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Tarpon Commissioner Questioning Wal-Mart Development Agreement

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By Mark  Schantz | The Suncoast News

Published: October 6, 2008

TARPON SPRINGS - City Commissioner Peter Dalacos wants to tackle the issue of whether Wal-Mart's development agreement with the city to build a store on U.S. 19 has expired.
In a memo to City Manager Mark LeCouris, Dalacos has asked to have an agenda item, "Request for hearing determination of Wal-Mart certificate of concurrency," placed on the City Commission's Oct. 7 agenda.

Commissioners will consider whether they want to reconsider the Wal-Mart development agreement issue Tuesday night at the meeting, which starts at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.

If commissioners decide to hold a formal hearing on the issue it should be discussed at the Oct. 21 commission meeting, before the City Commission considers Wal-Mart's request for an amendment to its site plan, Dalacos said.

City Attorney James Yacavone doesn't think the agreement has expired. "It continues to be my legal opinion that a court will most probably interpret the development agreement to have approved an alternative phasing plan, which means Wal-Mart's Certificate of Concurrency has not expired," he wrote in a memo to commissioners.

An attorney for Concerned Citizens of Tarpon Springs, the environmental group opposed to Wal-Mart's developing the planed Supercenter discount store-supermarket combo on the north bank of the Anclote River, asserts the retailer's certificate of concurrency has expired.

A certificate of concurrency states the development complies with the city's land development code, state-mandated comprehensive plan and other regulations. City planning and legal staff contends the Wal-Mart project complies with the land code and comprehensive plan, while environmentalists say it does not.

If the issue winds up in court, the retailer could ask a judge to interpret the development agreement and probably sue for damages, Yacavone wrote in the memo.

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