County to decide today on redesigned proposal

Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2004 | 11:02 a.m.

About 50 protesters, most of them from local unions, protested a planned Wal-Mart that is slated to be built on Clark County-owned land near Russell Road and Eastern Avenue.

The protesters took their message to the McCarran Marketplace -- a place that now is only desert dust and scrub -- one day before the Clark County Commission is to consider the redesigned project for the area. The commission today should decide whether to go forward with the reworked site plan or to risk a lawsuit from Wal-Mart.

Union members, a handful of young people supporting independent presidential candidate and Wal-Mart critic Ralph Nader, and some residents of nearby neighborhoods who are still unhappy with the revamped design attended the protest.

The design originally called for a Wal-Mart near the northeast corner of Russell and Eastern. Now that area on the north side will be home to two soccer fields and the 200,000-square-foot store will be moved about a half-mile south.

Still, residents concerned about traffic and other impacts on their area, and union members who simply oppose Wal-Mart, remain against the project.

In March, county commissioners approved a contract with developer Marnell Properties that included a sublease with Wal-Mart, a fact that they realized when neighbors and union members protested the project three months later during a design review for the development. Usually, design reviews are the last step before construction.

Representatives for Wal-Mart have argued that they have a valid contract, the zoning was already approved and have hinted at legal action if the project is blocked.

Chris Kaempfer, Wal-Mart's attorney, said the company will accept the redesign, although they would have liked to have the store farther north.

"We would prefer of course to be further north, but we want to be good neighbors and if moving to the south is in the best interests of the neighborhoods, that's what what we'll do," Kaempfer said. "We are willing to continue to work with the commission and the neighbors to do what we can to make as many people as happy as we can."

Brad Schnepf, president of Marnell Properties, said the redesign should satisfy many of the concerns that have been expressed.

"We had an opportunity to meet with the community, the neighboring community," he said. "We worked very well with the community to design an alternative that solves their concerns.

"We feel like we've put our best foot forward in listening and presenting solutions," he said. "We feel it's a workable design, but we were never naive enough to expect to please everyone."

Some of those who were not pleased included visitors from out of state Jeremy Tulle, 23, from San Francisco, and James Moses, 23, from Houston, attended the protest. They both are Nader backers.

"Wal-Mart destroys communities," Tulle said.

Kathie Holbert said she lives nearby the site, and predicted that if the project goes forward, "traffic is going to be atrocious."

Holbert, a member of the retail clerks union, said she also has a concern about the impact the non-union Wal-Mart will have on other stores.

"I think they destroy our stores," she said.

Bill Kean, a retired Teamster from Local 631, said he lives close by the site on Surrey Street.

"If this plan goes through to put a Wal-Mart, they are going to turn Surry into another Eastern," he said, gesturing to the busy traffic driving past the protest on Eastern Avenue.

It would particularly be a problem for children, and the soccer fields will only make the problem worse by drawing them across busy intersections, he said.

"It's just more traffic," Kean said.

Commissioner Rory Reid, who represents the area, is in a tough spot between opponents and the developers. He doesn't want the county to be the target of a lawsuit. He declined to say whether he would support the new design.

"I decided to fight the original plan because it was too close to the neighborhood, and the developer did meet with the neighbors," he said. Now that the Wal-Mart is farther away and the developers have met with the residents, "I'm willing to take a look at it."