TIMELINE:

  • Walmart did not act on the option to purchase the property on Blazier Dr.

  • February 18, 2016 -Commonwealth Court Appeal Denied - Read Report

  • Nov. 17, 2015 Commonwealth Court panel of three judges hear oral arguments regarding Citizens of McCandless vs. ToM & Wal-Mart. Several members of Citizens of McCandless attended and here is a summary from their observations:

The Commonwealth Court case was heard by a three-judge panel.  The judges were: Senior Judge James Gardner Colins, Judge Bonnie Brigance Leadbetter, Judge Robert "Robin" Simpson. They all seemed particularly attentive to this case, listening very attentively and not interrupting with questions-- which they had done with most of the cases & lawyers who'd come before in the previous five cases.  Each side had 8 min. to present their arguments. e attorneys had already submitted a summary of their cases to the judges.

Mr. Dwight Ferguson, Citizen's attorney presented first. He outlined the rush in which the Town Council implemented the Walmart plan, and the dilemma with the parking ordinance (1313.06e) being changed to suit Walmart, not because there was any unusual circumstance that was necessary to change.He also described how the Right to Know was used as a "sword" to prevent documents from being viewed in a timely fashion. Dwight requested that the case be sent back to Town Zoning Board for reconsideration. (Note: since there are new council members, things could be viewed differently perhaps.)

Walmart attorney Gavin Robb, gave the same arguments that they have used previously:Site had been used before for large stores, citizens were given 10 hours to speak, it's zoned C-5, Walmart did everything correctly, went through councils' due process, site size meets code, parking is being taken care of if expansion is needed....we have heard it before.  But they also tried to make an emotional appeal about redevelopment ("the property has had K-Marts and Krogers on it already, they're now vacant, we'll tear them down" etc). The current state of the property was not mentioned which made it sound like the footprint of a large K-Mart was already there and Wal-mart would just rebuild. This seemed like a delibrate attempt to leave the judges, who are not all from our area, with that impression of the property. Environmental issues of the property were not mentioned or allowed as that was not part of the particular arguments being heard. Robb disputed the Case law that Dwight cited.

The judges did ask a question on the parking issue.  Now we just wait for a ruling probably in January. 

 

  • April 17, 2015 Notice of appeal was docketed to Commonwealth Court.

  • February 11, 2015 an appeal to a higher court was filed in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania

  • January 28, 2015 the Land Use Appeal was denied by Judge James.

  • August 28, 2014 a Land Use Appeal was filed in the Court of Common Pleas by 17 McCandless residents.

  • July 28th 2014 - The Town of McCandless Town Council voted to approve a Land Development application made by the Wal-Mart Real Estate Business Trust. The vote was preceded by a very long and heated public meeting at Carson Middle School which over 500 concerned citizens attended to express their objections to the nature of the application and the manner in which the decisions were made.

For more details of the case you may visit Allegheny County Court Records – enter the docket number SA-14-000863 on the first line where it says Standard Case ID.