Times have changed along Route 3 in Crofton since developers first made a deal with Wal-Mart ? and now a 121,400-square-foot, big-box store no longer seems like the right fit, developers and local officials said.
“We concluded the property would be better suited for more diversified use,” said property owner William Berkshire, president of Lancer Corp.
Wal-Mart pulled plans for the store after more than a year of community opposition.
Anne Arundel County Executive John Leopold announced the agreement after helping broker the deal with the retail giant and the developer.
In the five or six years since Berkshire signed a contract to begin plans for the Wal-Mart store, the county has rezoned the area to permit mixed-use development, which combines retail and office space. New growth and the anticipation of even more with the federal base realignment measure at Fort Meade has added to the changed character of the area, he said.
Berkshire said he would work with the community as he moves forward with development, but “that doesn?t mean anything is excluded.”
Environmental activists and community leaders had fought the development, saying the area can?t handle the traffic and that parts of the property are environmentally sensitive, said Torrey Jacobsen, president of the Greater Crofton Council, a community group.
“I have been saying since Day One that we were going to beat [Wal-Mart],” Jacobsen said. “It was not a viable location for their store and it?s not a community that wants Wal-Mart.”
Before withdrawing the plans, Wal-Mart officials made concessions in an attempt to compromise with the community and build within the environmental constraints, Wal-Mart spokesman Keith Morris said. The plans were scaled back from an initial 143,000 square feet.
Ultimately, the size and scope of a Wal-Mart there wasn?t feasible, he said.
“It got to a point where the environmental and traffic issues and everything associated with the site could not have been overcome down the road,” Morris said.
