Walmart Reconsiders Plans for Rebuilding Abingdon Store

Abingdon, MD — After scrapping its plans for a new store off MD 924 last fall, Walmart is back at the drawing board and is reportedly considering what the community pushed for all along: updating its Constant Friendship location rather than building anew elsewhere.

Walmart has planned a July meeting to discuss expanding the already existing store in Abingdon.

"Seems like I heard a chorus or two telling them to consider that a year or so ago," Harford County Councilman Jim McMahan said in an email to constituents Thursday in which he announced the meeting.

A diagram of the proposed expansion shows the plan is to increase the size of the store from 137,449 square feet to 187,627 square feet.

See Also:

• Walmart Scraps Bel Air Plans
• Showdown Continues Between Walmart, Harford County Lawmakers
• 150 Turn Out For Weekend Rally Against Bel Air Walmart

Initially, Walmart turned away from the idea of expanding the Abingdon location because it said the logistics were not conducive to expansion.

"The reason for the proposed move is a restriction on selling a full line of groceries at Walmart's Constant Friendship Boulevard location..." Patch reported in 2011. "A land deal that expires in 2018 restricts businesses in the area from selling groceries..."

Once plans to build on MD 924 were introduced, Bel Air residents organized rallies to express their opposition, citing traffic as a chief concern.

The community input meeting about the proposed expansion of Walmart in the 400 block of Constant Friendship Boulevard will be at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 21, at the Richlin Ballroom, 1700 Van Bibber Road, in Edgewood.

Patch File Photo.