Elk Grove Officials Meet With Wal Mart, Lux Taylor

Wal Mart agrees to limit hours


Following Wednesday's Elk Grove City Council meeting where dozens of people spoke in opposition to a 24-hour Wal Mart proposed for Bruceville Rd. and Whitlelock Pkwy., city officials met with developer Lux Taylor and Wal Mart representatives Steve Edward and Aaron Rios.

According to information provided to EGN by Elk Grove city council member Steve Detrick, Wal Mart has agreed to limit their hours of operation from 6:00 am to 12:00 pm.

Although many residents had sought to limit the proposed Wal Mart to a closing hour of 10:00 pm, Wal Mart countered that other nearby competitors, notably Save Mart and a proposed Safeway, were open until 12:00 pm.

Wal Mart said they would sign an agreement as long as no competitor in a two-mile radius went to a 24-hour operation. Wal Mart wants an option in the agreement to permit a 24 hour operation if any competitor extends their hours.

Wal Mart also agreed not to allow overnight RV parking and will post signs in the parking lots communicating this. Council member Detrick intends to propose a city-wide ordinance banning overnight RV parking.


Other options discussed


According to Detrick, the talks with Wal Mart included a conversation on the possibility of relocating the store to the Elk Grove Promenade area, another location within the city or redevelopment of an existing vacant property.

Wal Mart said that because of the halted development at The Elk Grove Promenade and the Madeira, current development there was not viable. As for other locations, Wal Mart said there is no property zoned for a 100,000 sq. ft. store. They also said they looked at available properties and they were either to small or in the case of the vacant Mervyn's, Raley's has a no-compete clause in their lease.


Late night crime


The meeting also covered the issue of late night crime. Wal Mart was shown local crime statistics that show while city-wide the crime rate drops between 9:00 and 10:00 pm, it increases between 10:00 and midnight.

To this end, Detrick said that he requested Wal Mart to reconsider and limit their hours from 6:00 am to 10:00 pm.