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| The surrounding area of the 20-acre Country Club Apartments on Airport Road in South Huntsville. Current zoning shown. |
At the Huntsville City Council meeting Thursday night, it was revealed that the redevelopment of the 50-year-old complex on Airport Road would be a 189,000 sq. ft. Walmart. As expected, this did not go over well with the residents of the Piedmont neighborhood, which is just to the north of the Country Club site.
Some of you may recall that a couple of months ago, a rezoning request for the site was denied due to a need for a traffic study conducted by the city, which concluded that a theoretical big-box store would only exacerbate the congestion of Airport, which isn't scheduled to be improved until 2016 at the earliest, according to the city's Capital Improvement Plan.
While the city of Huntsville doesn't actively pursue new Walmart stores, municipal governments do like them because each Supercenter nets approximately $50 million in annual sales, which translates to about $2 million in sales tax revenues (the main revenue stream of Alabama cities). So they do welcome them at every chance they can get one. The problems with this particular store are that it will replace an existing store, leaving 100,000 square feet of vacant retail on the Parkway, and create only a marginal gain in sales tax revenues (compared to a completely new location). And did I mention the traffic it would create?
Some of you may recall that the redevelopment of Country Club was to be mixed-use, hence the odd current zoning of the 20-acre site as 60/40 multi-family residential (R2B) and neighborhood business (C1).
In this case, when the costs-- vacant retail, more traffic, unhappy neighborhood-- outweigh the benefits-- infill development, a better looking Walmart-- maybe it's time to put this proposal to rest and come back with a better plan. Airport Road is a desirable corridor, and other retailers will follow that aren't as touchy and will be willing to be part of a denser mixed-use development with a residential "buffer zone," which is what Country Club should have been all along. But Walmart shouldn't be left out in the cold, considering their significant contributions to the tax rolls-- something could probably be worked out that would keep them on the Parkway, or better yet, expand their current location.
UPDATE (6/3/2011): The Averbuches have pulled their plans to rezone the Country Club property to all commercial, effectively killing plans for a full-size Walmart there.
Walmart in that location would be a traffic nightmare. I don't see how that could be fixed. I see what Walmart is trying to do, however; I've heard the Parkway store referred to colloquially (by white *and* black residents) as the "Ghetto Walmart," and I only go in if there aren't police cars parked out front. Truthfully, I think there are enough Walmarts in town. Building a new one, as your article suggests, won't substantially increase store revenues, but I suspect it is because the market is saturated.
ReplyDeleteThere goes the neighborhood. That was a nice upscale part of town that still had affordable housing options. Wal-Mart doesn't do it on purpose, but they always drag a neighborhood down and it makes me glad I don't live off Airport Road anymore.
ReplyDeleteGiven the traffic issues there, I think it'll become a part of town I avoid now, which is too bad because I like a lot of the businesses over there.
That might be the dumbest move ever. There are 3 Wal-Marts within a 10 mile stretch of Memorial Parkway. Do they all have to be "super"? Keep the Drake store, close it for a year and make into a super one if you must. But don't go making what is a traffic nightmare on Airport into whole worse level of hell.
ReplyDeleteUnless Wal-Mart wants to pay to improve Airport Rd to the city's specifications from the Parkway to Whitesburg, pay to build a new complex for those displaced people to live in, and do something with the to-bo-abandoned Drake store I don't really think people should bend over backwards for them by demolishing reasonably priced housing.
There's a stretch along the Parkway of approximately equal size -- south of the Hollywood 18 movie theater and north of the National Guard/Marine Reserves facilities -- that's been crying out for redevelopment for quite some time. If Wal-Mart is to relocate that spot would make much more sense to me than the Airport Road idea. It would, admittedly, be harder to put together the land since it consists of several parcels that are probably in different hands.
ReplyDeleteThere's a stretch along the Parkway of approximately equal size -- south of the Hollywood 18 movie theater and north of the National Guard/Marine Reserves facilities -- that's been crying out for redevelopment for quite some time. If Wal-Mart is to relocate that spot would make much more sense to me than the Airport Road idea. It would, admittedly, be harder to put together the land since it consists of several parcels that are probably in different hands.
ReplyDeleteAirport Rd will become a virtual parking lot. I've got no beef with Wal-Mart, but please tell me the Zoning Commission will see the light and negotiate an alternative location.
ReplyDeleteJames you said "while the city of Huntsville doesn't actively pursue new Walmart stores." Are you kidding me? City officials have been falling all over themselves trying to build a new Walmart in Madison to siphon tax dollars away with little regard for improvements to the infrastructure on the west side of town. Not only are they pursuing a Walmart but they had to annex all the way around another city to do it. What's next, a Walmart at Browns Ferry and I-65 to lure shoppers from Athens? I'm sure it won't be long.
ReplyDelete@David, I doubt Huntsville annexed all the land in west Huntsville to get another Walmart. They annexed it to get the prime real-estate for future growth, what any forward thinking city should be doing..planning for the future.
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