Davie puts the brakes on new Wal-Mart.

Davie puts the brakes on new Wal-Mart
BY NIKKI WALLER
nwaller@MiamiHerald.com
Weary but joyful, Davie residents celebrated as they left Town Hall about 2 a.m. Thursday, minutes after the Town Council voted down plans for a Wal-Mart Supercenter at the corner of University and Orange drives.
But the residents' attorney and industry observers caution that the fight is far from over.
'They'll be back,' said Nu Wexler, spokesman for Wal-Mart Watch, a group that tracks the retailer's activity worldwide. ``These fights are absolutely brutal.''
The battle over the Davie Wal-Mart is one of several recent fights over the big-box retailers. Last year, Miramar leaders voted down plans for a Supercenter on Flamingo Road, and a few years ago, resident outrage blocked another Davie Wal-Mart proposal for Shotgun Road.
At University and Orange, the retailer proposed a 24-hour Supercenter for a 36-acre parcel of commercial land that, under the terms of a 1989 legal settlement, is subject to looser development rules, such as smaller buffers and scant landscaping requirements.
After Wal-Mart completed its nearly three-hour presentation to the council, Tucker Gibbs, an attorney hired by nearby homeowner's associations, argued that the 1989 settlement was invalid and inappropriately drawn-up in the first place.
Gibbs also discussed the cost of added police patrols for the store, and Mark Alvarez, an expert witness for the residents' side, said the Supercenter would harm the town's plans for redevelopment along Davie Road.