Wal-Mart sends plans to county for final okay

The supercenter's planners are trying to meet many of the county's new big box ordinance requirements, even though they are exempted.

By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 7, 2002

INVERNESS -- Seeking the last round of county approval for the long-planned project, Wal-Mart has submitted the site plans and blueprints for its future supercenter on the former SMI property on State Road 44, just west of its present site in Inverness.

The plans include a 203,662-square-foot "supercenter" -- a giant grocery store and general discount store under one roof -- and a 14,919-square-foot outdoor garden center.

The 40-acre site would also include three outparcels, ranging from 1.23 to 1.36 acres, and a 0.76-acre lease lot fronting SR 44. No tenants are named for those sites.

County staffers expect to spend the next few weeks reviewing the plans. If the project meets the county's building and land development codes, the county would grant the building permits for the project, Community Development Director Chuck Dixon said.

The property is already zoned for commercial development.

Wal-Mart officials had hoped to start building the super store in April or May, with an opening date of February 2003. That time line may be pushed back a month or two because the discount giant submitted its plans to the county later than expected, said Gary Maidhof, the county's director of development services.

"There were some site design things that needed to wait until they resolved their clean-up procedures with (the state Department of Environmental Protection)," Maidhof said. "They have some hydrocarbon contamination from the old septic tank and drain field that served the former asphalt plant."

A Wal-Mart spokeswoman did not return a call for comment.

The plans submitted to the county show that Wal-Mart has already removed a fuel pump and underground fuel tanks from the site, although an oil storage tank and about a dozen brick or metal structures remain.

The supercenter is not required to meet the county's big box ordinance, a set of design standards for stores larger than 25,000 square feet, because the Wal-Mart plans were in the works before the County Commission passed the ordinance last year, Maidhof said.

But the plans show Wal-Mart is trying to meet many of the big box provisions -- such as defined doorways, patterned exterior walls and additional landscaping -- to improve the megastore's look.

"We can't force them, but it certainly looks like they're making a noble attempt to do it," Maidhof said.

So what will happen to the Wal-Mart store at the neighboring Citrus Center Shopping Center?

It will close when the supercenter opens, creating a large vacancy at the shopping center.

Wal-Mart has already listed its current Inverness store on its realty division's Web site, along with 396 other vacant or soon-to-be vacated Wal-Marts across the country, as an available property for another retailer.

A tractor dealer inquired about the old Wal-Mart store about six months ago, Maidhof said. Within the past month, he said, a consultant for an undisclosed chain store also talked to county planners about the old Wal-Mart.

"Obviously no community wants to see retail square footage sit vacant," Maidhof said. "We have had assurances, for what they're worth, from the Wal-Mart folks that it's not their intent to leave it vacant, that they would actively market it."

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