Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 23, 1994 TAG: 9402230127
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ADRIENNE PETTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Medium
The Board of Supervisors has the final say and will review the request at its meeting next month.
The vote comes a month after the commission tabled Wal-Mart's permit request until it had more information on the store's potential impact on traffic. The store would compound traffic on an already congested stretch of Virginia 40, which narrows from four lanes to two less than a half-mile from the proposed site.
The Virginia Department of Transportation plans to widen Virginia 40 to four lanes from the U.S. 220 bypass to Virginia 122, but officials cannot guarantee that the proposed store would speed up the project, scheduled to be completed by 1999.
An engineer representing Wal-Mart has come up with an interim plan in which two turning lanes would be added to each side of the road to accommodate additional traffic. Wal-Mart would foot the bill for road improvements approved by the Transportation Department to provide a safe entrance on Virginia 40.
The Richmond Development Group, hired by Wal-Mart to negotiate the store proposal, also will submit a revised traffic study, installing 24-hour traffic counters to assess the store's potential impact.
Apparently, the commission was satisfied with Wal-Mart's efforts to deal with the traffic problem and to meet other conditions, such as studying the impact of its septic disposal system, and complying with the county's recycling program and the state's practices for erosion and sediment control.
But some citizens and community leaders, including Rocky Mount Town Manager Mark Henne, voiced concern over increased congestion.
"The town has a legal concern and responsibility as to how this problem is met," he said.
Henne asked that the commission involve the town in any further discussion of the impact the proposed store would have on traffic.
by CNB