Sprawl-Busters in Westerville, Ohio report that the proposed Wal-Mart in their community has finally been defeated after at least a three year battle. The formal termination of the case in the Ohio Supreme Court is expected within days. Wal-Mart withdrew on their own. The controversy was over a development plan for 30 acres of land submitted by Richard J. Solove and Jack Chester. The partners had hoped to build a 212,000 s.f. Wal-Mart supercenter, but they have now filed a revised plan that calls for a smaller scale retail complex anchored by an 80,000 s..f Giant Eagle supermarket. The revised plan is part of a settlement of a lawsuit filed by the developer which sought to require the city to approve the Wal-Mart plan. In early November, the Westerville City Council agreed to settle the lawsuit on the promise of a less-intensive use of the land. “The old plan was too dense,” the City Manager told Business First magazine. “This (new) plan is about 30 percent or better less dense.” The city appropriately said the issue was not the particular logo involved, but the scale of the project. “It’s never been about Wal-Mart. It was about density,” the City Manager said. In September 2001, the developer won an administrative appeal of the city’s rejection of the Wal-Mart plan from Franklin County Common Pleas Court. But that decision was then reversed by the county Court of Appeals this year. Solove then appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court, which agreed in October to consider the case. As the legal bills mounted, both sides looked for common ground, and in the end the developer scaled back his project, dropped the huge Wal-Mart supercenter, and reached an agreement with the city. There will be no Wal-Mart supercenter at State Street and Maxtown Road in Westerville, and many residents couldn’t be happier.
Thanks to Kevin Gainer for keeping us posted on the Westerville saga. For further information, contact Kevin Gainer at [email protected]. For the archive on Westerville stories, search this database by the name of the town.
