Northcross Wal-Mart players meet behind closed doors

By: Vernoica Castelo

For months people living near Northcross Mall have been upset about a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter in their neighborhood.

On Wednesday, Wal-Mart announced some compromises they hope will satisfy residents, but it may not be enough. Since late last year, neighbors have protested silently at open meetings and they've protested loudly on the streets.

In an effort to resolve the conflict, the city of Austin brought everyone involved together in a closed-door meeting on Wednesday to discuss the changes.

"Our goal for today was to bring the developers and the neighborhoods together and have the developers show the neighborhoods how they are responding to the concerns the neighbors have expressed," Austin Assistant City Manager Laura Huffman said.

Traffic is the number one concern.

"We've proposed some improvements that will help the traffic," Richard Suttle, a local attorney who is advising Wal-Mart, said.

They've proposed improvements like more stop lights and extended turning lanes at Anderson Lane and Burnet Road. They also changed the look of the Wal-Mart. Architects said their latest rendering suits Austin better.

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"This is a Wal-Mart nobody has seen the likes of," Suttle said.

The new design features an atrium for outdoor dining, a shrub-lined driveway, and a state-of-the-art parking structure. Wal-Mart is scaling down their project by 6,000 square feet to its original proposed size of 219,000 square feet.

"It's going to be a very lovely thing to look at, but the fact that it's still a Wal-Mart of this significant size is the fundamental problem that exacerbates the problem of traffic and all the other issues that have been problematic to date," Jason Meeker, spokesperson for Responsible Growth for Northcross, said.

Opponents don't believe the compromise is worth the amount of money the city spent on attorneys to help reach it.

"$224,000, that makes this an Austin issue," Meeker said.

Wal-Mart said the opposition was expected.

"When there is change in the city of Austin, you get a lot of neighborhood participation. We actually welcome the input and welcome the opportunity to make improvements," Suttle said.

For more information

Learn more about the proposed changes at an open house on Monday, March 5. It will be from 3 to 8 p.m.at the Norris Conference Center at Northcross Mall.

It may take more improvements to satisfy residents.

"It's not a done deal. It's absolutely not a done deal. It's going to be a better deal if we have a say in it," Meeker said.

Like they have in the past, neighbors will make sure their voices are heard.