Walmart now has more time to close on its South Milwaukee land purchase.
The City Council voted 6-2 Tuesday night to extend the purchase agreement with the retailer to March 15, giving Walmart additional time to seek necessary approvals for construction of its proposed 115,000 square-foot store on North Chicago Avenue.
Just one approval remains: from Union Pacific railroad. UP owns land around a railroad spur on the south end of the 3.6-acre city-owned parcel and must release its right of way for the project to move ahead.
Walmart has been seeking the approval since last fall, when the council granted the first extension on this project.
Hopefully, with this second extension, UP releases its right of way in short order, and the deal closes. But, if it doesn’t, the amendment to the purchase agreement backed by the council Tuesday includes an alternative that will allow Walmart to close by late March no matter what.
Essentially, the city has agreed to remove the railroad right of way from the land it will convey to Walmart — if UP does not grant its necessary approval prior to closing. Under that scenario, the city would keep the UP land, and then convey the right of way to Walmart once UP gives its approval.
The city has been told this OK is coming, and we’ll see. Either way, it looks like this project is finally set to move forward. It’s about time.
The delays (and subsequent extensions) have absolutely been frustrating. I expected to see dirt being moved on the site at this point … and, in hindsight, wish Walmart had secured these necessary approvals before seeking a final vote on the project last October.
Of course, I’d like your thoughts on this, so post your comments below. About 100 Walmart opponents (my estimate) also attended Tuesday’s meeting, and I thank them for avoiding the ugliness of the October meeting that saw the project initially approved.
Among the other actions taken by the council Tuesday:
- We voted unanimously to approve secondhand dealer ordinance and funding for a fire, emergency services and dispatch consolidation study with St. Francis and Cudahy.
- We also approved a $500 licensing fee for junk dealers, still a significant increase from its current $150, but much more sensible than the $1,000 we approved as part of the fee schedule in the fall. I blogged on this issue last week.
- The council also voted 7-1 to make changes to the city’s sex offender ordinance. I was the one “no” vote. My concern with the mostly minor changes we agreed to: the removal of licensed day care facilities from the list of restricted properties. Currently, sex offenders can’t live within 1,000 feet of a licensed day care, and I want to keep it that way. Now, I understand the arguments for removing day cares from that list — most notably that the city can’t control where day cares open because we do not license or track them. There are also concerns about the constitutionality of an unchanged ordinance. I, however, am OK with what we have. Our ordinance is strong and reasonable and, despite all the restrictions, still allows sex offenders to live in approximately 20% of the city. That’s enough, in my mind.
South Milwaukee Blog 
I am happy to finally hear that Wal-Mart is on it’s way. I too was ready to see construction started already. Can’t come soon enough for me.
I know this is an old post, but can you share what’s going on with Walmart at the moment? I understand that they need the time for the railroad to make a decision and that the purchase won’t go through until that is done. I also know that you keep us informed and if it did go through, you would have written about it. So what’s happening at the site right now? Why would Walmart be digging if they don’t own it or why would the city be digging if the deal isn’t done?
Good question. I asked our city engineer, and he confirmed what I thought it was: dirt being moved as part of the storm sewer replacement project the council approved in January. Walmart is crediting us for the cost of trucking the dirt away, as they have yet to take formal ownership of the property. We were told the closing will likely happen in late March. Additionally, Kyle Vandercar, our engineer, wanted me to remind readers that anyone who has questions about the mechanics of the Walmart development can also contact him. He has been very helpful to the many people who have contacted him in the past year-plus on this development.