A proposed Wal-Mart in Cedar Hills appears to be in trouble.

After years of negotiation, City Council members here said they were "shocked" on Tuesday morning to discover Wal-Mart had rejected, without explanation, more than half of the city's requirements for the new store.

"This is a little bit surprising, shocking -- unbelievable might be the word," said Councilman Gary Maxwell.

The city had given Wal-Mart a 16-page document listing the terms under which the store could go forward. Wal-Mart returned the document on Tuesday morning after deleting half of the agreement, including parts the city considers non-negotiable, said council members.

The agreement governs the design of the store, allowable noise levels, outdoor sales and storage, traffic, hours of delivery and operation, overnight parking, future vacancy of the site, signs, maintenance, landscaping, open space, water rights and other issues. Council members did not say what parts of the agreement Wal-Mart had deleted.

"Whole sections have been removed," said Councilman Jim Perry. "We are talking huge, sweeping changes. The council is not prepared to adopt this, or anything substantially like it."

Wal-Mart's edits have "taken the teeth out" of the city's ability to enforce standards on the store, said Greg Robinson, assistant city manager.

Wal-Mart representatives did not attend the meeting, a move which council members said surprised them.

The Daily Herald was unable to reach Shell MacPherson of PacLand, the development company representing Wal-Mart. MacPherson has said Wal-Mart would have "heartburn" and "resistance" to the city's draft requirements.

But council members on Tuesday said the store's move was especially confusing because company representatives have known about the contents of the agreement for months.

"We seemed to be almost on the same page with them on the whole thing and it should not have been a shock to Wal-Mart," said Councilwoman Charelle Bowman. "Instead, we got shocked."

"We are not trying to spring new requirements on them," said Perry. "This is all stuff we have talked about from the beginning."

City planner Rod Despain said the move was akin to trying to get an entirely new approval for the store from the city.

In a unanimous vote, council members said they would not direct the city attorney to look at the agreement. Then they delayed approval until Wal-Mart provides a new agreement.

Construction on the store cannot begin until the agreement is approved by the council.

City staffers said they would contact Wal-Mart to set up private negotiation meetings. Mayor Mike McGee said he wanted to be at the meetings, but cautioned council members that only two could be present or the meeting would have to be publicly announced.

Wal-Mart representatives must at least explain why they are concerned about the sections of the agreement they changed or deleted, said Councilman Eric Richardson.

On May 15, council members voted unanimously to give final approval for the store, contingent upon negotiating details of the city's requirements for the store.

The Supercenter, its landscaping and 591 parking spaces will take up 14 acres of the 18-acre site near Lone Peak High School, with three sites for small businesses to come later. The building was designed with varying roof heights to break up the facade of the approximately 133,500-square-foot building.

Caleb Warnock can be reached at 443-3263 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it