Foes refuse to concede defeat
By ROBIN STEIN  [St. Petersburg Times, January 18, 2007]

Wal-Mart and a small band of activists seem to have settled into a war of attrition.

TARPON SPRINGS - As the sun rose over City Hall on Jan. 19, 2005, the morning buzzed with a kind of delirium.
Inside, some 75 citizens were sitting in the auditorium, emotions drained, to bear witness as the longest and largest Tarpon Springs City Commission meeting in history drew to a close.
More than 12 hours after the mayor first pounded her gavel calling the meeting to order, city commissioners voted 3-2 to allow a 200,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter on the east side of U.S. 19, along the southern banks of the Anclote River.
The project has been idling ever since, construction stalled and tension seething.
Time has taken a toll on city commissioners and staff, who have been straddling multiple roles - the disinterested regulator, the voice of the citizens and Wal-Mart's co-defendant.
The arrival of Supercenter #3415-00 spawned a war of attrition, and neither Wal-Mart nor the small band of activists determined to foil the plans seem close to conceding defeat.
First came two lawsuits. Then last summer, the opponents put together a detailed dossier that persuaded the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to backpedal and pressured Wal-Mart to withdraw the wetlands permit it had been granted.
The result was a revised site plan, which reached the city in September. The new plan bounced around for three months, unleashing ever-more obscure bureaucratic battles, until mid December, when just days before the first formal hearing, Wal-Mart withdrew it from consideration, saying a replacement would be submitted soon.
While the city has not yet received Wal-Mart's third round of site-plan revisions, the Southwest Florida Water Management District, commonly known as Swiftmud, received a modified application last week.
It will be months before the changes are fully reviewed, or any resolution is reached on two factors: a legal tangle over ownership and the retailer's thwarted plans to put a drainage pond on the nature area promised to the city.
But recent events provide a glimpse into the thicket of oversight and gaping holes surrounding the project.
Swiftmud, the state agency tasked with ensuring water quality, wetlands and drainage plans, began reviewing the application for the Supercenter in July 2004.
The permit was approved in January 2006, but then in November, Swiftmud received a letter from Dory Larsen, a former middle school science teacher, who has been a persistent opponent.
Larsen argued that the permit violated Swiftmud rules that require permitees retain full legal control of the property. Yet county records she attached showed that on April 11, 2005, the same day Wal-Mart closed on the 74-acre site, the company turned around and sold a small piece to the Wilkinson Anclote land partnership. The 1.5-acre parcel is wedged between U.S. 19 and where Wal-Mart plans to put a winding entrance way.
Swiftmud agreed with Larsen.
"Wal-Mart Stores Inc. does not currently have legal control over the entire project area," reads a letter sent to Larsen a few weeks later. "The District was not aware of this when the permit was issued and therefore a permit modification will be required."
Furthermore, the agency had imposed "an additional requirement," demanding Wal-Mart provide "documentation" of legal control prior to breaking ground on the project.
"Wilkinson Anclote is a separate entity that is unrelated to Wal-Mart," Eric Brewer, Wal-Mart's spokesman, wrote in an e-mail in response to questions from the Times. Brewer said the lot will likely be used for a restaurant, but added Wilkinson Anclote has not announced plans publicly.
Joseph A. DiPasqua, the city's development services director, and Renea Vincent, director of planning and zoning department, said they didn't know about Wilkinson Anclote's involvement, but added that the dual ownership did not appear to pose problems in terms of city rules.
What the city does object to, DiPasqua said, is the storm water design that Wal-Mart submitted to Swiftmud.
That plan called for a storm water retention pond in the middle of a parcel Wal-Mart had promised to hand over to the city.
The company agreed to build a hiking trail, to clear the Brazilian pepper trees, and otherwise leave the land in a natural state, according to the development agreement.
The city only got wind of the drainage plan Wal-Mart had been negotiating with Swiftmud early last year, DiPasqua said.
He said it was when updated site plans arrived as part the company's application for a construction permit, that city staff noticed the design now called for the nature trail area to be cleared and excavated.
Wal-Mart was told immediately that changes so dramatic would send them right back to the beginning, he said.
It was a prospect that prompted Wal-Mart to add another item on their Swiftmud modification to-do list.
[Last modified January 18, 2007