Jul. 4--MOON TWP. -- Moon Township Supervisors shot down Wal-Mart＇s preliminary plans to develop a store on the current West Hills Shopping Center site during a marathon meeting that ended around 1:30 a.m.
Beaver County Times (PA) (KRT) via NewsEdge :
Jul. 4--MOON TWP. -- Moon Township Supervisors shot down Wal-Mart＇s preliminary plans to develop a store on the current West Hills Shopping Center site during a marathon meeting that ended around 1:30 a.m. Thursday.
Discussion of Wal-Mart＇s preliminary development plans and its series of requests to deviate from various landscaping and zoning requirements began 5 1/2 hours earlier, with close to 100 residents crammed into the township＇s newly renovated auditorium in the municipal building.
The crowd had thinned out considerably by the end of the meeting, when supervisors shot down the preliminary plans, 3-2. Supervisors Marvin Eicher, Michael Hopper and Jim Vitale opposed the plans, while Supervisors Chairman Tim McLaughlin and Frank Sinatra voted in favor of them.
The board also voted down five of Wal-Mart＇s nine variance requests.
Wal-Mart officials did not say what the retail giant would do next -- submit new plans, take the matter to court or simply walk away.
"We are evaluating our various options to decide what we want to do. There is no timetable at this point," said Pittsburgh attorney Alan Sable, who is representing Wal-Mart in the matter.
Sable referred further questions to a Wal-Mart spokesman who did not return a call from The Times on Thursday.
Moon Township now has two weeks to give Wal-Mart a letter detailing why it rejected the preliminary plans and variance requests.
On Thursday, Eicher stood by his decision to oppose the plans, even though the development was projected to generate an additional $125,000 a year in property-tax revenue and up to $65,000 a year more in earned-income taxes, and create up to 500 new jobs.
"That wasn＇t part of my consideration," Eicher said.
"Their plans just didn＇t meet the requirements of our ordinances or the intent of them. We want developers to come into the community, but we want them to meet our standards. They might be high standards, but I believe the quality you expect is the quality you get," Eicher said.
Eicher noted that other recent developments, including Sheetz and Walgreens, met those standards, and Wal-Mart "should be held to the same standard."
Traffic was another concern, particularly among residents at the meeting who feared the development would choke traffic in the heart of the township.
While Wal-Mart officials said PennDOT reviewed the traffic plans and found them satisfactory, a computer simulation designed by Wal-Mart of what traffic would look like in Moon in 10 years painted a disturbing picture for many residents.
The simulation showed traffic that was waiting to turn left onto Brodhead Road backing up on University Boulevard by as many as 18 cars, with an average of eight cars getting through the light each time it turned green. That means motorists who started in the back of the line would have to wait for the third green light to make it onto Brodhead, even with a left-turn-only signal.
Tom Fontaine can be reached online at tfontaine@timesonline.com.
