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Hudson Wal-Mart To Greet Its 1st Customers March 7

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By CARL ORTH, The Suncoast News

Published: February 18, 2008

HUDSON - More than four years in the making, the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Hudson will be ready to open its doors to customers March 7.
Beacon Woods residents will get a sneak peek of their new neighbor Wednesday. The store's manager and other Wal-Mart executives are scheduled to answer questions at a Beacon Woods Civic Association meeting, at the subdivision clubhouse.

"We're real excited" about the grand opening in March, Quenta Vettel, Wal-Mart senior manager of public affairs for Central Florida, said. "We have a lot of fun with openings."

The exterior reflects the latest architectural design for Wal-Mart stores, Vettel pointed out. "That's a very, very nice store."

The store on U.S. 19, north of State Road 52, is Wal-Mart's third west Pasco store. A fourth supercenter is in the works, at State Road 54 and Grand Boulevard, in the Holiday area.

"The building just looks terrific," said Ann Bunting, president of the Beacon Woods Civic Association board. The store replaced the dilapidated Bayonet Point Mall buildings, abandoned since the late 1980s.

"They've been very responsive" to community concerns, Bunting added about Wal-Mart officials. The store manager has pledged an open-door policy, she said.

The company paid half of the bill for sidewalks along Beacon Woods Drive and another main road through the community, Clocktower Parkway. A wall was built on the store's eastern property line to shield adjacent Glenwood homes from noise.

The retailer pledged that there will be no truck traffic into the store from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Although the two sides have come to a meeting of the minds now, such cooperation was rare in the beginning.
Beacon Woods residents and their association fought tooth and nail against access in the original Wal-Mart plan when it was first filed with Pasco County on Sept. 24, 2003.

Residents wanted no connection between the Wal-Mart parking lot and Beacon Woods Drive, the main, two-lane road through the subdivision of some 2,700 homes and 6,000 residents. Yet there it was in the Wal-Mart blueprint, a bridge over Bear Creek to connect the parking lot to Beacon Woods Drive.

Association leaders feared a dramatic increase in traffic from the 24-hour store as drivers sought shortcuts.

Because the subdivision is bigger than many cities in Pasco, Beacon Woods exercised its influence to get revisions in the original Wal-Mart drawings. Some residents went as far as suggesting gates along Beacon Woods Drive, at the entrance of the subdivision.

Pasco County officials said that gates wouldn't be possible along a public road, Bunting said.

One of the major concessions from Wal-Mart was to restrict access off Beacon Woods Drive. The Wal-Mart parking lot has no entrances from Beacon Woods Drive. The parking lot is restricted to a right-turn-only exit onto Beacon Woods Drive.

Drivers can only head west toward the traffic signal at U.S. 19 and Beacon Woods Drive. Drivers can't turn left out of the parking lot to head east through the subdivision.

Florida Department of Transportation officials weren't entirely pleased with that arrangement. Officials at the District 7 office in Tampa were concerned traffic might back up in the left-turn lane on U.S. 19 at the main Wal-Mart entrance. They recommended an additional left-turn lane on eastbound Beacon Woods Drive into a parking lot entrance.

That remains an option.

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