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SIERRA VISTA — The city Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday voted unanimously in favor of the preliminary subdivision plat for the Wal-Mart Supercenter site.
The site includes five separate parcels over about 45.4 acres at the northwest corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway and the Highway 90 Bypass.
The five parcels include a Wal-Mart Supercenter, a Sam’s Club, a Sam’s Only Gas Lot, a water tank and a separately owned outlot planned for smaller retail development.
Two detention basins also are included on the site, said Don Brush, principal planner for the city.
 A part of the preliminary plat for Wal-Mart's planned Supercenter. (Courtesy of the city of Sierra Vista) |
Access into the Wal-Mart Supercenter will be provided throughout the site:
• A traffic light and access will be constructed at the Highway 90 Bypass and Campus Drive intersection.
• Right-turn-only access will be included across from the access point of Plaza Vista Mall at the Highway 90 Bypass.
• Access will be available at the signaled intersection across from Lowe’s on Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway.
• A traffic signal will be added at Avenida Escuela, which Wal-Mart will extend to Charleston Wash on the north side of the property.
• Pedestrian access will be available from multi-use paths along Charleston Wash and Highway 90. A sidewalk will be built across the Wal-Mart Supercenter parking lot. Sidewalks also will be constructed along Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway and Avenida Escuela.
The parking lot will have about 1,524 regular parking spaces and 42 handicapped-accessible parking spaces.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, the only comment came from Leonard Colwell, chairman of the Huachuca City Planning and Zoning Commission, who said he didn’t think there were enough handicapped-accessible parking spaces.
“It seems kind of low to me,” Colwell said.
Tina Moore, a city planner, said the Americans with Disabilities Act requires a minimum 2 percent of the total parking to be accessible, and Wal-Mart has exceeded the requirement.
During a Development Review Committee meeting earlier Tuesday, a concern about the signal timing at Campus Drive was raised, Brush said. The signal will be timed before the stores open, he said.
Commission Chairwoman Lillian Seagren also asked why the parking spaces were not planned diagonally.
Diagonal parking would restrict the flow of traffic, said James Dugger, the senior project manager for the site from Pentacor, the site engineer.
Instead, the developers wanted two-way traffic for all the parking aisles. The design also allowed space for the trees throughout the parking lot, Dugger said.
Trees will be planted throughout the parking lot and other landscaping will be added along Highway 90 and Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway.
“When treated effluent is available, Wal-Mart would hook into that,” Brush said.
Commissioner Ken Garland asked where construction access will be. Brush said Avenida Escuela will be the access point into the site for construction.
Garland also asked why Wal-Mart plans to give its portion of Charleston Wash to the city once the site in completed.
“It seems like we get a lot of washes donated to the public,” he said.
The area is in a 100-year floodplain, and the area is not able to be developed, Brush said.
While washes do not provide revenue to the city, they are important for water recharge, said Councilman Rick Mueller.
Seagren said the commission members have spent other work sessions having their questions answered about the site, and they feel confident about it.
Brush said the preliminary site plan will be up for City Council approval at the Oct. 23 meeting. A site plan also will need to be approved by the City Council before construction can begin.
If approved, construction is expected to begin around Christmas time this year and planned to be completed before Christmas 2009, Dugger said.
In other business, the commission approved an address change for four homes to Piccadilly Lane from Piccadilly Drive.
Based on new 911 software, the address was determined to be a conflict because the houses are actually located on Piccadilly Lane. They were mistakenly addressed based on a plat that did not show the continuation of Piccadilly Lane, Moore said.
After the meeting, the commission watched a video about “Visitability” with representatives from the Commission on Disabilities Issues. The video advocated residential building requirements of at least one no-step access into homes and minimum door widths of 32 inches to make homes more accessible for wheelchairs.
The commission said it would support the effort.
Herald/Review reporter Laura Ory can be reached at 515-4683 or by e-mail at laura.ory@svherald.com.
To Ret98 wrote on Oct 23, 2008 9:39 PM: