A new report being submitted to D.C. officials this week says the proposed Walmart at Georgia and Missouri avenues in Northwest will wreak havoc on an already congested intersection and that the retailer should chip in to ease the impact. The report, submitted by an Advisory Neighborhood Commission to the D.C. Office of Planning, also contends that other uses — like residential — should be included in the Walmart project instead of the proposed, traditional big-box development.
“It’s not a good site for that kind of use,” said Richard Layman, co-chairman of the ANC subcommittee that drafted the report. “It’s suboptimal.”
According to 2009 statistics from the District Department of Transportation, as many as 32,000 cars pass through the intersection daily. Layman and other neighbors contend that placing a big box retailer miles from a Metro station in a neighborhood full of single-family homes and cars will create a nightmare.
Walmart should be responsible for easing the traffic by providing shuttle service to the store from the Georgia-Petworth Metro station and offering delivery services for all purchases greater than $50.
A spokesman for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said the company has already begun testing home delivery on its products in San Jose, Calif., but could not comment on the ANC committee report.
Walmart’s 165-page site plan, submitted in March, says “the project will not have a negative noise, environmental, or traffic impact on the community.”
But the ANC
report says the city should rebuild the Georgia-Missouri intersection to increase its capacity, “a major undertaking that could delay the Walmart project.”
Layman said committee members were concerned the neighborhood isn’t populous enough to support a big retailer, and the report suggests adding housing to the proposed Walmart store, making it a mixed-use project.
“We don’t have enough residents to support the retail space we have,” he said. “That’s why we don’t have great retail.”
An Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development spokesman said he could not comment until he had seen the report.
