Lincoln panel OKs Wal-Mart Supercenter

LINCOLN – The project still awaits approval from other agencies, but the Lincoln Planning Board voted 5-0 Monday night to approve Wal-Mart’s proposed $2.07 million 24-hour Supercenter for West Broadway, town officials said Tuesday.

The board voted to approve Wal-Mart’s building permit and business permit, said Jerry Davis, the town’s code enforcement officer, keeping the new Wal-Mart on track for its October 2008 opening, he said.

“They are still waiting for approval from the [Maine Department of Environmental Protection] and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,” Davis said Tuesday.

Wal-Mart’s plan calls for tearing down the existing 55,000-square-foot Wal-Mart and creating a 99,000-square-foot building, including an expanded retail area and a full-service grocery store, on about 21 acres at the store’s present location at 250 West Broadway.

The project includes a lot for 316 parking spaces, an access road and a recycling center, according to the plans Wal-Mart submitted to DEP. The company will also need a permit from the state Department of Transportation.

About 175 full- and part-time jobs will be created with the new store, store officials have said.

The existing store employs 107 full- and part-time workers. No other retailers are part of the expansion.

Also known as Route 6, West Broadway is a state road, and Wal-Mart does not anticipate the expansion generating significant traffic problems.

The company will pay for road changes to ease traffic at the new site, including a traffic study a year after the store opens to determine whether additional traffic lights are needed.

In Maine, there are now 12 Wal-Mart Supercenters, which include a full grocery store, and 10 Wal-Mart discount stores.

A new $23.6 million Wal-Mart Supercenter also will be going into Bangor. Construction on the 209,000-square-foot Bangor store on Stillwater Avenue is expected to start in the spring of 2008, with an opening scheduled in early 2009.

That new store will replace the 114,000-square-foot Wal-Mart discount store on Springer Drive. Wal-Mart already operates a Supercenter in Brewer.