State rejects Wal-Mart's environmental impact report

By Scott Merzbach
Staff Writer

Published on May 04, 2007

HADLEY - The state has rejected a draft environmental impact report related to the proposed 212,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter at Hampshire Mall. The ruling could delay the project a year, an opponent says.

The applicant, Pyramid Mall of Hadley LLC, must now submit a supplemental draft environmental impact report, according to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

The department has determined the draft does not comply with the Massachusetts Environment Policy Act.

An official with Wal-Mart, the world's largest corporation with projected 2007 revenues of $351 billion, said the setback will not impede plans for a Supercenter.

Spokesman Christopher N. Buchanan said any speculation as to how the rejection will alter the company's timetable is premature, and said Wal-Mart remains committed to expanding its Hadley store.

"It's important to note that this is a process and a much needed and necessary one," Buchanan said.

"Wal-Mart continues to look forward to receiving the active feedback of the community and regulators in order for our company to put forth the best project possible for Hadley."

The decision, announced in a letter written Friday by Ian Bowles, secretary for the department, was embraced by those opposed to the project.

"It's a huge win, it's a really big affirmation," said Aron Goldman, who has spearheaded a group called stopsprawlmart.org.

The 309,200-square-foot expansion of the mall includes the Wal-Mart, another retail store and a small expansion of the Cinemark movie theaters.

Goldman said the more than 300 comment letters sent to the state office demonstrated that state officials were listening to concerns about the project's impact on the nearby Norwottuck Rail Trail, wetlands on the property and the traffic on the Route 9 corridor.

David Elvin, of Hadley Neighbors for Sensible Development, said the decision by the state could mean another one-to-two-year delay in the project.

The project was first proposed in spring 2005 and was stalled for more than a year after the local Conservation Commission ruled that an existing detention pond, used for drainage from the parking lot, should be considered a wetland.

In the decision letter, Bowles writes, "The DEIR submitted for this project does not contain an adequate description of the proposed project's impacts and mitigation to traffic in the project area and to surface and groundwater resources and wetland resource areas located within and adjacent to the project site."

Bowles said the state needs more information about the project's impacts on bordering vegetated wetlands and intermittent and perennial streams, as well as on how the additional traffic generated will be handled.

Goldman, who lives in Shutesbury, said the interest in the Wal-Mart expansion outside of Hadley is an indication that state officials should allow for more regional consideration of projects of this scale.