Builder says Wal-Mart project at Exit 14 still a go

ABINGDON, Va. – While not a lot of noise has been heard lately about the controversial Wal-Mart project, developer Tim Scoggin says it is moving forward at Exit 14.

"We’re not moving to Exit 19, no way, shape, form or fashion," Scoggin said of the exit where a lot of development is now taking place.

Scoggin is with the Commonwealth Co., which has been working steadily toward construction of a shopping center for the big-box retailer.

"We’ve worked on it a long time, and we think the finish line is in sight."

Because of the need to go through federal agencies for approval to upgrade the Interstate 81 interchange, Scoggin said the permitting process for the project has been one of the toughest he has seen.

After five years and nearly $1 million invested, double the normal cost, Scoggin said he hopes to submit applications to the town this spring and break ground on the shopping center this summer. If that happens, he said the projected opening date for the stores would be late next year or early 2010.

Meanwhile, those who oppose an Abingdon Wal-Mart say they are waiting for the project to come back to the town for approval so they can make their objections known again.

"We’ve basically been waiting to see because we’ve done documentation and analysis of what the likely impacts of this development would be," said Anthony Flaccavento, the unofficial leader of the town’s anti-Wal-Mart movement.

"There’s not a lot else that we can do until they, in fact, put a proposal forward. At that point, we will be vigorously opposing it, and ‘we’ is, I’m sure, going to be hundreds of people in Abingdon."

Flaccavento said his organization, Concerned Citizens for Abingdon’s Future, has gathered nearly 1,000 signatures from residents urging town leaders to turn down any application by Wal-Mart to gain a special-use permit required by town ordinance for buildings larger than 50,000 square feet.

"We hope to stop them," Flaccavento said of Wal-Mart and the developer. "We intend to stop them."

The project touched off a controversy in 2002, when a developer submitted a preliminary plat for the shopping center. When word got out around the community, an opposition group led by Flaccavento quickly came together and became a fixture at Town Council meetings. Opponents said the store would hurt local businesses and bring down wages and health-care benefits.

Ultimately, however, it was the Virginia Department of Transportation that temporarily halted the project. Officials at VDOT wouldn’t grant a road-entrance permit for the shopping center until upgrades were made to Exit 14 – long recognized as a hazardous interchange. The traffic lured by a Wal-Mart would only add to those problems, VDOT said.

The project has been tied up since as VDOT and the Federal Highway Administration worked to hammer out a plan for improvements to the exit, a $7 million project to be paid for by the developer.

The Town Council, which has expressed a desire to work with the developer, approved in 2003 two ordinances that will affect the development. The first dictates aesthetic standards for structures along roadways leading into the town’s historic district; the second requires a special-use permit for buildings larger than 50,000 square feet, which is about a third the size of a typical Wal-Mart.

Despite local opposition, Scoggin said he believes the store will be built.

"I think you have a very small percentage of the population that is very polarized against Wal-Mart for some reason, but I think by and large, the vast majority of people in Southwest Virginia don’t feel that way and that at the end of the day, I think the silent majority will be heard from," Scoggin said.

"If I didn’t feel like this project was going forward, I wouldn’t be spending five years and substantial sums of dollars on it."

dmccown@bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0701