A small group of neighbors has successfully stalled retail giant Wal-Mart’s plans to build a superstore in Woonsocket for more than three years, citing procedural and environmental issues. But it’s unclear how much longer the resistance can succeed.
Wal-Mart wants to expand its existing Woonsocket store, in the heart of the commercial strip on Diamond Hill Road, into a 24-hour, 210,000-square-foot Supercenter with a full grocery section, a general merchandise area and a drive-through pharmacy.
Beyond Cash Donations: How New Forms of Giving Are Transforming Not-for-Profit Accounting
Evolving Funding Landscape for Not-for-Profits Not-for-profit organizations are being asked to do more with less,…
Learn More
Wal-Mart’s property would increase from less than 13 acres to more than 20, providing room for 900 parking spaces – nearly twice the current number.
The project, which has the enthusiastic support of Mayor Susan D. Menard’s office, would create 150 to 200 new jobs and generate tens of thousands of dollars in tax revenue for the city, Wal-Mart has estimated.
The expansion was the city’s idea.
In 2003, city officials encouraged Wal-Mart to expand the Diamond Hill Road store, after they heard that the Bentonville, Ark.-based company was considering closing it and building a new superstore, possibly in neighboring North Smithfield or Cumberland, according to Joel Mathews, Woonsocket’s director of planning and development.
“We were facing the prospect of losing them to an outlying location and having a large, vacant building in our retail district,” Mathews said.
“We don’t have the highest mean income in the state, and a lot of families do their shopping at Wal-Mart, and why not do it in Woonsocket?” Mathews continued.
Wal-Mart agreed to purchase about six acres of city-owned land abutting its existing store, for $490,000. As part of the deal, Wal-Mart also agreed to expand and improve a storm-water drainage pond behind the store, on land still owned by the city.
But at least three families who live on the other side of the retention pond have contested every step toward breaking ground on the project, because it would enlarge the pond and thin the wooded strip separating their homes from the Wal-Mart property.
John C. Revens Jr., a lawyer for the neighbors and a Democratic state senator from Warwick, said that for Wal-Mart to enlarge a drainage pond on land zoned for passive recreational use would be illegal.
The city Planning Board approved the plan on Nov. 8, but the neighbors appealed. The city Zoning Board of Review was expected to issue a decision on their appeal late last week.
Asked what the neighbors would do if they lost, Revens declined to say.
Revens did, however, cite another possible issue: He said Wal-Mart’s expansion would cause more rainwater to collect in the basin, which would violate city codes.
“They’re not buying the pond, they’re not buying the land where they’re putting the drainage and in my opinion, they can’t put their drainage there,” Revens said. “The pond is the people’s pond, and Wal-Mart is trying to make it into the Wal-Mart retention basin.”
In late December, the R.I. Department of Environmental Management approved Wal-Mart’s application for wetlands alterations associated with the expansion of the drainage pond, Mathews said.
The neighbors’ latest appeal of Wal-Mart’s expansion plan is their third attempt to derail the project.
In April 2005, the neighbors won an R.I. Superior Court ruling that overturned, on procedural grounds, the city’s commercial rezoning of land for sale to Wal-Mart. Last year, the city corrected the procedural flaw and successfully rezoned the land.
In July 2006, the Planning Board’s original granting of Wal-Mart’s master plan was overturned by the Zoning Board, after the neighbors successfully argued they weren’t given enough advance notification of hearings.
It is not clear how many people are behind the fight against Wal-Mart.
Revens, the lawyer for the neighbors, said he represents several abutters of the Wal-Mart property. But he named only three families, saying he did not wish to identify the others.
Mathews said the city has made agreements to mitigate the concerns of about 13 of the 20 residents whose properties would be most directly affected by Wal-Mart’s proposed expansion. He declined to reveal the terms of those agreements.
Wal-Mart, for its part, readily shared the basic details of the store plan and some of the project’s history, but didn’t comment much beyond that. In an e-mailed response to a reporter’s inquiry, Christopher N. Buchanan, a Wal-Mart spokesman, wrote:
“Overall, Wal-Mart remains very excited and optimistic about this project moving forward. We look forward to serving our Woonsocket area customers.”
