Council backs Wal-Mart zoning

0 Comments | La Crosse Tribune, Aug 07, 2002 | by Cahalan, Steve

Meeting as a committee of the whole, the La Crosse Common Council voted 143 Tuesday to approve commercial zoning for the planned Wal-Mart Supercenter on Mormon Coulee Road, south of the Thompson Animal Medical Center and Shelby Mall.

If the rezoning is approved in a final council vote Thursday, it will clear the way for work to begin. The developer, Continental Properties Co. Inc. of Menomonee Falls, Wis., plans to begin demolition of existing buildings and to start earth work in September, and to complete construction in August 2003.

The store should open in late August or early September 2003, council members were told Tuesday by Julia Eveker, Continental Properties development director.

The 187,000-square-foot supercenter is expected to have 350 to 400 employees. It will have general merchandise, a grocery store and a Tire Lube Express center.

The Wal-Mart store in Onalaska will remain open even after the supercenter opens.

Eveker and John Bisio, community affairs manager for Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s Midwest Region, said their companies were agreeable to stipulations negotiated with the city.

For example, a fence will be 8 feet tall instead of 6 feet, there will be additional landscaping, lighting will conform to an ordinance still being drafted by the city and Wal-Mart will comply with the city's noise ordinance. Also, there will be no vehicle access from Markle Road, which runs behind the site.

Eveker said talks with city officials began in January.

"Initially, when we first met with the city, this was going to be the standard prototype store," she told council members. "And now we are at an upgraded store, with earth tones and greens" for the exterior.