Highlights of changes to the Wal-Mart planned for Northcross

Tom Linehan

Representatives of the Allandale Neighborhood Association and RG4N met with Lincoln Properties' attorney Bruce Scrafford Wednesday night to get an overview of the changes planned for the Wal-Mart at Northcross. The most important change is the store will be 1/2 the size (99,600 square feet) of what was originally planned. It will not be a Supercenter. The revised plans will retain the design and materials originally presented however it will be a single-story structure without a multi-level parking lot.  Lincoln and Wal-Mart will be submitting a revised site plan to the city in the next week or two. There was no Wal-Mart representative at the meeting. Wal-Mart is putting together a Fact Sheet on the new plans and wasn't ready with the details for the meeting.

Once the site plan is submitted it could take the City a month or longer to review and approve. There were many questions regarding traffic impact and mitigation measures, truck routes, access to the center from the bus stop, security, etc. Bruce was not prepared to answer a number of the questions as they were Wal-Mart specific. He did say he doesn't anticipate that more than 30 to 40 percent of the store will be grocery. The remainder will be general retail. The truck routes will be the same as originally agreed.

The same is true for the hours of operation - closed 1 to 5 a.m. except for seasonal.  Water quality treatment and drainage improvements are the same as what was originally submitted which should more than address the needs given they exceed what's currently in place. He mentioned they are looking into a way to make whatever is worked out that is not a part of the site plan binding. Here's are the points Bruce went over:

Building Area
- no parking structure
- one story building that will be 99,600 square feet
- the mall itself will be 90,000 square feet  smaller

Traffic
- the significant reduction in size will result in significant reduction in traffic
- No refund is being sought for the prior developer contribution to the City for traffic improvements
- Wal-Mart is still studying improvements to the intersection at Anderson and Northcross

Landscape
- there will be more trees planted than included in the original site plan
- more sidewalk and buffer landscaping than in original site plan
- more landscape area and less impervious cover than original plan

Water Quality and Drainage
- approximately 1/2 acre of additional landscape area and reduction in impervious cover will improve performance of water quality and drainage control features

Garden Center
- No Garden Center

Next step is for Lincoln to submit the revised site plan to the City. Wal-Mart will complete it's Fact Sheet which it intends to go over in meetings with neighborhood groups. I will post any updates to the site.

Comments

[Jack L.]

With these reductions and concessions, can the Wal-Mart now be built so we can shop somewhere else beside the ratty HEB or the overpriced Randall's? And please remember: these were economic concessions made by Wal-Mart and Lincoln, not out of fear of the big bad RG4N or the ANA. Especially consider this in regard to the latest news about the Save Our Springs fiasco and its failure to escape from bankruptcy. Why don't we all be happy that we'll all have a viable alternative to the stores that I mentioned?

[rob]

great news! thanks for the post