It looks like Wal-Mart’s big plans for Vineland, New Jersey are going to wither on the vine. Wal-Mart will not be building a superstore on the corner of Landis Ave and Delsea Drive in Vineland for one simple reason: it’s too big. Several weeks ago, Wal-Mart withdrew its Planning Board application to build a 140,000 s.f. store. Unfortunately for the retailer, the land they coveted had a 60,000 s.f. limit on building size as part of the redevelopment plan for that parcel. A Wal-Mart spokesman said the smallest store is has is 74,000 s.f. in Rutland, Vermont, but most of the stores it builds today are twice that size. The
redevelopment plan was approved only in May. Under the new plan, the City Council is now the redevelopment authority for the city. “It’s unfortunate, we felt we could have done a lot with the site,” Wal-Mart lamented. “There is a need there.” Vineland officials say that Wal-Mart has indicated that it may now look for
another site in the city.
Cities and towns can use size caps for specific parcels, corridors, or the entire community. They are a safe, effective, and fast-acting way to cut any big box down to size. The Wal-Mart spokesperson apparently forgot to mention their “Urban 99” prototype superstore, which is 99,000 s.f. and was developed to fit within towns that have a 100,000 s.f. cap. When size matters to a community, you can make Wal-Mart do the limbo by lowering the bar to a reasonable size. For related stories, search Newsflash by “cap”.