Wal-Mart says it made ???an independent decision??? this week to junk a proposal to build a Neighborhood Market in Teays Valley, West Virginia (pop 2010: 13,175). But their decision was made for them, because just a few days earlier a Circuit judge overturned a county zoning decision that allowed Wal-Mart to build.
A citizen???s group called Keep the Promise Coalition, appealed the zoning board???s decision to grant a special permit to allow the store—and they won. The opposition group numbers at least 100. ???I know the majority of the community didn???t want that big of a store in the area,??? a spokesman for the group said. ???Traffic is congested enough. It would have just been horrible.??? Wal-Mart can reapply for a permit but residents vowed to oppose it. ???As long as they keep it at 43,000 square feet, we don???t want it,??? the group spokesman said.
Wal-Mart filed its plans in February of 2015. There were several neighborhood hearings in which area residents ???came out in droves??? to oppose the project, according to the Charleston Gazette-Mail. The citizens filed their appeal in Putnam Circuit last August. The lawsuit charged that the Putnam County Board of Zoning Appeals wrongly relied on an inadequate traffic study when it granted Wal-Mart the permit to build the grocery store. The court agreed, and overturned the zoning board decision.
After the Judge???s decision, Wal-Mart said its decision to pull the plug on the store had nothing to do with the court ruling. ???After careful consideration, we have made an unrelated business decision not to pursue our plans to build a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market in Teays Valley.???
That???s what residents of Teays Valley might call a ???fortuitous coincidence.???
– See more at: http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/20160108/judge-nixes-plans-for-wal-mart-in-teays-valley#sthash.25fpFldK.dpuf
Readers are urged to contact the Putnam County Planning Board at: [email protected] with the following message:
“Dear County Planning Board,
???It looks like the citizens of Teays Valley had a better sense of land use than your Zoning Board.
They should never have been put in the position of having to take their opposition to Wal-Mart to court. You already have a Wal-Mart in Hurricane, WV just 5 miles west, and a second Wal-Mart 7 miles to the east in Cross Lanes. There was no need for his store, and as the Planning Board for the county, I would urge you to stop sprawling Putnam with stores you don???t need.???
Wal-Mart says it made ???an independent decision??? this week to junk a proposal to build a Neighborhood Market in Teays Valley, West Virginia (pop 2010: 13,175). But their decision was made for them, because just a few days earlier a Circuit judge overturned a county zoning decision that allowed Wal-Mart to build.
