Bowie Walmart Plans Sent Back to Drawing Board

Further study on what a proposed Walmart Supercenter would mean for traffic flow and residents living near the Duvall Village Shopping Center area prompted a Prince George’s County panel to send the project back to the planning board for review.

Some small-business owners in the strip mall support a Walmart locating in the area, reports The Washington Post, but nearby residents say the store would harm the neighborhood.

Wal-Mart says the store will create 300 new jobs and fill a retail space that has long been vacant, reports WTOP. If approved, the Duvall Village site would be the fourth Wal-Mart store in the county.

On Monday, council member Andrea Harrison, who represents the district in Bowie where the Wal-Mart would be built, asked for further review.

“I am not totally convinced that all of the issues that are of concern to the people who live in this community have fully been vetted,” Harrison told the council members, according to WTOP.

The nation’s largest retailer has ambitious expansion plans in the area, but has hit roadblocks. Last month, a county denied Walmart’s request to build a 100,000-square-foot store on 15 acres of vacant land adjacent to John Hanson Montessori School on Oxon Hill Road, reports The Washington Post. Parents have been fighting the company’s plans since 2011, arguing the location would create safety issues for children who walk to schools in the area.

And, the company is waiting for a decision from a zoning hearing examiner on a proposed store at the corner of U.S. 301 and Mill Branch Road in Bowie, which would replace an older Walmart across the street.