Wal-Mart studying Twin Falls

TWIN FALLS, Idaho – Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, could find its next Idaho location in Twin Falls, as company officials say they are readying to submit plans to the city as early as March.

The City Council must approve details of the plans. Two representatives from Salt Lake City-based engineering firm CLC associates, who are representing Wal-Mart, and Twin Falls engineer and developer Gerald Martens met this week with city leaders to discuss plans for the proposed super center.

The store would be built in the 80-acre North Haven Business Park, which Martens partly owns.

CLC Associates revealed an early site plan to city officials, but did not submit it or allow the officials to keep copies, Twin Falls Planning and Zoning Director LaMar Orton said.

Wal-Mart spokesman Eric Berger said the “pre-application” meeting was so the Arkansas-based Wal-Mart could get information about the city before filing. He said an application should follow in the next few months.

The proposed North Haven business park site is already zoned for commercial use, so the company will not have to battle the city over zoning changes, as it did the first time it attempted to open a Twin Falls store five years ago.

Wal-Mart petitioned a zoning change from residential to commercial to build a more than 200,000-square-foot super center. The City Council rejected the plan due to possible effects on an already saturated retail area.