Post by L Roebuck on May 3, 2006 15:32:34 GMT -5
Debate heats up over proposed Wal-Mart in Alachua
By AMY REININK Sun Staff Writer
Months before a proposal to build a Wal-Mart Supercenter here could hit City Hall, debate about how the supercenter could affect the region's water supply and roads is ratcheting up.
Permit applications with the Suwannee River Water Management District and the Florida Department of Transportation have drawn intense scrutiny from environmentalists and local officials, and meetings about protecting springs and underground caves have morphed into forums for discussions about the supercenter Wal-Mart wants to build at the southeast corner of U.S. 441 and Interstate 75.
But Wal-Mart engineers say they're proposing road improvements that would help move increased traffic, and say recent geotechnical studies don't show a serious risk for sinkholes on the site.
Wal-Mart is seeking permits to build a 207,900-square-foot supercenter that includes a 20,000-square-foot garden center, a separate 76,000-square-foot shopping center, two fast-food restaurants with drive-throughs and a gas station with 20 fueling positions, according to DOT records.
Stormwater runoff
Debate about the permit applications started about a month ago at a meeting of the Santa Fe Springs Basin Working Group in High Springs.
At the meeting, High Springs Commissioner Kirk Eppenstein said he worried about the supercenter's effect on the region's water supply, and followed up with a letter to the water management district asking it to give the application a high level of scrutiny.
Cave diver Cindy Butler told the audience she worried that stormwater runoff from the garden center and gas station would find its way into a sinkhole near the site, and that the sinkhole would funnel that runoff directly into the Floridan Aquifer.
The worry was based on a recent study commissioned by Alachua County at another sinkhole in Alachua across U.S. 441 from the site. The study showed that it took about two weeks for dye in Mill Creek Sink to turn up six miles away at Hornsby Spring, which feeds the Santa Fe River.
Peter Sutch, an engineer for Wal-Mart, said rises and dips in the landscape between the supercenter and the sinkhole would make it nearly impossible for stormwater to flow from the supercenter to the sinkhole.
Sutch, executive vice president of Sanford-based CPH Engineers, said Wal-Mart is proposing a stormwater retention basin designed to take advantage of the site's elevation, and said it would be equipped with skimmers that will separate pollutants from other stormwater to prevent them from seeping into the aquifer.
Cave network
Butler and others at the meeting also said the supercenter could harm a fragile underground cave network in that part of the city.
Sutch said the cave network is east of the site, about 150 feet below the surface, which he said is too deep to be affected by development above ground.
"Once you get about 15 to 20 feet below the proposed grade of a development, the soil doesn't feel the pressure of the development above it," he said.
Fay Baird, a hydrologist who coordinates the Santa Fe Springs Basin Working Group, said there's still reason to be concerned about a supercenter's impact on the cave system and on the region's groundwater.
"We just don't know whether that's true or not," Baird said, referring to Sutch's statement about the cave system being too far underground to be affected by development. "The thing that is obvious is that stormwater can seep down through cracks and crevices and make its way into the cave system. If there's a crack or crevice to find, water will find it. And runoff is especially hard to control on construction sites."
The supercenter site is part of a much larger planned development, and Baird said the water management district, Alachua and the DOT should work together to design a stormwater master plan for the whole area.
Traffic concerns
Debate about the traffic a supercenter could create also has heightened in the past month. During Alachua's recent city election, Lewis Irby, who had challenged Commissioner James Lewis, said a supercenter should not be allowed on that site until traffic problems at the U.S. 441-Interstate 75 interchange are solved.
The DOT has graded the interchange as "failing" during rush-hour traffic, and is studying whether it is clogged enough to justify a new interchange.
The entire project, including the fast-food restaurants and other stores, will create roughly 22,260 trips a day when it's completely built, according to DOT records, with the supercenter alone creating roughly 10,720 trips a day.
Sutch said Wal-Mart is proposing a new stop light at the entrance to the site on U.S. 441, and said Wal-Mart would synchronize the timing of that light and others on U.S. 441 to ease traffic backups. He said those and other improvements should mitigate any excess traffic the supercenter would bring.
"Between the new turn lanes being provided and the traffic signal being installed, Wal-Mart is proposing some pretty significant improvements," Sutch said.
Alachua City Manager Clovis Watson Jr. said no matter what the zoning is, Wal-Mart would have to request a special exception to build a supercenter because of the store's square footage. This means it would go through hearings with both the Planning and Zoning Board and the City Commission, in addition to site-plan review.
Wal-Mart would also have to hold a community meeting with residents who live near the site, Watson said.
"An awful lot of dialogue will go on during this process," Watson said.
