Wal-Mart’s Orange Plans Rejected

The Orange Planning Commission has rejected Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s proposal to knock down the Broadway department store at the Mall of Orange and replace it with a new discount store.

Wal-Mart officials declined to discuss their expansion plans Wednesday, but city officials said the Bentonville, Ark.-based retail chain has two weeks in which to appeal the 3-1 rejection to the Orange City Council.

“As it stands now, the design was denied and there will be no project unless they successfully appeal to the City Council,” Orange Planning Manager Vern Jones said.

Wal-Mart wants to knock down the existing three-story Broadway building and replace it with a 129,000-square-foot store. Wal-Mart already has three stores open in Orange County.

During a four-hour meeting on Monday, commissioners determined that the proposed design “had legitimate problems in connection with how traffic would flow in and around the store,” Jones said. “Part of the challenge facing Wal-Mart is that they’re dealing with an existing mall, not a free-standing store, like at most of their locations.”

During Monday night’s often-heated Planning Commission meeting, a handful of Orange residents complained that the proposed Wal-Mart would draw “undesirable” shoppers to the center and disrupt nearby residential neighborhoods.

But longtime Orange resident Carol Walters said she didn’t care who shopped at the proposed store.

“What I’m worried about is the 1,000 more cars that will be on the roads and the fact that it’s supposed to be open 24 hours a day,” she said. “What I’m worried about is all the noise and traffic.”

City officials have noted that Wal-Mart would not need city approval if it planned to simply take over the existing three-story building.

“If they’d have come in and occupied the existing building, they could have done it without a Planning Commission vote,” Jones said. “The issue before the commission, however, was their plan to take down the existing building and put up another one that changes the nature of the existing mall.”

The Mall of Orange “still believes that a Wal-Mart is an appropriate addition,” said Barbara Toth, spokeswoman for Newman Properties, which manages the center. “We’re behind Wal-Mart 100%.”