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» Wal-Mart talks hung up - (08/31/04) |
Wal-Mart foes still fighting on
TEGA CAY--As the debate over a proposed Wal-Mart supercenter for Stonecrest drags on, the local opposition group Us Against the WAL is still working to turn the giant retailer away from Tega Cay.
The group has used the last two Sundays to set up camp at Trailhead Park to solicit signatures from residents on one of three petitions. One is for residents who oppose the Wal-Mart, another is for those who support bringing a Wal-Mart to Stonecrest and the other is for those who haven't made up their minds about the issue yet. "Less and less people are signing undecided," said group member Roberta Whitaker. "Even when we're canvassing neighborhoods no one is signing undecided any more." On Sunday they added 59 signatures to their totals. Of those, 45 were signatures against the Wal-Mart proposal and 14 were in favor of it. No one who stopped to sign was undecided, Whitaker said. With Sunday's numbers added in, Us Against the WAL had collected signatures from 804 people. Their goal is to get responses from 1,000 by next Sunday, when they plan to end their petition drive. So far the responses break down as follows: 517 -- or 64.3 percent -- of the people who have signed one of the petitions are against a Wal-Mart supercenter in Stonecrest; 191 ( 23.7 percent) are in favor of it; and 96 (11.9 percent) are undecided. Along with setting up a table at Trailhead park each of the last two weekends, the group is going door-to-door asking residents to voice their opinion. In a Fort Mill Times poll conducted the weekend of Aug. 27, 28 and 29, the 240 Tega Cay residents who responded were split with 46.7 percent in favor of the Wal-Mart and 43.3 percent against it. Ten percent were undecided at the time. Neither the petition nor the Fort Mill Times poll show the 2-1 margin of support Mayor Bob Runde has trumpeted in the past, the group said. However, Runde said on Tuesday he thinks the numbers from the Fort Mill Times poll are an accurate reflection of where Tega Cay stands. Us Against the WAL commended the City Council for issuing a set of 14 demands to Stonecrest developer the Tuttle Co. and Wal-Mart, but they say the demands do not go far enough. "Unfortunately, none of these requirements will prevent the significant increase in crime, traffic, and pollution that will inevitably come with a Wal-Mart Super Center," spokeswoman Hope MacBride wrote in a recent e-mail. Instead the group wants to see a series of smaller businesses filling in the Commercial area in Stonecrest. "The city council has a large and difficult decision ahead," MacBride said. "Will their legacy be those who chose to manage growth responsibly, or those who triggered urban sprawl in this paradise we call Tega Cay?" |