Wal-Mart wants Cedar Hills residents to know that the company has not dropped plans to build a store in their city.

On Tuesday, City Council members here said they were shocked to discover Wal-Mart had rejected, without explanation, more than half of the city's 16 pages of requirements for the proposed store. The requirements would govern noise levels, traffic, hours of delivery and operation, and other issues.

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

In an interview with the Daily Herald, Karianne Fallow of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., said the company was surprised to even be on the agenda this week.

"We thought we were still in the early negotiation process," Fallow said, adding, "We have conversations back and forth. In this case, it ended up on the City Council agenda."

As the company was working with Cedar Hills officials, "the process got tipped on its head" and "got a little confused," but Wal-Mart intends to continue working in good faith with the city, she said.

As an example of what the company removed from the agreement, Fallow said the city had requested access to the company's security tapes.

"We have procedures we have before handing out tapes. We can't just give our tapes away to everyone," Fallow said. "Those kinds of things were red-lined, and we meant to have lots of conversations with the city."

In a joint statement, Fallow and Cedar Hills city manager Konrad Hildebrandt said the city and Wal-Mart would continue working together until they reach agreement, noting both sides have much invested in the process.

"Wal-Mart's goal is, and always has been, to work with the city to create a development agreement that respects and reflects the needs of both the city and the company," said Fallow in the statement, adding that the company will not deviate from the formal site plan approved by the council.

"Recent claims that Wal-Mart and the city of Cedar Hills are not working together are simply wrong. They do not reflect the reality of the situation."

The statement quotes Mayor Mike McGee saying that the two parties will "continue to work through this process in a professional and meaningful way."

"It is Cedar Hills's intention to work with our businesses, rather than against them, and we have every expectation that we will be able to negotiate a reasonable development agreement with Wal-Mart," McGee said.

After a development agreement is complete, Wal-Mart will secure permits for construction and gather cost estimates from their contractors before beginning construction, officials said. The store is expected to open in Cedar Hills in the fall of 2008.

On Tuesday night, Councilman Gary Maxwell called Wal-Mart's edits of the agreement "shocking" and "unbelievable." City staffers said the company's changes had "taken the teeth out" of the city's ability to enforce standards on 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 cwarnock@heraldextra.com.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.