By Cindy Schroeder
The Cincinnati Enquirer

FORT WRIGHT - More than two years after it was proposed, construction of a Wal-Mart SuperCenter is set to begin this spring at a high-profile intersection here.

The 183,917-square-foot Wal-Mart will anchor a mix of retail and service uses on a 60-acre site at Highland Pike, Orphanage Road and Ky. 17, the developer said.

Other Tristate Wal-Mart SuperCenters, which sell everything from groceries and garden supplies to automotive services, are located in Lawrenceburg, Ind., and Dry Ridge, Ky.

"We hope to have the Wal-Mart under construction April 1 and open by Dec. 1," said Larry Birdsall, vice president for development with Regency Centers in Blue Ash. The Jacksonville, Fla.-based company has developed or purchased about 270 shopping centers from Miami to Seattle, including eight in the Tristate.

Last week, representatives of the Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart applied for building and zoning permits from the Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission for the $5.9 million Wal-Mart.

Mr. Birdsall said final architectural drawings and renderings of the exterior of the planned SuperCenter will be submitted to Fort Wright officials by the end of the month. City staff will present those materials to Fort Wright City Council at its Jan. 8 meeting, even though no further votes are required.

"I think the citizens of Fort Wright and Northern Kentucky are going to be very happy with the new Wal-Mart," Mr. Birdsall said. "This is one of the first Wal-Marts to be held to some very strict architectural standards. We spent a lot of time and effort making sure this wouldn't have the prototypical gray box feel to it."

The Wal-Mart will be brick on three sides, mostly shades of medium red to burnt red, and it will have forest green metal on the peaked roofs, said Fort Wright Administrator Larry Klein. The same materials and colors used on the Wal-Mart also must be used on the outlying businesses at the site.

Mr. Klein said city officials wanted the development to resemble the rest of Fort Wright, a city of brick homes.

The project will include landscaped cart corrals in the parking lot, as well as extensive landscaping along the access road and much of the 60-acre site. A wing wall of bricks will extend from the sides of the building to help hide where trucks will make deliveries, and there will be ornamental iron gates and brick enclosures around the building's compressors and outdoor garden supply area.

Tenants locating on the surrounding lots will likely include the Bank of Kentucky, which is negotiating with Regency Centers to acquire a site on the Highland Pike side of the development, said Don Bahr, senior vice president and branch administrator.

Regency Centers plans to put a landscaped flag plaza and a 19,000-square-foot retail strip building at the corner of Ky. 17 and Highland Pike that would include possible uses such as a video chain, a hair stylist and a national restaurant.

By mid-February, Regency Centers expects to announce some of the businesses that will build on some of the surrounding lots, Mr. Birdsall said. Some could open as soon as October, when improvements on the nearby state routes are expected to be completed.

First proposed in fall 2000, the project generated opposition from nearby residents, who feared the development would worsen an already heavy traffic corridor and cause property values to drop.

Opponents packed a standing-room-only meeting on Oct. 11, 2000, when Fort Wright City Council rejected the original developer's plan for a Wal-Mart about 10 percent larger than the current one.

B&Z Development, the original developer, sued Fort Wright City Council in November 2000 to overturn the city's rejection of its plan, and several Fort Wright families intervened.

In May, however, Fort Wright officials approved a settlement that called for a smaller development and required that the state routes surrounding the project be widened and have extra turn lanes added before the Wal-Mart could open. All of that work will be funded by the developer and the state highway department.

A contract for the $2.5 million project recently was awarded to Eaton Asphalt, which could start work as soon as mid-January, weather permitting, said Kevin Rust, branch manager for pre-construction at the Northern Kentucky district highway office.

The developer also paid for construction of Valley Plaza Parkway, the new road that cuts through the development, as well as traffic lights at each end of the access road, which links Orphanage Road and Highland Pike.

The settlement also banned an array of quick-stop businesses that generate high traffic, including car washes and gas stations, as well as fast food restaurants on the Highland Pike side of the development. Specifically prohibited are Arby's, Rally's, McDonald's, White Castle, KFC, Burger King, Taco Bell and Wendy's. Also prohibited are any Waffle Houses, Hooters restaurants, Dollar General or Family Dollar stores, Laundromats, billiard halls, boat and marine sales and sexually-oriented businesses.

By prohibiting gas stations and restricting fast food outlets, the city reduced projected traffic by 20 percent, from 10,000 vehicles per day to 8,000, Mr. Klein said.

"If we couldn't stop it, the best we could do was get all the conditions we could,'' he said. "The No. 1 condition was that all the road improvements had to be done before the Wal-Mart could open."

Fort Wright's situation is not unique. In the past seven years, dozens of communities in the U.S. and Canada have fought big box developments, such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot, according to the Web site operated by "Sprawl Busters," a group dedicated to fighting unwanted megastores.

In Fort Wright, members of one family that fought the project in court have resigned themselves to the fact that a Wal-Mart SuperCenter is coming.

"It's not for the best of Fort Wright, especially because of the traffic situation, but we know that it's approved, and it's going to happen," said Paul Hoppenjans of Mount Vernon Drive. "Whether you like it or not, the Wal-Mart's a foregone conclusion. We can't change it, so I guess we'll just have to live with it."

E-mail cschroeder@enquirer.com