Although the retailer is only looking at a vacant site diagonal from Derby Lane, some neighbors are already mobilizing to keep the store out.
By ANDREW MEACHAM
Published April 4, 2004
ST. PETERSBURG - Wal-Mart can dream of a Supercenter on 26 vacant acres north of Gandy Boulevard, kitty-corner from the dog track. But neighbors are having only nightmares.
Scores of them gathered late last week at a church to ponder what, if anything, they could do to keep Wal-Mart out.
Daphne Moore, a spokeswoman for the huge retailer, acknowledged that Wal-Mart is looking at the site near Derby Lane. But, she added, "It's pretty preliminary at this point."
The spot would be an easy drive from Tampa and could draw on an ever-growing population along Gandy. And if the always-full parking lot at the Supercenter not far away on U.S. 19 in Pinellas Park is any indication, the giant retailer is far from tapped out in the area.
In fact, an acquisition would create the fourth Wal-Mart in south Pinellas, counting the store soon to break ground on 34th Street S. Fearing just that, about 70 residents of neighboring Brighton Bay and surrounding communities gathered Thursday night to worry together about traffic, crime, the environmental impact on a pond on the property and the bargain store's overall fit with an increasingly upscale community.
Wal-Mart has not bought the land and has filed no official plans. But even the thought of a Wal-Mart has the neighborhood in an uproar.
Brighton Bay, a cluster of apartment, townhome and single-family developments, abuts the west end of the vacant site. Jennifer Pike, president of the associations governing all four Brighton Bay developments, acknowledged that the group that gathered at First Baptist Church of St. Petersburg has its work cut out.
Strategies for blocking the store range from a zoning debate to contesting the city's ability to cut through an easement owned by residents to get to a possible store.
"It's not much leverage," Pike, an attorney, said of the easement. "But it's something."
St. Petersburg Kennel Club owns the land, assessed in January 2003 at $1,296,500, county records show. Any sales price could differ greatly from that amount.
The property joined the city Jan. 29 as part of a larger annexation. The commercial retail zoning - which permits virtually any type of commercial activity, including a Wal-Mart - also passed from county to city and remains in effect until the city later assigns its own land-use and zoning designations.
Matthew Smith, an engineer who lives in Sterling Manor, the single-family home development in Brighton Bay, saw an opportunity in that bureaucratic synapse.
"The character of this area has changed drastically over the past three years," said Smith, 37.
Residents who hope the city will assign a different zoning category to the site are likely to be disappointed.
"We have no intention of changing the basic zoning," city planner Dave Goodwin said.
He said he and other city staff have met with Wal-Mart representatives about the Gandy property.
Nor do residents intend to allow a Supercenter in their neighborhood if they can help it.
Alice Filson said she and her husband, Don, both 38, bought their Sterling Manor home because it was a good place to raise children. Now she has written a sample letter for a mass mailing.
"We believe an appropriate plan would be to develop establishments that are more complementary to a residential community," the letter states.
Some of those establishments suggested by residents include a strip shopping center with a restaurant and a coffee shop, a grocery store, even a public library. Incoming developments such as Grande Verandahs on the Bay; Venetian Bay; Pirates Cove of Tampa Bay; and the twin-tower, 110-unit Mangrove Cay will continue a trend toward the plush and the new.
"They're making things a lot nicer," Alice Filson said. "That's what we want, not Wal-Mart."
Seasonal Wyngate resident and retiree Richard Visin, 53, issued this warning: "Bottom line, if we do nothing, Wal-Mart is there in six months. I guarantee it."
The only skeptical voices at Thursday's meeting asked how, not whether, the group might stop the world's largest retailer from moving in next door.
"How can we as a community go to the City Council to oppose a Wal-Mart?" said Charles Adams, 52, a technical consultant. "There must be some mechanism to do that. I don't know what that mechanism is."
Sharon Thomas, an Air Force lieutenant colonel, has a townhome in Wyngate, part of Brighton Bay. On Thursday, Thomas, 42, tried to enlist volunteers for the seven committees the group has formed so far. Some will circulate petitions. Others will write letters and organize a postcard blitz to city and county officials up to the mayor, and to Wal-Mart. They will blanket area residents and businesses, call the media and flood everyone else with e-mails.
The list of concerns is becoming familiar in the city as the store seeks to expand. Years ago, residents turned away one proposed Wal-Mart on 54th Avenue S over traffic worries but did not mobilize against a Supercenter about to break ground a mile away on 34th Street S.
The county has estimated that expanding the Wal-Mart at 3993 Tyrone Blvd. N to a Supercenter would dump an additional 4,000 to 6,000 cars a day onto crowded roads.
Michael Oates, an engineer who lives in Wyngate, worried that increased traffic would mean more crimes, such as auto theft. Other neighbors fretted over the safety of neighborhood children if more strangers are coming into the area.
"You're talking about a high-end neighborhood," said Oates, 37. "That's the place you want to put a Wal-Mart?"
There is a 2-acre pond on one corner of the site. Developers on wetlands have to seek permits from the Army Corps of Engineers, but as of Friday, the corps had received no applications for the site, spokesman Barry Vorse said. Neighbors hope that maybe the permit could give them one wedge in the fight.
The store's arrival is not a sure thing yet, city planner Goodwin said. Its large size will likely entail a request for a special exception to the zoning code. That means a hearing before the Environmental Development Commission, before whom residents could raise issues of traffic congestion and overall compatibility with the neighborhood.
"The city is a long way from recommending approval or denial," Goodwin said.
