First Walmart hearing is Thursday

Orange County Planning Commission members left their May 7 meeting with a game plan and a site plan related to a hotly contested big-box plan proposed for a location near the intersection of Route 3 and Route 20. Commissioners were each given an armful of drawings, plans and details required by the county's special use permit application to review before the May 21 public hearing on a proposed Walmart Supercenter.
Since plans to build the proposed 138,000-square foot store were announced last year, historians, preservationists, and politicians from around the country have backed a vigorous campaign to relocate the store farther from its proposed site near the Wilderness Battlefield. But proponents of the project say the store will supply the county with much-needed jobs and revenue.
At last week's meeting, planning commission members nailed down details for the May 21 public hearing, where record attendance is expected, and hundreds may sign up to speak, both for and against the proposed store.
"We expect a pretty good crowd given the publicity on this project," Orange County Director of Community Development David Grover said. Grover said planning commission members should expect to see an audience consisting of groups and individuals from across the country in addition to locals.
Orange County Planning Commission Chairman Will Likins said public hearing speakers and those in the audience, on both sides of the issues, will be expected to make their arguments "with proper decorum." Speakers' three-minute limit will be enforced by electronic timers and lights, he added.
But for at least one planning commission member, the public hearing process in this matter had been devalued by several supervisors' announcements that they planned to vote in favor of Walmart's special use permit.
District 2 member Walter Smith said the planning commission's function, in this case, had been superseded by county supervisors who had already made public their opinion-and which way they intended to vote-on Walmart's special use permit application.
"It's a hard pill for some of the citizens of Orange County to swallow when some supervisors have already indicated how they're going to vote on the issue," Smith said. "We've always waited to make our decisions until after the pubic hearing, and I just wish it could be carried to another level."
District 1 Planning Commission member Bill Spieden suggested that in the event that the planning commission voted immediately following the public hearing, commissioners should provide a brief explanation of their decision.
"This gives the county a basis of not being arbitrary and capricious," Spieden said.
If the planning commission does not take action following the May 21 public hearing, the vote will be at their June 8 meeting. The May 21 public hearing will be 7 p.m. in the Prospect Heights Middle School cafeteria.