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0 AppIe Valleyattaches strings to Wal-Mart OK DON AHERN STAFF WRITER sion as to what it will look like," said quate to handle even the traffic generat- Rick Kelly, the city's community devel- _ed by a grocery component, Kelly said. [� opment director. "The council postponed those two approvals until it is up and However, he added, the council did rec- ommend signal lights at Wal-Mart drive- creased traffic, the Apple Valley City they can go out and look at it. But that ways on Pennock Avenue and 147th and Council has approved construction of a does not affect (construction of) the 149th streets. 129,000 square foot Wal-Mart store at building. Whether they will be allowed to r-- County Road 42 and Pennock Avenue, on put in the trailers and garden area is If the council had not acted within 60 the western fringe of that city's "down- what will be delayed. The concern was days of Wal-Mart's application — Dec. 24 town." the appearance," and if the areas will be — the company could by default build The store will not include a groceryadequately screened from neighbors. what it had originally applied for with no additional conditions imposed by the city. component, as originally conceived in the "As part of design process, we did end "I don't believe the council was pushed application in July. Neighbors were op- up requiring them to install a landscaped into it," because of that impending dead- posed to that because it would generate berm on the 147th Street side across line, Kelly said. "But I think they felt the traffic 24 hours a day. But the food store from the residential areas," he added plans met .. . the city guidelines and they was dropped because of corporate deci- [The earth berm will be 8 to 1.0 feet tall, felt comfortable acting." sion by Wal-Mart to not have a grocery with 8-foot-high evergreens. component in its Minnesota stores at this The area in which Wal-Mart will build time. Construction is expected to start in is vacant agricultural land. A Bachman's The Apple Valley store will be built early spring, with opening in October. floral store is in the northeast corner at with outside areas for garden sales and About 35 people opposing the store Pennock and 147th streets, and a few semitrailer storage of Christmas invento- were present at Thursday's council meet- other stores are nearby. About 320 ry. However, the council Thursday re- ing and expressed disappointment. But homes, mostly single-family houses, are served final approval of conditional use even their own attorney told them that located west and north across 147th permits for those areas until after they the council had little discretion. The area Street. Pennock marks the westerly edge are built. is zoned for this type of use, and a traffic of Apple Valley's central business dis- That delay "was based on some confu- study indicated that the roads are ade- trict. I S.AINT PAUL PIONEER PRESS SATURDAY,DECEMBER 13, 1997 j