Drive to relocated to the southern perimeter of the property for safety reasons.

“It makes a better site design,” Baker said Friday.

The City Council could schedule a public hearing about the issue, he added.

An appeal, which only can be based on the adequacy of the EIS and not the merits of the project, would delay the project by requiring review by a Tumwater hearing examiner. The hearing examiner’s decision would be appealable to the Tumwater City Council and Thurston County Superior Court.

The environmental-impact statement, posted online and available for purchase at City Hall, concludes that if appropriate steps are taken, no significant adverse environmental effects will occur from any of five alternative Wal-Mart designs presented.

Buckner was one of about 50 residents to submit written comments last year after the release of a draft EIS.

“I believe that the document is misleading in many areas, that the manner in which data was collected is prejudicial and fails to accurately account for the real environmental impacts of a proposed Wal-Mart store,” Buckner wrote last year.

She said Friday she had not had a chance to review the entire final document to see if her concerns were addressed.

Resident Heather Briggs also handed in a comment letter last year, but hers was in favor of the new store.

“My friends and family and I would love to express our full support of a Wal-Mart here in Tumwater,” she wrote. “As it is, we drive to Lacey for all our low-cost needs, but would absolutely be thrilled at the possibility of one as close as just across the freeway.” Briggs said Friday she still feels that way and is eager for the store to open.

The report released Friday includes five options for either a 187,000-square-foot or a 207,000-square-foot supercenter on 21 acres at 5900 Littlerock Road S.W. Each design option also includes a garden center ranging from 19,755 to 20,602 square feet.

Two of the alternatives have a separate lot that would be leased for a gasoline station. The report concludes that the alternatives with the smaller store design — and without the lot for the gas station — would remove fewer trees, generate less traffic and have less potential for release of hazardous materials that could get into the water supply.

However, an economic analysis indicates that the scaled-down design would reduce revenue to the city and have fewer positive effects on the area economy than the larger models.

Baker said city staff members would work with Wal-Mart officials to determine which of the five options best fits all regulations, after the Kingswood Drive relocation issue is settled.

If built, the Tumwater Wal-Mart will be the third in Thurston County, after the first one in Lacey and a second to open this summer in Yelm. The Tumwater project has been in the works since December 2004.