Wal-Mart wins in court

By Keri Brenner | The Olympian • Published September 30, 2008

• Documents
• Comments (0)

TUMWATER – Retail giant Wal-Mart on Monday cleared another hurdle in its four-year bid to build a 187,000-square-foot Supercenter at 5900 Littlerock Road S.W.

Thurson County Superior Court Judge Christine Pomeroy denied an appeal by citizen group Tumwater Liveable Community and United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 367 and upheld prior approvals by the city hearings examiner and the City Council.

"This court finds the environmental impact statement is adequate," Pomeroy said in the four-page opinion. "The court finds the project is consistent with the Littlerock Road Subarea Plan and the general commercial zone."

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Jennifer Spall said the company expected a favorable decision.

"It's a very strong site plan," Spall said. "It meets and exceeds the code in every part of the application."

Seattle attorney Claudia Newman, representing the appellants, said she had not received the decision and so she couldn't comment. The union and Tumwater Liveable Community have 30 days to decide whether to appeal Pomeroy's ruling to the state Court of Appeals.

Among other arguments, the two groups have maintained that the Wal-Mart plan was not in keeping with the city's environmental preservation goals. In particular, they said the project violated the city's tree-preservation law by granting Wal-Mart permission to remove more trees than allowed.

Pomeroy disagreed, saying the city acted properly, based on a clause allowing waivers or modifications "because strict compliance would make reasonable use of the property impracticable," the code says.

The city code normally requires 20 percent of trees, or 12 trees per acre — whichever is greater — to be saved. Under Wal-Mart's plan to build on its 20.7 acres tract, that would mean more than 240 trees should be preserved.

Newman said in July that the project, as amended with city permission, calls for 100 trees to be preserved.

Pomeroy ruled that the modification "was supported by substantial evidence as to the practical use of the project."

The judge said she also agreed with the city's view that a parking code adjustment was justified in light of testimony in July about Wal-Mart's plans for a public-transit-appropriate and bike-friendly design.

The dispute over Wal-Mart has been going on since December 2004, when the company filed its project application just hours before the City Council approved a moratorium on "big box" stores in the city. The moratorium, adopted too late to block the Wal-Mart application, was lifted about a year and a half later.

If built, the Tumwater Wal-Mart would be the third in Thurston County, after stores in Lacey and Yelm.