Spokesman Lin Roseberry said her neighborhood was directly behind the proposed Wal-Mart location, a stretch of unincorporated woodland, one of the many county 'islands' that lie inside Gainesville's city limits.
Roseberry said her group got word that the big box retailer is heavily considering the site at the bend of Thompson Bridge Road and that the city is looking at annexing the land to bring the new store inside its municipal limits.
"We would like some answers," Roseberry said. "This is a neighborhood, this is a corridor and it's important that this corridor remain with the 'mom and pop' stores that are here. Wal-Mart is a large box store; Wal-Mart is not community geared with maintaining the elements that are already here."
Roseberry and three other female homeowner association members started showing up around 7:30 a.m. as rain began to fall with temperatures in the upper 30s to put up new 'Stop Wal-Mart' signs.
Signs were placed along Thompson Bridge Road Monday but were removed; Roseberry did not know who took them down. The protest lasted about an hour, with the women posting the signs and at times waving them at passing southbound motorists.
"The problem with this is, would you like to have your back yard be Wal-mart," Roseberry said. "Crystal Drive all the way to Mountain View Drive, their backyards are going to be Wal-Mart."
Gainesville's Mayor Protem Danny Dunagan owns and operates 'Three-D' Cleaners just down the street from the property, which is in his Ward One.
"I think they're a little premature," Dunagan said, referring to the protest. "There has been no application to the city to annex that piece of property or rezone it. Wal-Mart, from what I understand, does have an option for 'do diligence' on that property and that's all. They're looking at more than one location in Hall County on the north end of Hall County to locate a possible store."
Dunagan said the proposed Wal-Mart, from what he learned, would not be a 'superstore' like the stores on Shallowford Road in Gainesville and in Oakwood on Mundy Mill Road across from Gainesville State College.
"It will be more focused toward groceries and it's a new concept they've come up with; it's a neighborhood concept," Dunagan said.
Dunagan, who served as Gainesville's Planning and Appeals Board chairman before he was elected to City Council, said when the application comes in, the city would thoroughly review the potential impact it would have on the area.
"We'll just have to see," he said. "Thompson Bridge Road is a four lane highway and it's going to go commercial eventually and we would just have to see how it fits the neighborhood before we make any decisions, but so far there's just talk. It may be six months to a year before it ever comes before us...if it does come before us."
Roseberry and three other female homeowner association members started showing up around 7:30 a.m. as rain began to fall with temperatures in the upper 30
The neighborhood was directly behind the proposed Wal-Mart location, a stretch of unincorporated woodland, one of the many county
The big box retailer is heavily considering the site at the bend of Thompson Bridge Road
http://accesswdun.com/article/2011/1/235583