City awards Wal-Mart building permit

After years of legal wrangling and howls of protest from some West Valley residents, the city of Yakima on Wednesday issued a building permit for a new $14 million Wal-Mart supercenter at 64th Avenue and Nob Hill Boulevard.

It came 51/2 years after the city first filed the retail chain's development plans. At the time, the chain reported it planned to build the new store within a year.

"It's been a long time coming," said attorney Mike Shinn, who represented Congdon Orchards, the company that had 700 acres of orchard land rezoned before selling a portion to Wal-Mart for development. "It is something of a milestone."

Opponents have seen the day coming since the city approved a development agreement with the retailer in May 2007. But that doesn't mean they have gotten used to the idea.

"I'm certainly no more thrilled about Wal-Mart building out in West Valley than I was originally," said Michael Noble, a Yakima optometrist and a founding member of the opposition group Neighbors for Responsible Development.

Prior to the development agreement, the city spent millions defending its handling of the Wal-Mart rezone and development issues. Jamie Carmody -- who represented two opposition groups, Neighbors for Responsible Development and Concerned Citizens of Yakima -- said people didn't want the 204,000-square-foot Wal-Mart in the West Valley for a wide range of reasons.

"The primary concern was that the introduction of retail adjacent to residential areas would have the impact of destroying those residential neighborhoods," he said.

Noble cited concerns about traffic and said the West Valley deserves a higher caliber of retailer than the discount chain, which is the world's largest retailer. The city's existing Wal-Mart on East Chestnut Avenue was built in 1994 and expanded in 2002.

And Carmody worries that Wal-Mart's bargain prices will undercut local businesses without providing the benefits of local ownership and local involvement.

"In these times when you have economic pull-back from so many retailers, it's almost as if (Wal-Mart) is trying to jump on them when they're down," he said.

Wal-Mart announced last month that it will slow its expansion plans to 140 supercenters next year, compared to the 166 it expects to open this year and 191 last year. Still, the chain is doing well relative to others during this year's economic downturn.

It recorded a 10 percent increase in profits during the third quarter of this year, compared to last year. Much of that success stems from prices that fit the tightening budgets of American families, said William Wertz, a company spokesman based in Denver.

"In the recent economic slump that we've had (in the United States) we have tried very hard to position ourselves well in terms of prices," he said.

Shinn, the Congdon Orchards attorney, believes the fact Wal-Mart still plans to build here bodes well for Yakima's future.

"It's remarkable in the sense that, in the face of the national economy where we read about retailers pulling out of projects ... to see somebody stepping up and sinking money into our community is a good sign," he said.

* Pat Muir can be reached at 577-7693 or pmuir@yakimaherald.com.

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