Wal-Mart submits plans

Rendering of the proposed Cedar Mill Wal-Mart store from plans submitted in July

On July 1, just before the long holiday weekend, Walmart filed its formal application to build a 152,000 square foot store at the southwest corner of Cedar Hills Boulevard and Barnes Road. Once the application is determined to be complete by Beaverton planners, expected to occur by September, the city will have 120 days to make a final decision on the store.

Wal-Mart’s traffic consultant, Transpo Group of Seattle, studied 16 sites around the proposed store location to come up with its estimate that the store would add around ten percent more traffic to the Cedar Hills/Barnes intersection during the busiest afternoon hour, and nearly 18% on Saturdays. The store would generate approximately 7300 new vehicle trips each day. It’s unclear how many of these trips would be multi-trailer trucks delivering goods to the store.

To accommodate this increased traffic Wal-Mart proposes to expand the intersection of Barnes and Cedar Hills by up to three additional lanes in some places. (see maps). The driveway leading to the Sunset Club would become 117th, with a traffic signal and multiple left and right turn lanes. Access to the store would be from 117th and also from Corby.

The store itself has grown from the initial proposal of 145,000 square feet to the current estimate of 152,300 square feet. A 4300 square foot office building and an additional retail building of 9900 square feet are also proposed for the nine-acre site. A decided departure from typical Wal-Mart grey boxes, the store would be faced with brick and metal. About 400 of the estimated 612 parking spaces would occupy the ground floor of the building.

Wal-Mart opponents showed up in force at the Citizens’ Participation Organization #1 (CPO#1) meeting on July 5 to pass a resolution asking Beaverton to consider the CPO’s concerns with equal weight as Beaverton’s neighborhood associations. The resolution cited traffic, noise and impact on local business as issues the CPO wants Beaverton to pay attention to.

Traffic is the major concern affecting Cedar Mill, says Steve Kaufman, chairman of Save Cedar Mill, the group organized to oppose the store. He apologized for giving fodder to those who argue that it’s only the elitist attitude of Forest Park and Cedar Mill residents that causes them to oppose the store. “I put my foot in my mouth early in the process, but that’s the past and we have to move forward with our strongest arguments,” he admitted. A cartoon in The Oregonian depicted the neighborhoods as a castle on the hill, with Wal-Mart represented as a peasant hut. (Missing from the cartoon was the flood of traffic cutting the castle off from the rest of the world.)

Save Cedar Mill is over halfway to its goal of raising $30,000 to pay for the services of a land use attorney and a traffic engineer to study the recently-submitted plans for problems that can be used to persuade Beaverton to deny the application. The money has been raised, “check by check, lawn sign by lawn sign” from concerned local residents, says Kaufman. The group continues to raise funds and awareness with a table in front of Bales Thriftway each Wednesday and Saturday.

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