Wal-Mart on the Aquifer?
By Amy Smith, Fri., April 11, 2003
Wal-Mart officials and their representative, noted developers' lawyer Richard Suttle, have been making the rounds at City Hall and have contacted neighborhood associations to try to head off opposition to the project. That opposition would most likely come from the Save Our Springs Alliance and some of the more active Southwest Austin neighborhood groups that rallied against Stratus Properties' proposed development in the same area. The Wal-Mart property is part of a 43-acre spread owned by Endeavor Real Estate Group, which plans a retail development on the remaining land.
Bill Bunch, executive director of the alliance, says his group is researching the 1996 settlement agreement. "My recollection is that [the settlement] was not posted as an amendment to the SOS Ordinance, so I believe we have some grounds" to contest the matter, he says. Bunch said the environmental group has written a letter to Wal-Mart and would like to meet personally with store officials to try and dissuade the Arkansas corporation from locating atop the aquifer.
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