Wal-Mart Report Shows Environmental Impact

Wal-Mart Report Shows Environmental Impact
By Ian Thompson

SUISUN CITY - Suisun City residents will get their first look at how a proposed Wal-Mart Superstore will affect the community when the project's draft environmental impact report is made public today.

The superstore will unavoidably affect the area's traffic, noise, air quality and aesthetics, according to the report, said Ben Hulse, Suisun City's Community Development project manager.

Other impacts on areas such as public safety, city services, urban decay, utilities use and nearby land use can be mitigated.

The store's opponents have repeatedly hammered the project this year, claiming it will congest nearby roadways, increase crime, threaten the future of Travis Air Force Base and kill small businesses.

Supporters state the store will generate much needed retail tax income for the city to offset much of the spending Suisun City residents do at Fairfield stores.

Wal-Mart wants to build a 230,000-square-foot supercenter on a triangle of land just west of Walters Road and just north of Highway 12.

Copies of the draft report will be available for examination at the Suisun City Community Development Department at City Hall at 701 Civic Center Blvd. or at the Solano County Library at 1150 Kentucky St.

It will also be online at www.suisun.com probably by Monday, according to Hulse.

Those wanting copies will be charged for printing costs, but the draft report and its even more extensive compilation of supporting documents are also available in CD form for a nominal charge.

Residents will have 45 days to comment in writing on the report.

Send comments to Community Development Director Heather McCollister, 701 Civic Center Blvd., Suisun City, Calif. 94585 or to hmccollister@suisun.com.

The comments and city staff's responses will then be incorporated into a final report, which is expected to go to the Suisun City Planning Commission and then to the Suisun City Council for hearings.

"Depending on the number of comments we get, we are looking at having the final EIR finished by late December at the earliest," Hulse said.

Reach Ian Thompson at 427-6976 or at ithompson@dailyrepublic.net.