Wal-Mart rolled snake-eyes in Reno, Nevada this week. According to the November 29th. Reno Gazette-Journal, a traffic consultant hired by area residents helped convince the Reno City Council to deny a Wal-Mart application to build a superstore at McCarran and Mae Anne Streets. In a 5-2 vote, the council refused to issue a special-use permit for the 207,000 s.f. superstore located on 22 acres. This was the fourth time the City Council had reviewed the project, on which it had attached 40 development conditions. “They just haven’t been able to show they can mitigate the impact of the traffic,” Councilman Dave Aiazzi told the Gazette-Journal. The hearing lasted five hours into the late evening Tuesday. LSC Tranportation Consultants of Tahoe City, a company hired by resident Victoria Ford and her neighbors, said in the report more cars would back up on Interstate 80 to get to the Wal-Mart and add a full two minutes more as motorists idle at stoplights. LSC said that Wal-Mart would draw from a larger trade area than the company had estimated, and that city upgrades to the roadway necessary to handle the increased traffic volume wouldn’t be completed for several years. Area residents warned that even widening the roadway to six, seven or eight lanes wouldn’t be enough. The Wal-Mart would warrant three stoplights within three blocks, with motorists turning every which way to get into the superstore. One resident warned Reno would be “institutionalizing road rage” if the project were built. “Reality is you’re going to make a life-or-death decision in the traffic situation,” he said. The City was prepared to impose conditions on Wal-Mart related to keeping the store property clean, limiting outdoor storage and strict rules on allowing recreational vehicle overnight parking. Some of those conditions were founded on the city’s experience with a Wal-Mart on Northtowne. Councilwoman Sherrie Doyle complained traffic to the Northtowne store has backed up for quite a distance on U.S. 395. Wal-Mart’s regional real estate manager tried to argue the new Wal-Mart would take some of the pressure off the Northtowne store – but not enough to close it, like Wal-Mart has closed nearly 400 other stores on the market today. He promised the Northtowne store would remain open.
With the proposed Wal-Mart store defeated for the 4th. time, it looks like the “old” Wal-Mart store WILL stay open. Another Wal-Mart bites the dust, a bad gamble on the company’s part, since they had 4 opportunities to see the handwriting on the WAL.For more information about the citizen’s effort that slam-dunked Wal-Mart in Reno, contact [email protected]
