Wal-Mart to open around the clock

SANDY — The ongoing saga of the proposed gravel pit Wal-Mart development took a new turn as city leaders voted to allow the retailer to open its doors around the clock.

The Sandy Planning Commission gave both a proposed Lowe's home improvement warehouse and a Super Wal-Mart permits to operate 24 hours a day at the Sandy gravel pit at 9400 South and 1300 East.

The permits also allow Wal-Mart to build a gas station and a tire, lube and oil facility on the site, which is also slated to include housing, a park, smaller retailers and trails.

But residents like Cynthia Long say the latest allowance by the city is giving the Boyer project more leeway than residents would like. Long, whose group Save Our Communities has been fighting the big-box development, said she does not see a valid reason to have the retailers open all day, every day.

"To me it's just not OK," she said. "You've got lights going, and I just wonder if it will light up like a Christmas tree."

Long is still fighting the project, with an April 4 court date for oral arguments before the Utah Supreme Court. Long is arguing that Sandy city used an incorrect standard in denying her group's petition to take the development to a citywide referendum vote.

Nick Duerksen, planning and zoning spokesman for Sandy, said 24-hour operation requests are always met with resistance from residents but that legally the city has little recourse to deny an application based on the specific retailer. Several other grocery stores in the area are allowed to operate around the clock.

"Hours of operation is always an issue, so that's something we scrutinize very carefully," Duerksen said. "It would not surprise me if there is some concern about that."

The Planning Commission's staff report cites some of those concerns expressed by residents:

• The city has done enough to us by approving the development.

• The city doesn't care about our wishes.

• The store will bring undesirable teenage activity late at night at the site.

• The store will bring light and noise distractions to residents.

The 206,673-square-foot Wal-Mart needed the 24-hour permit because it is within 250 feet of a residential district, where hours of operation are limited between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

The extended store hours do not include deliveries, trash collection and parking lot sweeping, which are controlled by the noise ordinance of the city's code.

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