The INKster heard from a couple of Moscow business people this week, both with the same rumor to share.I have disabused everyone from White's rumor about the distribution center over at Dale Courtney's Right Mind blog.
Sources say Wal-Mart has taken an option on property at the proposed Hawkins Development shopping center on the Pullman-Moscow Highway.
The Moscow-Pullman Daily News reported Feb. 15 that the Hawkins Companies submitted an application to Whitman County in January to build a shopping complex along the highway just west of the Idaho state line. As reported in the article, the proposed development would be seven times as large as Pullman’s Wheatland Mall, and about twice the size of the Palouse Mall in Moscow.
The INKster’s unrelated sources told her that should a super store go in at this site, the current Wal-Mart facility would be used as a distribution center for other Wal-Mart stores in the area.
The Supercenter in the corridor rumor has now been dismissed by Wal-Mart, as reported by Michelle Dupler in today's Daily News:
A Wal-Mart spokeswoman said Friday the company has no plans to lease space in the proposed Hawkins Development shopping center on the Pullman-Moscow Highway.The key words in the story above are “We are not looking there right now".
“We are not looking there right now,” said Jennifer Holder, the company’s Washington spokeswoman.
Wal-Mart has made no changes to its plans to build stores on Southeast Bishop Boulevard in Pullman and on the Troy Highway in Moscow, Holder said.
Both proposed Wal-Mart stores and the Hawkins development have stirred local opposition.
Boise-based developers Hawkins Companies submitted an application to Whitman County in January to build a more than 600,000-square-foot retail center on the north side of the Moscow-Pullman Highway, just west of the state line.
Whitman County Planner Mark Bordsen approved the developer’s State Environmental Policy Act checklist March 2.
The checklist allows local governments to evaluate a development’s potential impact on the surrounding environment. Bordsen’s decision said the proposed shopping center would not have a serious negative impact on the environment, subject to certain conditions involving a traffic study and protection of wetlands.
The city of Moscow appealed Bordsen’s decision, raising concerns about the development’s impact on local water supplies and storm water drainage. Also at issue is the possibility Moscow’s emergency services will need to respond outside the city limits.
The Whitman County commissioners will hear the appeal at 1:30 p.m. April 10.
The fate of the Pullman Wal-Mart store will be decided in Whitman County Superior Court. An appeal hearing to decide whether or not the store will significantly impact the city’s environment will begin April 28.
The retail company submitted an application to build a 223,000-square-foot super center in Pullman in October 2004. Plans for the store have been stalled for about 18 months after opposition organized into the Pullman Alliance for Responsible Development in an effort to block the store from coming to town.
The group appealed the city’s decisions approving Wal-Mart’s State Environmental Policy Act checklist and site plan. The appeals were consolidated and heard by Spokane lawyer John Montgomery over three days in January.
Hundreds of residents turned out to watch the proceedings and express their opinions about the Wal-Mart store. Topics included potential crime, storm water run-off, traffic, lighting, noise, encroachment on the Pullman Cemetery and the possible loss of existing businesses.
Numerous residents and business owners spoke both for and against the store.
Montgomery upheld the city’s approval of Wal-Mart’s plan in a written decision issued Feb. 27. PARD appealed to the Superior Court, arguing the hearing examiner lacked enough evidence about the store’s negative environmental and traffic impacts to make an informed decision.
Plans for a Moscow super center filed in November became tangled up in red tape when the owners of the 77 acres on South Mountain View Road where Wal-Mart wants to build tried to get the land rezoned from agriculture/forestry to motor business. A motor business zoning designation is designed to accommodate businesses that depend primarily on transient motor vehicle-based trade, such as a large retail development.
Spokane engineering consultants CLC Associates, acting on behalf of the owners, applied for the rezone in January after Moscow Community Development Director Joel Plaskon denied their site plan application on the grounds the land wasn’t zoned for retail.
The rezone application was heard by the Planning and Zoning Commission on March 8. The commission recommended denial of the rezone because they didn’t think Wal-Mart’s plan for the land fit the character of Moscow.
Wal-Mart had the option of revising its zoning application to fit the commission’s vision for the neighborhood or asking the City Council for a decision. The developer opted for the latter. No date has been set for the council to consider the zoning application.
Pullman is virtually a done deal, with groundbreaking maybe a couple of months away. Wal-Mart is thoroughly committed to Pullman.
The Moscow Supercenter, on the other hand, is in limbo. The ball is now in the Moscow City Council's court. If they deny the rezone request, look for the situation to change. Any business worth its salt will always keep its options open.
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