Wal-Mart to try for smaller store

From the Oregonian:

Wal-Mart offers smaller store for Gresham site
Supercenter - The retailer counters earlier objections by reapplying with a scaled-down plan
Friday, December 02, 2005
CATHERINE TREVISON

GRESHAM -- Wal-Mart hasn't given up on building a Gresham supercenter.

The company recently paid $7.83 million for land at Powell Boulevard and 182nd Avenue -- the location where Gresham refused to let it build a 210,000-square-foot supercenter earlier this year because it would generate too much traffic.

On Wednesday, company representatives told a city planner that Wal-Mart will reapply to build a scaled-down supercenter on the land, arguing that a smaller store wouldn't draw as many cars. Though smaller, the plan would still include a grocery store and 36 departments of general merchandise.

"We're committed to this location. We think it's an excellent location for a store to serve our customers," said Eric Berger, a Wal-Mart spokesman. He said chain's supercenters range from 100,000 to 220,000 square feet.

The new Gresham proposal may include a Wal-Mart of about 112,000 square feet and another retail building of about 9,000 square feet.

Wal-Mart's first application was one of the most controversial in Gresham's history. More than 1,000 people wrote letters and cards to the city, most objecting to the development. A group called GreshamFirst formed to oppose a supercenter at the location and gathered more than 6,000 signatures on a petition against the store.

The city refused to allow the store, after Senior City Planner Jim Wheeler ruled the traffic it would generate would jam nearby intersections, causing them to fall below city standards. Wal-Mart's planned road improvements couldn't fix the problems safely, Wheeler ruled. Last month, a city hearings officer agreed.

Instead of appealing to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals, the company scaled down its proposal. It plans a new traffic study that will focus mainly on driveways and on the two intersections that Wheeler identified as problems.

A GreshamFirst spokeswoman, Javon Gilmore, said her group would not automatically oppose a scaled-down store. People had a variety of concerns about the store that ranged from the environment to Wal-Mart's business practices, she said.

"Whether people will welcome a smaller store will be an interesting question," she said. "I think we really need to see (a proposal) first."

A neighborhood leader who fought Wal-Mart's original proposal said he doubted a smaller store would draw less traffic.

"I'm kind of burned out with it, but we have to stick with it," said Rick Dwyer, chairman of the Centennial Neighborhood Association. "I hope everybody has the energy to go through this again."

Researcher Kathleen Blythe contributed to this report.

The original story can be found here.