TEGA CAY--City leaders have booked the 850-seat Fort Mill High School auditorium for a public forum later this month about the proposed Wal-Mart.

Hundreds of people are expected to come to the meeting Thursday, July 22. It will start at 7 p.m.

It will be the second chance for residents to tell Tega Cay officials what they think about the 203,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter proposed for Stonecrest, and the latest proposal to city leaders from landowner Herman Stone.

Wal-Mart and city officials will be there to answer questions and talk with residents. Local opponents of Wal-Mart, called "Us Against the Wal," also plan to make a presentation.

New Stonecrest deal?

	Stonecrest's owner Herman Stone wants to renegotiate his development agreement with Tega Cay to build a Wal-Mart Supercenter - and he has sweetened the deal for city leaders to consider.
	The development agreement sets forth how the 120-acre residential and commercial development will be built and what it will have. City leaders set it up with Stone and his developer, The Tuttle Co., before annexing the entire property in 2002 and essentially doubling the size of the peninsula city, despite some disagreement among residents.
	City Manager Grant Duffield told a packed council chamber Monday night that Stone has now offered to eliminate all of the apartments already planned for Stonecrest - about 300 units on 14 acres - and nearly double the amount of commercial space overall if the city lets him build a Wal-Mart Supercenter on a 30-acre site along Hwy. 160 West.
	Stone would swap the apartments for the Wal-Mart and additional commercial space, if the city agrees to annex 15 acres at the corner of Dam Road and Hwy. 160 West and rezone it for the supercenter. Stone also wants the option of shifting a of townhomes to accommodate the additional commercial space.
	The deal would cut the number of housing units in Stonecrest from 690 to 327, and increase the total number of acres zoned for commercial use from 39 acres to more than 60, according to Duffield.
	"With this proposal we would be reducing the number of students going into the Fort Mill school system and increasing the tax revenue going back in," Mayor Bob Runde said.
	Stone told Runde nearly a month ago that he would trade the apartments to make room for the Wal-Mart and more commercial space if the city approved the annexation.
	Stone's offer would sweeten the proposed Wal-Mart deal for the city, which already has to consider changing the Stonecrest development agreement to annex the additional 15 acres along Hwy. 160 West and rezone them for commercial use.
	The Tega Cay City Council and the Tega Cay Planning Commission both have yet to formally consider the Wal-Mart proposal, or Stone's latest offer.

What it would mean

Tega Cay would net nearly $300,000 in property taxes and other revenues from Stonecrest once it's finished being built in 2009, Duffield said Monday.

If Stone's latest offer is approved by the city council, that figure jumps to more than $460,000, he said, based on a a model developed by the city's finance committee.

That model calculates that in 2005, the first year Stonecrest is under construction, the city would lose about $93,500 because of infrastructure costs for the development. In 2006, the city would lose $33,000. In 2007, the city would start to recoup those earlier losses, and end up with $11,400 in gains. In 2008, the city would gain about $133,000 in additional revenues, and in 2009, the city would collect about $267,700. Each year thereafter Tega Cay would collect about $250,000.

None of this money includes what Wal-Mart would bring in for the city.

With Wal-Mart in Stonecrest and the accompanying loss of the 300 apartments, Duffield said, the city would stand to make $155,698 more each year after 2010 - putting the total at more than $400,000 per year.

Teri Ackerman, who is helping to organize "Us Against the Wal," questions those figures.

"We don't know where those numbers are coming from," Ackerman said.

Duffield said the projections include property taxes, business licenses and franchise fees, and takes into account the estimated values of the land and future buildings. It also figures in the cost of adding more city employees and equipment to serve Stonecrest, he said.

"It's a very thorough model and the finance committee spent a long time putting it together," he said.

After some questions among residents at Monday's meeting, Duffield said his estimates would apply to any business moving into the possible 68 commercial acres of Stonecrest, not just a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

But Runde pointed out that Stone's proposal to remove the 300 apartments and add 29 more acres of commercial space only exists if Wal-Mart is part of the deal.

"It is an either/or proposition," Runde said.

Residents voice opinions

About three dozen people crowded into Tega Cay City Hall Monday night at a special city council meeting to hear more about the Wal-Mart proposal and ask what it would mean for the city.

Many residents took the opportunity to ask questions about the proposed Wal-Mart, and others requested a police impact study as well as storm runoff studies and traffic studies.

Some, including former Mayor Tony Tarulli, asked residents to keep an open mind about the proposed Wal-Mart until they get all the facts.

Steve Johnson, a Lake Wylie covekeeper, said that the Stonecrest plans he had seen contained 80 percent of impervious surfaces such as asphalt and roofs. Johnson said that would produce four times as much runoff as the land has now.

Stonecrest's developer, Bryan Tuttle, is conducting a traffic study of at least six inters in or near the development. And Runde said Tuesday that the city will conduct a crime impact study.

But Ackerman and others in "Us Against the Wal" argue that the impacts on the environment and on crime rates are already known.

"Calls to police go up between 12 and 57 percent when a Wal-Mart moves into a town, and we've got tons of statistics to back those figures up," Ackerman said.

Duffield also said there is a fear Wal-Mart could open up a store nearby Tega Cay, outside the city's sphere of control. The city would get no benefits but many of the costs for the supercenter.

But Wal-Mart spokesman Glen Wilkins said his company does not have any plans to put a store in this part of York County if it is not allowed to build in Stonecrest.

Ackerman and others at the meeting who are part of "Us Against the Wal" are still circulating a petition about the proposed supercenter at businesses around Tega Cay. Ninety percent of those signing the petition oppose the deal, she said.

Us Against the Wal is concerned that city officials aren't looking at the whole picture.

"They are relying on the developer to do a traffic study of some inters, but they aren't looking at the traffic flow on the rest of the roads," Ackerman said. "They want to put a light in front of Tara Plantation, that would effectively make it impossible for someone to make a left turn from Dam Road (onto 160), so everyone who lives back there will be funneling through Stonecrest to get to the light."

On Tuesday,

Runde said he has received messages from more people in favor of the mega-retailer than against.