FORT MILL TOWNSHIP--The members of Us Against the WAL represent a wide variety of local residents with many reasons for joining. But they all have at least one thing in common: they do not want a 203,000-square-foot Wal-Mart supercenter in Tega Cay.

Many members, like Tega Cay resident Hope MacBride, are opposed not only to a Wal-Mart, but to any big box retailer setting up shop in Stonecrest.

"My goal is to stop a big box, any big box, from coming in," MacBride says. "I want to work with town officials and the builder to put something really great in there."

She sees the Stonecrest property as an opportunity for Tega Cay to find a niche that will be a draw for the community. MacBride wants the city to remain a unique place, and she fears a Wal-Mart supercenter would drive away the local businesses that give this area its small-town feel.

MacBride has also recently taken over as the group's spokeswoman after former spokeswoman Teri Ackerman stepped down. The group decided its public face should be someone from Tega Cay, particularly since some Tega Cay leaders criticized the Wal-Mart opponents as Fort Mill residents who should not have a say in the proposed deal.

A Tega Cay resident since 1998, Sally Smith says she wants something in Stonecrest that seniors can get involved in - something that doesn't include handing out little yellow happy face stickers.

Smith believes a Wal-Mart supercenter would harm Tega Cay's sense of community.

"I moved here for the small-town, care-about-your-neighbors feel," Smith says. "I came from Dallas after I watched that city destroyed by developers. In 1972 it was a small town. Now it is a crime-ridden slab of concrete."

Smith would like to see a committee created to explore options for Stonecrest that don't include any big box retailers.

Robin Daly, another Tega Cay resident, says she got involved out of concern for the safety of children at Gold Hill Elementary and Middle schools off Dam Road.

If Wal-Mart comes in, school buses would share Dam Road with 18-wheelers each day because Wal-Mart plans to funnel all of its trucks through a rear driveway connected to the road. Daly says that would put children going to those schools at too great a risk.

Daly and other members of the group argue that the increased traffic would cause gridlock and lengthen many people's commutes. She worries about how that would affect her home's value.

"People won't want to live where there is so much traffic," Daly says.

The group also believes Herman Stone's offer to remove apartments from his development plan to boost commercial acreage in Stonecrest is disingenuous. They cite statements made by Skip Tuttle of The Tuttle Co., Stonecrest's developer.

Tuttle has said Fort Mill Township is already saturated with apartments, and building more apartments is not a viable business option. He said this at a July 15 meeting with residents of Palmetto West about his company's plans for another development - Stockbridge Village - near the intersection of Gold Hill Road and Hwy. 160 West.

"We want reasonable alternatives without the negative impacts," group member Rand Ruland says.

Daly and others say people moving into Tega Cay know they will have to drive a few miles to go shopping. For all of them, that's one of the reasons they chose to live in Tega Cay.

Gayle Crowe and her family do not live in Tega Cay, but they will be affected by whatever is built on the Stonecrest property. The Crowes live off Dam Road and use a well for fresh water. Crowe worries her drinking water could be contaminated by runoff from a Wal-Mart supercenter.

Crowe is also concerned about the increased traffic the Wal-Mart would bring to Dam Road. Five members of her family have been involved in five separate car wrecks on that winding road, and she fears the traffic will only get worse because of Wal-Mart.

She says high school students already take Dam Road as a cut-through to Sutton Road and onto Harris Road to avoid I-77 traffic. She worries these young, inexperienced drivers will be more likely to get in wrecks when Wal-Mart's 18-wheelers are also using the road regularly.

Christina Turner lives in Waterstone, less that a mile down Hwy. 160 West from the proposed Wal-Mart site. Her primary concern is also the traffic a Wal-Mart supercenter would generate. Her neighborhood has entrances on both Hwy. 160 West and Gold Hill Road, and she fears people will "come flying through our neighborhood to get to Wal-Mart."

The group says the traffic study recently performed by Kimley-Horn and Associates was flawed because it was conducted while school was out for the summer. The also say the study did not consider the traffic that Stockbridge Commons shopping center will produce after the vacant buildings in the center are occupied.

Tega Cay resident and Charlotte city planner Brian Fowler says the study was flawed another way.

"The Tega Cay Wal-Mart traffic impact analysis overestimates traffic from the current Stonecrest plan, and therefore underestimates the net increase in traffic attributable to the addition of Wal-Mart. After preliminary calculations, I believe the net increase is around 6,000 vehicles per day."

Turner also says it's unfair and unwise for Tega Cay city officials to ignore the concerns of its Fort Mill neighbors.

"It won't be in the heart of Tega Cay, it will be out in Fort Mill," Turner says. "This will be almost technically in our backyards."

Still others, like Fowler, don't like that the issue is being presented as an "Wal-Mart or apartments" choice. Fowler believes presenting the issue this way just scares people into accepting Wal-Mart.