Wal-Mart seeks Parleys Way site zoning

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. says it will have a store on Parleys Way. What kind of store remains to be seen.

Wal-Mart purchased 10 acres at 2705 E. Parleys Way, the current site of a Kmart, in 2003. When Kmart's lease expires in October, Wal-Mart hopes to knock the old building down and build a 113,620-square-foot supercenter. The Kmart is 113,227 square feet.

The existing structure is "tired," said Wal-Mart spokeswoman Karianne Fallow. The new store, Salt Lake City's second supercenter — albeit a smallish iteration of the form — would offer general merchandise and groceries. Outside, there would be significantly more in the way of landscaping and greenery, Fallow said, and a leveled parking area.

"This is going to be a Wal-Mart," Fallow stated. "Our goal was to make a pretty significant reinvestment into the community and really build a store that the community could be proud of."

However, Fallow said, that decision is largely in the hands of city officials charged with approving the retailer's zoning and demolition applications.

Fallow said that, shortly after Wal-Mart bought the Kmart site, the city clarified its definitions of various kinds of stores, effectively changing the zoning for that site. Wal-Mart's proposed store is not an approved use for the site under the new zoning. "If Wal-Mart decides to move in there tomorrow, the ordinance allows them to," said Kevin LoPiccolo, zoning administrator at the Salt Lake City Planning Division. "But they're confined to the building they're occupying. There's no expansions. You can upgrade it, you can do all of the interior improvements, you can change the exterior. You just can't increase the building footprint."

That's unless the retailer is granted a zone change, which Wal-Mart says it will try to get. The applications will be submitted within the next few months to Salt Lake City's Planning Division, Fallow said, which likely would be followed by meetings with the City Council.

The city likely will hear plenty of feedback from concerned community members. Fallow said Wal-Mart already is talking with various community councils about their concerns, which have ranged from residents wanting Wal-Mart to go far, far away and never come back to the height of its proposed parking area light poles.

"We realize that it (the new store) will probably become a popular topic of conversation," Fallow said. "And we understand that the retail industry in general has not been great at being transparent and open. We wanted to change that, to engage in these discussions early and be as transparent as we can be."

Fallow said Wal-Mart is aware of its critics and their criticisms: about benefits plans, employee treatment and pay, and the effect on locally owned businesses.