Third time not a charm for Wal-Mart

Gresham hearings officer reaffirms denial of controversial application

By Chad Abraham
The Gresham Outlook
(click above for original story, including reader comments)

Saying Wal-Mart’s developer had not met its burden of proof regarding traffic impacts, the city of Gresham’s hearings officer again denied the company’s bid to build at a busy intersection.

The company has 21 days to decide if it wants to appeal Joe Turner’s decision to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals. Foes of the proposed 122,000-square-foot “super store” hailed the decision.

“There will be a huge sigh of relief in Gresham today,” said Michael Price of Gresham First, a neighborhood group that led the opposition to the store. “We were all hoping that Turner would stand by his earlier conclusion – that the project would create unsafe conditions at a site near three schools and a popular walking trail.

“But it was still nerve-racking to have the fate of our community up in the air.”

Wal-Mart’s developer, PacLand, “failed to sustain its burden of proof that the proposed development will comply with (city code),” Turner wrote in his ruling. “Specifically … the applicant failed to demonstrate that traffic generated by the proposed development will not cause the intersection of 182nd Avenue/Highland Drive and Powell Boulevard to exceed the minimum level of service and volume” requirements of the code.

The rejection is Wal-Mart’s third. The company appealed Turner’s previous denial, in November 2006, to the Land Use Board of Appeals, as did the Hollybrook, Southwest and Centennial neighborhoods. Neither side was happy with Turner’s decision, and the board voted in early April to send the case back to him for “certain additional information,” Turner wrote.

At issue is how vehicles would exit the store’s parking lot. Wal-Mart’s traffic analysis contended that 60 percent of customers heading for the intersection of 182nd Avenue/Highland Drive and Powell Boulevard would leave via “the eastern route,” approaching on westbound Powell. The remaining customers would choose the western route, exiting via 11th Avenue/Highland Drive and approaching the intersection on Highland Drive, according to Wal-Mart’s forecast.

But Turner said “if more drivers than expected choose to utilize the Western Route, the 182nd Avenue/Highland Drive/Powell Boulevard intersection may fail.” Using the company’s predictions, the intersection, with the proposed store, would “operate very close to capacity during the (evening) peak hour. … Therefore even a minor change in trip distribution may have a significant impact on the applicant’s analysis” and cause more traffic than allowed by city code, his ruling says.

The company’s traffic models are not “sufficiently accurate to demonstrate that the (intersection) will comply” with city regulations when the store starts generating traffic.

Wal-Mart originally envisioned a 220,000-square-foot superstore at the site. Company planners winnowed that to a 122,000-square-foot proposal, which was approved by Gresham officials in July 2006.

Turner denied it a few months later, leading to the appeal by the company and the neighborhood associations, and the land use board’s subsequent decision to place it back in Turner’s hands.

Turner ruled without additional hearings, deeming the existing record sufficient.

It is unknown if Wal-Mart, which owns the land at 3900 W. Powell Blvd., will appeal again to the state land use board. A message left at a Portland law firm representing Wal-Mart in the area was not immediately returned Thursday.