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Wal-Mart Redraws Plans

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI

kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com

Published: February 13, 2009

WESLEY CHAPEL - Wal-Mart won approval Thursday afternoon to change its plans for a proposed supercenter off State Road 54 at the northern end of Wiregrass Ranch.

The 217,000-square-foot store will go up near the junction of S.R. 54 and Pointe Pleasant Boulevard.

The store, which has been in Wal-Mart's development pipeline since 2005, is one of two the Arkansas-based retailer has in the works for Pasco County. Another at U.S. 41 and North Dale Mabry Highway has yet to start construction.

A third store, at Grand Boulevard and S.R. 54 in the New Port Richey area, was abandoned after neighbors objected.

The Wesley Chapel store is part of the Porter family's 5,000-acre Wiregrass Ranch project. Last fall, family members helped open the 800,000-square-foot Shops at Wiregrass mall at the southwest corner of their homestead property.

The rest of the property, where more than 12,000 homes could someday be built, has been idled by the downturn in the housing market.

The revisions adopted Thursday shrank the store by about 10,000 square feet, shifting that area to the store's garden center. Wal-Mart also dropped an out-parcel on its 36-acre site, eliminated the in-store liquor operation and cut a tire-and-lube shop.

Wal-Mart has until Oct. 1 to get a building permit for the Wesley Chapel store if it wants to avoid paying for a new traffic study. Until then, the store can be built under the traffic-study umbrella of the overall Wiregrass Ranch project.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201.

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