TEGA CAY--While Wal-Mart and developer Bryan Tuttle are moving ahead with plans to build a supercenter in Tega Cay, some local residents are drawing up plans of their own to stop the mega-retailer.

A group of a couple dozen residents wants to keep Wal-Mart away from Tega Cay and Fort Mill Township. They are circulating petitions at Food Lion, Fites Hardware, Lowes Foods, Southern Touch, Jumpin' Java and other businesses.

"This has turned into a huge grassroots movement," organizer Roberta Whitaker says. "We have all been gathering information on Wal-Mart. I am to the point of brain-dead from reading, reading and more reading on Wal-Mart."

Opposition is rising even though the Wal-Mart plans haven't even been drawn up yet and presented to the Tega Cay Planning Commission and the Tega Cay City Council.

"I think it's natural to begin to oppose something that you only have a negative perception of," says Bryan Tuttle, whose Stonecrest development would be the site of the supercenter. "But I would ask that people have an open mind and take into consideration all of our hard work."

The 203,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter would be located on 30 acres off Hwy. 160 West at Dam Road, right across from Tara Plantation where the future Stonecrest Boulevard will be built.

Tuttle says his company and Wal-Mart are designing the supercenter to fit in architecturally with the newer developments around Tega Cay, with brick facing, windows and awnings built to resemble a row of smaller stores rather than a giant concrete box.

"It doesn't matter what it looks like on the outside," says Fort Mill resident Teri Ackerman, who lives near the site of the proposed supercenter off Dam Road. "They don't have a positive impact on communities they go into. They don't bring well-paying jobs."

Whitaker, Ackerman and others are also concerned about dropping property values, a possible rise in crime, and a spike in traffic. They say it's not worth any property and sales tax revenues Tega Cay would receive.

And there are already enough Wal-Marts close by, they say. The retailer has three stores within 10 miles of Fort Mill Township, and eight stores within 20 miles. Another Wal-Mart Supercenter, with a similar architectural façade as the one proposed for Tega Cay, has just been approved for the west side of Charlotte, near the Charlotte/Douglas International Airport.

Tuttle wants to hold a public meeting with city officials, residents and Wal-Mart executives sometime next month to discuss the proposed supercenter, he said, so people can learn more about the project.

"This is something where it's worth getting the facts before making a decision about its worth to the community," Tuttle said.

Tega Cay City Council members will meet behind closed doors Monday, at the suggestion of City Manager Grant Duffield, to talk about what changes they may need to make with Tuttle to fit Wal-Mart into their development agreement for Stonecrest, including annexing 15 more acres on the corner of Dam Road and Hwy. 160 West.

Tuttle said he has already spoken the owner of that property and he is willing to sell the land.

The city council also scheduled a public hearing for Saturday, July 10.

Organizers of the anti-Wal-Mart petition want plans for the Wal-Mart to be scrapped by city officials.

Deana Cook, a stay-at-home mom, has been polling the residents of Tara Plantation about Wal-Mart. In the neighborhood of about 60 homes, directly across from where Wal-Mart would be built, only one resident she's talked to has been in favor of the proposed supercenter.

"I know it would be convenient, but we'd be sacrificing a lot for convenience," Cook said.