LITTLE ROCK — Ten years ago, some residents in the quiet, well-kept neighborhood of DuQuesne Place were ready for war.
They did not want a Wal-Mart Supercenter anywhere near their high-end homes. So neighbors from around the area where Cantrell Road meets Chenal Parkway rallied and formed the Highway 10 Alliance to fight the world’s largest retailer.
Among residents’ fears:
Crime would sweep through the valley as more people frequented the area.
The increased traffic would lead to more accidents in an area that’s home to five schools.
Lighting from the store would ruin the view for stargazers.
Trash from the store, such as plastic bags, would litter the pristine valley.
The increased noise would drown out the sounds of nature.
The megastore would discourage smaller, upscale residential and commercial projects from coming to the area.
Property values would decrease in the area.
The Highway 10 Alliance doesn’t exist anymore, but at the height of opposition to the store, more than 150 residents from 17 subdivisions were collaborating to fight the retailer. They lost.
The store opened in 2004 and today residents are singing its praises.
“It’s a nice store,” said Tom Draper, one of the former leaders of the Highway 10 Alliance. “It’s been well maintained. Today, I’m glad to say I was wrong and I’m glad it’s there.”
Draper said residents feared snarled traffic and having an eyesore of a store that would draw shady characters to the area either to work and shop or to case and rob nearby homes.
“That was the basis for the resistance to it, but it turned out to be on the contrary. It turned out to be something of an asset,” he said. “It’s certainly convenient and it hasn’t brought in the - I’m reluctant to say this because a lot of people are very sensitive about it - undesirable type folks. Folks that are just going through the neighborhood looking for an opportunity. And we get some of that, but I’m sure that’s true everywhere.”
Karen Hood, an assistant professor of marketing for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, noted that such fears are common.
Hood said people in such areas pay more to live alongside other people with similar values and developers have to take that into account if they are to be successful.
“Take a store going into a foreign country, for example. The company would have to pay close attention to the culture of that country, the language, attitudes, norms, and would have to respect those attitudes and norms,” she said.
Stephen Luoni, director of the University of Arkansas Community Design Center in Fayetteville, said “big box” developers usually meet resistance “to their typical standards of development for sites in established neighborhoods with historic building and street fabrics, or in [areas of] environmental significance.” Such areas may also include heritage corridors, flood plains and watershed systems and farmland, he said.
Luoni said it’s arguable whether Chenal Parkway fits any of those categories, since the area has been a focal point of suburban growth in west Little Rock.
“It’s a different story if one were trying to wedge a 200,000-square-foot supercenter in the Heights district - a compact and pedestrian-friendly scaled environment, for instance,” he said. “By scaled, I mean small lots, high densities, and walkable blocks that are no more than five acres in size, the ideal being three acres.
“There are ways of accommodating such retailers within neighborhoods, but it requires more creativity and intelligent decision-making from developers, cities, designers and surrounding property owners,” he said.
Requests for comment made via the Bentonville based retail giant’s public information website and telephone number went unanswered.
To appease the concerned residents at the time, Wal-Mart promised a store that would blend in with the community and assured that extra care would be taken to design easy vehicle access that wouldn’t clog traffic in the neighborhoods. At 30 feet tall, the store’s parking lot lights are 10 feet shorter than the Wal-Mart norm and are angled away from residential areas.
Also, along with two other developers, the retailer even paid $150,000 for the stoplight at the intersection of Chenal and Arkansas 10, allowing the city to use the money on other needs.
The resulting design is one that makes the front of the 200,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter look like a string of boutiques with pitched roofs and huntergreen awnings along the facade. The dark brick is similar to that of many of the houses in the semi-enclosed neighborhoods beyond the woods that buffer the store on one side. The below-street-level parking lot - dotted with oases of trees and shrubs - has a winding drive that leads up to Chenal Parkway.
“Visually, it’s very nice,” Draper said in early June, while standing at the front door of his DuQuesne Place home. His door reflects the residents’ desire for privacy in a pristine setting, a posted sign reading in capital letters: “Absolutely no solicitors!”
“Remember the old Wal-Marts used to be concrete blocks painted blue and gray and all that?” he asked rhetorically. “This is a much nicer exterior and I think it blends well with the overall neighborhood out here.”
Subdivisions in Chenal Valley have landscaped entrances with fountains, ponds and brick signs bearing the names of the neighborhoods.
Doug Reed, the Pulaski County justice of the peace who represents the area, said he wasn’t living near the Wal-Mart location 10 years ago at the height of opposition to the store. He’s glad it’s there now that he lives farther down Cantrell Road in Roland, which is in unincorporated Pulaski County, he said.
“We’ve lived right next to Pinnacle Mountain since 1991,” he said. “The closest grocery store back then was the Kroger about seven or eight miles away. Wal-Mart is about two miles. That’s a big savings in gasoline.”
Reed said he was having trouble remembering much about the issues raised a decade ago.
“I do remember when they were talking about coming out here; when there was a rumor about Wal-Mart and a Lowe’s. The Lowe’s never happened, so that was either a false rumor or it just fell through,” Reed said.
Gerard Littlejohn, a spokesman for Lowe’s, said “primarily we don’t comment on specific stores until we close on all real estate matters, but we haven’t closed on any property in Little Rock recently.”
Another rumor was that Wal-Mart might build at The Ranch subdivision a few blocks east of where the store is today.
The Ranch had been zoned for a small shopping center but 32 acres were rezoned in 2000 for larger commercial use. Ed Willis, the developer who owns The Ranch property, said he never had any intention of drawing the big box retailer to the neighborhood.
Beverly Roachell, president of Peak Properties LLC, which manages The Ranch Community Property Owners Association, is a spokesman for Willis. She said Willis and residents of The Ranch never opposed Wal-Mart’s current location.
“The Ranch has no problem with Wal-Mart,” she said. “It is a beautiful store that provides a service to the community. My favorite quote from Mr. Willis is ‘We drive to it, not by it.’ As a developer for The Ranch, he feels they did a great job with the store but is glad it’s a little bit farther away.”
Michael Keck, the Little Rock city director who represents the area, lived closer to Chenal Parkway and Bowman Road when the issue was still being hotly debated. He noted it’s been a long time since the city’s Planning Commission granted the retailer permission to build at the site.
The Planning Commission approved the company’s plans in late October 2002, but under normal circumstances, Wal-Mart wouldn’t have been required to appear before the commission because the property was already zoned for heavy commercial use.
However, when the land was rezoned for that classification in 1988, city planners stipulated that they reserved the right to review limited aspects of site plans. That means the commission could review the footprint of the building, layout of the parking lot, landscaping, lighting and access points but could not reject the development outright.
Keck said he had no problems with the project then, and now his family regularly shops at the supercenter.
“They made a number of concessions in regard to design, materials and traffic improvements,” he said. “It was already there when we moved out there so it’s been a part of our lives. We patronize it a lot.”
Similarly, Draper said the store has proved to be an asset to the community.
“It’s been much, much more of a plus than any drawback,” he said. “I find myself going there almost daily.”
Front Section, Pages 1 on 06/20/2010