Once again, modern retail designed to serve TRAFFIC and not the COMMUNITY.
"Lisa Nelson, Wal-Mart's senior manager for public affairs for Wisconsin, declined to comment for this story."
From The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
If Wal-Mart decides to build, locals request they 'do it right'
Residents in the Town of Port Washington worry about plans to build a Supercenter near their homes and the effects it would have on noise, traffic and local business
By LAWRENCE SUSSMAN
[email protected]
Saukville - A proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter, which is planned for the east end of Saukville, has raised concerns about how the 24-hour retail business might infringe on the peace and quiet of nearby residents who live in $400,000-plus homes in the Town of Port Washington.
The Supercenter is expected to be part of Heritage Crossings, a 149-acre commercial and condominium complex on the east side of Interstate 43 immediately north of Highway 33. The Supercenter would be at the north end of the complex, about 0.8 of a mile north of Highway 33.
At a recent hearing, residents of the Lange Estates subdivision said the Supercenter might lower their property values and add unwanted noise, light and traffic to their neighborhood. The subdivision is about an eighth of a mile east of the Supercenter site.
Journal-Sentinel photo by Benny Sieu
Saukville officials "need to think about restrictions for any big-box operation, such as hours and screening," said Greg Welton, who is developing Lange Estates. "Wal-Mart has enough money. If they want to do it, they can do it right and be concerned about the neighbors." He also lives in the subdivision.
Roughly half of the 37 homesites in the subdivision would face the Supercenter.
Community concerns
Christa Karrels, whose family has lived in Lange Estates for 2 1/2 years and who has three children 5 and under, said she was concerned about traffic going to and from the Supercenter and cutting through the subdivision.
"We have a lot of kids here," she said.
She and her husband attended the hearing on June 5.
"We went out from the meeting very displeased," Karrels said. "The majority of the people who spoke had concerns regarding the flow of traffic. But within two minutes after they closed the hearing, they (the Village Board) voted. All this discussion, and they didn't hold up the decision."
She said her family does not live in Saukville but added, "I would just hope that the communities would work together to find what's best for the entire community."
Some people support the Supercenter in some ways.
"I understand that the towns are our neighbors, and you want to be a good neighbor," said Saukville resident Brian Peschel, who attended the hearing. "But at the same time, what's good for the village may not be good for the towns.
"By bringing in a large big-box store," Peschel said, "they tend to become destination type stores that will attract people outside the community and which will only be beneficial to other retailers inside the community."
Lisa Nelson, Wal-Mart's senior manager for public affairs for Wisconsin, declined to comment for this story.
But earlier, Nelson said: "We have a serious interest in Saukville, and we have a business (at 825 E. Green Bay Ave.) that has been there for a while. . . . There is a customer demand for the Supercenter model."
Saukville Village President Barb Dickmann recently chaired the 90-minute-long hearing on the possibility of changing the zoning for Heritage Crossings to allow for development of a Wal-Mart Supercenter. After the comments, the Village Board unanimously approved the zoning change.
Many who attended the hearing, Dickmann said, "don't live in the village. We listened to everything they had to say." Wal-Mart has yet to submit its plans for the Supercenter. Wal-Mart has an option to buy 25 acres in the 149-acre complex.
Dickmann said the Supercenter issue is contentious: "There seems to be passion on both sides of the coin."
She added that plans for the Supercenter have not been filed, "but I personally would prefer that it was not a 24-hour store."
The Wal-Mart Supercenters in West Bend and Germantown close only on Christmas Day, store officials said.
Dawn Wagner, the Saukville village administrator, also said the village reserves the right to restrict a business' hours of operation if the business would generate abnormal levels of activity affecting nearby housing.
Development deal
A.N. Ansay & Associates of Port Washington is developing Heritage Crossings. Ansay has spent eight years and about $2 million to develop the plans and get approvals from the state Department of Natural Resources and Transportation Department for the development.
Ansay is negotiating a developer's agreement with Saukville for the development.
Ansay also plans to complete a road, Market Street, to go through the development and will pay to extend water and sewer lines to the property lines of the various businesses in the complex.
It will be up to each business within the complex to get the village to approve their individual site and building plans.
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