Walmart site design gets one-year extension

Published 5:30 am Thursday, July 30, 2015

WARRENTON — Walmart’s site design is safe for at least another year.

The City Commission, at its Tuesday meeting, unanimously approved a one-year extension of Walmart’s site design review plan approval for its proposed location at Ensign Lane and U.S. Highway 101, in the North Coast Retail Center.

The extension will last until mid-August of next year. Walmart supporters hope that, by that time, the retail giant will have overcome a recent obstacle.

Last April, Clatsop Residents Against Walmart filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which issued Walmart a permit to fill a small wetland on the affected property.

In the lawsuit, CRAW alleges that the Army Corps issued the permit without properly assessing the environmental impact of filling the wetland and without exploring available alternatives.

“The proposed Walmart store would already be constructed if it were not for the hate speech proponents of CRAW,” said Jim Ray, a Walmart supporter from Hammond. He added, “If CRAW hates Walmart, they have the right to do business elsewhere but not to violate the free exercise of trade and capitalism which is to the advantage of all of us.”

Lori Durheim, a Walmart opponent from Astoria, advised the commission to take a larger view of Walmart’s potential impact on the community. A new outlet, she said, would increase the already high level of traffic congestion on U.S. Highway 101 between Warrenton and Astoria.

Walmart’s site design review application was originally approved in August 2013. The approval period had been previously extended from August 2014 until next month because the wetland fill permit had not yet been issued, preventing Walmart from beginning construction. The CRAW lawsuit has pushed back the construction date even further.

“The permits are ready to go; they’re just waiting for the appeal process to be resolved,” Community Development Director Skip Urling said.

Walmart expects to break ground in spring 2016, assuming all the legal loose ends are wrapped up by then, according to the extension request written by Bryan Dickerson, an attorney with PacLand, the firm representing the corporation.

In other business, the City Commission:

• Unanimously approved an ordinance prohibiting vehicle parking from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on postal delivery days in front of mailboxes, or places where mail is delivered, except when necessary to avoid conflict with other traffic, comply with the law or directions from law enforcement, or momentarily to pick up or drop off passengers.

The amendment to the municipal code grants a 15-foot buffer on both sides of curbside mailboxes, allowing mail carriers a 30-foot comfort zone to access them.

Devised by Police Chief Matt Workman, the ordinance seeks to address the parking complaints of residents who often have to contend with parking overflow in their neighborhoods, especially during such popular draws as the Buoy 10 annual sports fishing season.

• Appointed by a unanimous vote Lorna Anderson, a Warrenton resident, to Position No. 4 on the Warrenton Community Center Board.