http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-512walmartthreat,0,1098485.story?coll=sfla-news-florida&track=mostemailedlinkGiant Wal-Mart to rural landowners: Sell or else
Retailer cites eminent domain in its bid to build a massive distribution center
By Etan Horowitz
Orlando Sentinel
May 12, 2006, 9:28 AM EDT
The world's largest retailer, battling to build a huge new distribution center in Putnam County, is threatening a handful of rural residents that they may have their land taken if they don't agree to sell it to the company.
Representatives of Wal-Mart have told the landowners they will ask Putnam County to use its powers of eminent domain if the families won't sell. The retailer needs about a half-dozen parcels to widen a road that would provide access to a proposed 800,000-square-foot distribution center just over the Volusia County line -- a project Volusia officials have gone to court to block.
A letter to the landowners gave them until 5 p.m. Thursday to agree to a deal with the company.
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Wal-Mart's plan to build the massive distribution center -- nearly the size of the 952,000-square-foot Oviedo Marketplace -- has been opposed by several residents groups as well as Volusia County because of concerns about the traffic the center would create, its impact on the environment and whether it is compatible with the rural area. Although the center would not be open to shoppers, trucks would crowd U.S. Highway 17, opponents say.
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-512walmartthreat,0,1098485.story?coll=sfla-news-florida&track=mostemailedlink