Amy Reinink can be reached at 352-374-5088 or reinina@gvillesun.com
Gainesville.com
By AMY REININK Sun Staff Writer
Months before a proposal to build a Wal-Mart Supercenter here could hit City Hall, debate about how the supercenter could affect the region's water supply and roads is ratcheting up.
Permit applications with the Suwannee River Water Management District and the Florida Department of Transportation have drawn intense scrutiny from environmentalists and local officials, and meetings about protecting springs and underground caves have morphed into forums for discussions about the supercenter Wal-Mart wants to build at the southeast corner of U.S. 441 and Interstate 75.
But Wal-Mart engineers say they're proposing road improvements that would help move increased traffic, and say recent geotechnical studies don't show a serious risk for sinkholes on the site.
Wal-Mart is seeking permits to build a 207,900-square-foot supercenter that includes a 20,000-square-foot garden center, a separate 76,000-square-foot shopping center, two fast-food restaurants with drive-throughs and a gas station with 20 fueling positions, according to DOT records.
Stormwater runoff
Debate about the permit applications started about a month ago at a meeting of the Santa Fe Springs Basin Working Group in High Springs.
At the meeting, High Springs Commissioner Kirk Eppenstein said he worried about the supercenter's effect on the region's water supply, and followed up with a letter to the water management district asking it to give the application a high level of scrutiny.
Cave diver Cindy Butler told the audience she worried that stormwater runoff from the garden center and gas station would find its way into a sinkhole near the site, and that the sinkhole would funnel that runoff directly into the Floridan Aquifer.
The worry was based on a recent study commissioned by Alachua County at another sinkhole in Alachua across U.S. 441 from the site. The study showed that it took about two weeks for dye in Mill Creek Sink to turn up six miles away at Hornsby Spring, which feeds the Santa Fe River.
Peter Sutch, an engineer for Wal-Mart, said rises and dips in the landscape between the supercenter and the sinkhole would make it nearly impossible for stormwater to flow from the supercenter to the sinkhole.
Sutch, executive vice president of Sanford-based CPH Engineers, said Wal-Mart is proposing a stormwater retention basin designed to take advantage of the site's elevation, and said it would be equipped with skimmers that will separate pollutants from other stormwater to prevent them from seeping into the aquifer.
Cave network
Butler and others at the meeting also said the supercenter could harm a fragile underground cave network in that part of the city.
Sutch said the cave network is east of the site, about 150 feet below the surface, which he said is too deep to be affected by development above ground.
"Once you get about 15 to 20 feet below the proposed grade of a development, the soil doesn't feel the pressure of the development above it," he said.
Fay Baird, a hydrologist who coordinates the Santa Fe Springs Basin Working Group, said there's still reason to be concerned about a supercenter's impact on the cave system and on the region's groundwater.
"We just don't know whether that's true or not," Baird said, referring to Sutch's statement about the cave system being too far underground to be affected by development. "The thing that is obvious is that stormwater can seep down through cracks and crevices and make its way into the cave system. If there's a crack or crevice to find, water will find it. And runoff is especially hard to control on construction sites."
The supercenter site is part of a much larger planned development, and Baird said the water management district, Alachua and the DOT should work together to design a stormwater master plan for the whole area.
Traffic concerns
Debate about the traffic a supercenter could create also has heightened in the past month. During Alachua's recent city election, Lewis Irby, who had challenged Commissioner James Lewis, said a supercenter should not be allowed on that site until traffic problems at the U.S. 441-Interstate 75 interchange are solved.
The DOT has graded the interchange as "failing" during rush-hour traffic, and is studying whether it is clogged enough to justify a new interchange.
The entire project, including the fast-food restaurants and other stores, will create roughly 22,260 trips a day when it's completely built, according to DOT records, with the supercenter alone creating roughly 10,720 trips a day.
Sutch said Wal-Mart is proposing a new stop light at the entrance to the site on U.S. 441, and said Wal-Mart would synchronize the timing of that light and others on U.S. 441 to ease traffic backups. He said those and other improvements should mitigate any excess traffic the supercenter would bring.
"Between the new turn lanes being provided and the traffic signal being installed, Wal-Mart is proposing some pretty significant improvements," Sutch said.
Alachua City Manager Clovis Watson Jr. said no matter what the zoning is, Wal-Mart would have to request a special exception to build a supercenter because of the store's square footage. This means it would go through hearings with both the Planning and Zoning Board and the City Commission, in addition to site-plan review.
Wal-Mart would also have to hold a community meeting with residents who live near the site, Watson said.
"An awful lot of dialogue will go on during this process," Watson said.
Amy Reinink can be reached at 352-374-5088 or reinina@gvillesun.com
Gainesville.com