Proposed Ringling Boulevard Walmart Moves Forward

at Ringling Shopping Center will move onto the next phase with mainly minor tweaks to worry about and the biggest is detailing the aesthetics of the building and property.

The city's Development Review Committee reviewed Walmart's pre-application with Josh Bryant of cph engineers, which provided the site sketch of the proposed 97,779-square-foot Walmart Supercenter featuring groceries and general merchandise and more. The shopping center — the oldest in the city — would be demolished to build the store.

The committee reviews technical specifications in these pre-application sessions so businesses can prepare a better site plan and packet for when it moves forward to the Planning Board. A voluntary community meeting similar to what was done with the on the North Trail is also planned.

"We do intend to have a neighborhood voluntary meeting," Bryant said.

The committee encourages Walmart to detail building elevation, design features to "minimize appearance of large blank walls" and windows along the front, said Courtney Mendez, a senior planner for the city.

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Walmart is also encouraged to improve the appearance of the property along Ringling Boulevard as the store's entrance will face that road, but the store will be situated on the southern part of the property.

"It really is a gateway coming into the downtown area and whatever we could do to make that area attractive would be great for everyone," Mendez said.

Delivery trucks would probably use a direct shot from Fruitville Road onto Lime Avenue that leads into Shopping Avenue to the rear of the store, Bryant said.

The original configuration had trucks entering on the west side of the property near the railroad tracks, but that existing entrance will have to be relocated due to separation requirements from the railroad that has to be met since the property is being redeveloped and has to meet the current standards.

That might lead to the Sarasota County Area Transit bus stop being relocated, said Susan Montgomery with SCAT. SCAT would encourage Walmart to purchase the perforated metal bus shelter with bike racks.

"This is a very heavily used stop on Ringling where the bus shelter is now.," Montgomery said. "We have 15 boardings a day, and 17 get off the bus on an average day."

The next step for Walmart is to submit an application and site plan to move on to the Planning Board where a public hearing would be held.

If all approvals go through without delay, the store in on track for a late 2013 opening.