Local opposition has emerged in response to the announcement that Wal-mart has signed a lease with Lincoln Properties to build their largest store in Travis County at Northcross mall.

Residents in neighborhoods near the mall are working to prevent Wal-mart from entering their neighborhood, saying it will irreperably damage the area. The planned store will have one of the largest retail footprints in the area; it will be larger than the Cabela store south of Austin and second only to the Ikea store in Round Rock. The Triangle at 45th & Lamar is seen by some as a model for mixed use development, surprising, since at the time there was much local opposition to developing the open field.

My hunch is that the Northcross Mall design will be derived in some way from their new store in Plano, based upon Wal-mart's initiative to slant stores to five consumer segments, detailed here.

One question to ask Wal-mart is, "If this store is supposed to be different than others, how different is it? Percentage wise, what's the difference in merchandise in this Wal-mart from a typical super store?"

LINKS:
Responsible Growth for Northcross - ad-hoc neighborhood association founded to fight Wal-mart.

Allandale Neighbor Hood Association. Here's their resolution opposing Wal-mart.

Austin Full Circle Promoting citizens attend the December 14th Big Box Ordinance City Council Meeting. Detail on item No. 81, related to big box retail can be found here.

Coveraged in the Austin American Statesman can be found here and here.

Coverage in the Austin Chronicle can be found here and here.

Fox Channel 7 Coverage can be found here.

Google News search can be found here.

Technorati search of blogs can be found here.