Wal-Mart supercenter gets go-ahead in Pullman

A hearing examiner gave Wal-Mart Stores Inc. the green light to build a supercenter in Pullman.

Hearing Examiner John Montgomery found no reason to deny the landowner’s property rights, saying that plans for the store don’t violate any reasonable laws.

A citizens group that opposed the store, the Pullman Alliance for Responsible Development, was disappointed in the ruling.

“Of course we oppose it. It’s not the right thing for our community,” said Christopher Lupke, a Washington State University professor and member of the alliance.

The ruling capped more than a year of battles to keep the 223,000-square-foot supercenter out of Pullman, a town of 25,000 residents. Members of the citizens group gathered signatures from 9,600 people who pledged not to shop or work at the store if it were built.

Part of the 28 acres where the store will go has what the ruling referred to as “seasonal wetlands.” The property at 44th Avenue and Regal Street in Spokane that Wal-Mart is eyeing for another new store also includes wetlands.

Montgomery listened to three days of testimony for and against the project in January and waded through numerous written testimonies before ruling against the citizens group’s appeal.

Conditions laid down include making road improvements, adding traffic lights and creating a buffer between the store and an adjacent cemetery.

Lupke said he was pleased that the hearing examiner supported those conditions.

“Without our efforts, these mitigations probably would not have been put forth in the first place,” he said.