TEGA CAY--A plan to build a Wal-Mart supercenter in Stonecrest is sparking questions between Fort Mill and Tega Cay residents over whose opinions count in the controversy.

The Wal-Mart would be built in the 120-acre Stonecrest development, which was annexed by Tega Cay. The Tega Cay City Council must decide whether to annex and rezone 15 more acres for the Wal-Mart at the corner of the future Stonecrest Boulevard and Hwy. 160 West.

Wal-Mart supporters and Tega Cay leaders say it's their decision to make, but the impact of the Wal-Mart on the surrounding community has many people outside Tega Cay wanting a say with the city council.

"For the city council to be held hostage by outside influences is unacceptable," said Bruce Bauman, a former Tega Cay Planning Commission member.

Bauman and other Tega Cay residents told the city council at a public meeting July 22 that too many outsiders are trying to influence the decision.

Tega Cay residents are the ones paying for the city's infrastructure, not people who live outside the city, Bauman said. The council should be sensitive to the surrounding community, but ultimately it is a Tega Cay issue.

Members of Us Against the WAL and other Wal-Mart opponents say their opinions matter, too.

"I don't want this to be a battle, I want everyone to work together for the good of the community," Sally Smith said at a recent Us Against the WAL meeting. She is both a resident of Tega Cay and a member of the opposition group.

The group says city leaders and Wal-Mart supporters are mischaracterizing the issue as Tega Cay residents favoring Wal-Mart and nonresidents opposing it. Of 531 Tega Cay residents who signed the group's recent petition, 477 of them opposed the Wal-Mart.

"It frightens me that this thing is separating Fort Mill and Tega Cay," said Hope MacBride, a Tega Cay resident and Us Against the WAL spokeswoman. "I don't think that's a good thing. Everything here overlaps."

Councilman Larry Harper said he has heard from more residents against Wal-Mart than in favor of it. He is also concerned that some York County residents say the city is ignoring them.

"Our primary focus is the citizens of Tega Cay, but [nonresidents'] concerns are not being neglected," Harper said.

Harper said he does not want to see the community divided.

Councilman Stephen Perkins also views Fort Mill and Tega Cay as one community, but his priority is Tega Cay, he said.

"There is as much divisiveness in Tega Cay versus the township as there is in Tega Cay versus Tega Cay," Perkins said.

Divisiveness between the two towns is coming from Us Against the WAL, Perkins said. They approached the July 22 presentation in a confrontational manner, so they got a confrontational response, he said.

The controversy is resurrecting old divisions between Fort Mill and Tega Cay that go back since Tega Cay's founding in 1982.

There were divisions between Fort Mill and Tega Cay for years, but the two communities have grown much closer in the past five years, said Angie McCrae.

McCrae, a former executive director of the Fort Mill Chamber of Commerce, was among those who pushed for the merger of the Fort Mill, Tega Cay and Rock Hill chambers in 1999. She also supported the merger of the Fort Mill-Tega Cay United Way with the Rock Hill United Way in 2002.

"We all use the same school district and the same businesses," McCrae said. "There are two separate names, but we're still one community."

She worries that the divisiveness that the Wal-Mart issue is breeding between the two towns could set back the interconnectedness they have built.

She says the issue will affect the whole community and should be viewed in a way that takes that into account.

Councilwoman Judi Tesla, who said she opposes Wal-Mart, doesn't see a division.

The township is one community, she said, and she can't see residents putting up walls between the two towns.

"There is a group of a few people who want to sell the soul of the city out for cheap goods," she said.

Bauman said he is not worried about former divisions creeping back into the township.

"I've seen divisions before, and at the end of the day those divisions go away. Eventually whichever way it goes, life will go back to normal," he said.