Council OKs Wal-Mart plans

Erin Neff

Thursday, June 22, 2000 | 11:26 a.m.

On some days, it is possible to drive across the 53-acre Westland Fair Shopping Center lot at noon without touching the brakes to yield to other motorists.

To those used to seeing the shuttered Builders Square and the sparsely visited smaller shops, it's hard to imagine the Charleston and Decatur boulevards center flooded with so much traffic that neighboring residential streets would be jammed.

But that vision isn't far fetched thanks to the Las Vegas City Council's approval Wednesday of plans for a massive 564,476-square-foot shopping center with a Wal-Mart super store and auto shop within.

"This is a proposal to sharply upgrade and improve the current shopping center," said planning consultant Greg Borgell, speaking on behalf of the developer, Weingarten Realty Investors. "Right now it's not productive. With a Wal-Mart, we'll be redeveloping a derelict building."

Although most residents support the revitalization of the shopping center, many told the council they had serious concerns about the impact traffic to the store will have on their neighborhood.

Barbara Mayer said the 24-hour super store will "create a horrible traffic problem" on nearby Arville Street, which is dotted with residential areas and schools.

She also said the store will harm other grocery stores nearby, like the Vons at Decatur and Meadows Lane and the Raley's at Valley View Boulevard and Sahara Avenue.

"It will kill the center across the street," she added.

During a 90-minute hearing the council heard from anti-Wal-Mart union representatives, employees at competing grocery stores and residents and property owners in adjacent areas.

City Councilman Michael McDonald said the need to redevelop a "darkened" shopping center is more important to public safety and to the success of other businesses.

"A shopping center that goes dead ... would kill a neighborhood," McDonald said. "We saw it happen last week when one of Las Vegas' finest was shot and lost his eye."

McDonald was referring to the shooting of Metro Officer Pete Rossi last Wednesday when he responded to a reported robbery at the Macayo Vegas restaurant in the same shopping center.

Councilman Gary Reese shrugged aside the Local 711 grocery employees' concerns, saying he has yet to see shopping centers close as a result of big-box stores in his ward.

Reese also said he prefers the 220,000-square-foot Wal-Mart to a proposed neighborhood casino that once drew 4,000 signatures of protest when planned for the same shopping center.

The council unanimously approved the site plans and use permit for the auto-lube shop, with numerous conditions.

The developers were asked to work with city planners on issues likely to be raised by a traffic study that was only submitted to the city Wednesday. Other conditions involve landscaping, store operations, truck deliveries, landscaping and setbacks.

One issue that has not been resolved involves a right-turn lane into the center from Charleston Boulevard. Borgell said his client has no control over dedicating land for such a traffic lane because it doesn't own the property on the corner.

The owner of the Taco Bell has not shown a willingness to sell his property or relocate it to accommodate the lane, Borgell said.

Mayor Oscar Goodman granted approval of the project with a condition near and dear to him.

"I want a representative from Wal-Mart to come down and visit with me ... and talk about putting a Wal-Mart downtown as a quid pro quo for my vote," Goodman said.