Residents: Stop Building Walmarts In Our Neighborhood
FORT WORTH(CBSDFW.COM) - Far North Fort Worth residents say they're about to have two Walmarts too many if plans continue to build two new stores within miles of an existing Superstore.
"I think there's a Walmart on every corner," said Melissa Martin, who owns a home near one of the planned construction sites. "I think there's too much, there's too many cars. Too many people in this area."
Home owners say they're worried the addition of a Walmarts Neighborhood Grocery store and a full-sized Walmarts within three miles of an existing store would add to the traffic headaches in their area.
There is already a store at North Beach and Tarrant Parkway. Plans call for adding a neighborhood grocery a little to the north at Heritage Trace and Beach, and another large store north of that on Golden Triangle.
Some fear the added congestion could threaten property values and increase the dangers on area roads.
"Its scarey," Martin said. "Right out here in front of the Kroger area, there's no light. It took us 28 minutes one time trying to get out."
But others say there are benefits to Walmart's expansion in the area.
"There's good jobs coming in, so that's good," said Brandy Karamol who also lives nearby. "And then stuff is closer, like the Costco. Its going to grow anyway so why push it away?"
At this point, there is little neighborhood associations can do. A City of Fort Worth statement said the property was already zoned commercial before the developer, Hillwood sold it to Walmarts. The city statement sent by spokesman Bill Begley said, there are no plans for any zoning hearings stating, "Walmart has done their due diligence and determined that the demographics will support these stores. And, since Texas is a property rights state, the property owner can sell their properties to whom they wish. Hillwood just opted to sell to Walmarts"
The city statement said Walmart will be required to provide two means of entry to parking lots to ease congestion. Fort Worth worked a deal requiring Walmart to pay for extending a city street, Park Vista, to ease traffic pressure from the new location off of Golden Parkway.
(©2014 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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