The concrete slabs are almost ready to go up; just a few more tweaks are needed.
The Walmart project, in the booming West Cambie neighbourhood, comes before the city's development permit panel Wednesday after the developer, SmartCentres, made a number of changes to accommodate the 14.5 acre shopping centre into the city's official community plan for the area. Once approved by the panel, city council will vote on giving the project the final green light.
The site at the corner of Alderbridge Way and Garden City Road has already been cleared of trees and buildings.
Trees lining the roads to protect view corridors from the future Garden City Lands park and nature reserve are among the biggest modifications announced to the project, since it went to a public hearing last November.
According to the report to the panel from Wayne Craig, the city's director of development, the developer has made strides to improve other factors such as pedestrian corridors, architectural features and recycling facilities.
The area is seeing rapid development of residential buildings; on Alexandra Road alone there are 894 units in the application phase. It's believed by city planners that a shopping centre is needed to accommodate the shopping demands of a growing population.
At the public hearing concerns were raised from the public about view corridors from the Garden City Lands park being ruined. There was also contention from the fact the development is to be built in an environmentally sensitive area and still straddles one, not to mention the Garden City Lands across Alderbridge.
In response to some of those criticisms, the developers plans to create a "landscape screen" by planting three rows of trees along Alderbridge with native species that produce a low amount of seeds (as to prevent species contamination in the park). Meanwhile, the developer will create another screen of trees along Alexandra to block views of parking lots and loading bays from future developments. To the west, small trees will be added along Garden City. Other landscape features include using rainwater to water some of the gardens.
The development will also result in developer contributions for three bus shelters and two end-of-trip bike facilities. Also, 10 per cent of the 1,153 total parking spaces will be pre-ducted for future electric vehicle charging stations. The developer also paid for all of the new roads and subsequent connections. It's expected 15 per cent of traffic will come from outside of Richmond.
The development will be anchored by a Walmart and include up to 74 individual retail spaces. To alleviate concerns about its height SmartCentres also reduced the development's density by 40 per cent.
The city wants the development to have a minimum 70 per cent participation rate in the Alexandra District Energy Utility.
The development has been touted by some as a good way of bringing jobs into the community — it's believed the development will employ about 1,000 people. Others contest such low-paying jobs exacerbate the gap between affordability and liveability in the city — at full-time an employee will make just $1,600 per month before taxes while the average monthly rent of a one-bedroom apartment in the city is $957.
Others have been vocal against the main tenant, as a whole, claiming Walmart does not engage its communities. Their concerns were, arguably, validated just last May after Walmart agreed to pay $82 million in fines after pleading guilty to illegally dumping hazardous waste in California and Missouri sewer systems. That followed $32 million in additional fines on related charges, reported the New York Times. Walmart has an estimated net worth of $145 billion.
