Cedar Hills planning commissioners approved the concept for a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter on Thursday evening, though they attached a list of requirements.

City planner Rod Despain called the concept approval "a warm and fuzzy," indicating the city wants to do business with Wal-Mart but is not entirely happy with the plan the company brought forward. The vote requires Wal-Mart to re-tool the plan and return to the Planning Commission.

Councilman Jim Perry asked commissioners to hold a special meeting to speed up the process. The Planning Commission only meets once a month.

Commissioners required Wal-Mart to return with an updated traffic study focusing on peak traffic from 5-6 p.m., a new landscape plan that eliminates 30 parking stalls and adds more greenery, a noise study showing how the store would bring noise at the property edge to lower than a speaking voice, and a plan for signs.

Commissioners did not require Wal-Mart to bring back a smaller building size but encouraged the company to do so.

Twenty residents spoke for and against the proposed store during a public hearing Thursday night. Residents filled the commission chambers and the hallway outside, trying to hear the meeting.

"I'm excited Wal-Mart is back," said former Councilwoman Melissa Willie. "I'm pleased to see them come back with something different. It's still not perfect, but I believe the opportunity for our city is great with employment, convenience and the tax base we need.

"I would like to see it smaller, but I understand the perfect little country store a lot of people desire is not going to be possible for us."

"I spend 95 percent of my discretionary money at Wal-Mart," said Resident Teri-Lyn Wiles, who noted that her husband works at a Wal-Mart. "I know they give us good jobs because he gets paid well for what he does."

"Some of you remember me from 2003," said Shell MacPherson of PacLand, the development company representing Wal-Mart. In 2003, Wal-Mart ultimately withdrew a proposed store in Cedar Hills after public outcry because of the size of the building and traffic.

In the plan proposed Thursday, one acre in the northeast corner of the 18-acre site will be used for storm water drainage and turned into a park, which may be given to the city, MacPherson said. The supercenter will have groceries, general merchandise and a garden center but not a tire and lube center.

The supercenter, its landscaping and 591 parking spaces would take up 14 of the 18 acres at the site, with three sites for small businesses to come later, he said. Twelve- to 14-foot trees were proposed, and the building was to feature varying roof heights and faux second story windows to break up the facade of the approximately 132,000-square-foot building.

The building also will feature skylights to reduce the need for electric lighting, be constructed from recycled steel and plastic and feature a white roof, which will reduce heat there by 10 percent, he said.

"The way I see it, you could replace this one building with five others and then you end up with five redundancies with trucks loading and unloading and space," said Commissioner Donald Steele. He noted that residents would not visually be able to tell the difference between a 100,000-square-foot building and a 132,000-square-foot building.

If five smaller buildings were constructed instead, city ordinances would allow those to be a total of 185,000 square feet, MacPherson said.

"I appreciate you guys coming here, we need you guys," said Commissioner H.R. Brown. "I never thought it would be 132,000 square feet. It seems too large for what our town is looking for. I don't want to lose the deal but there must be a way to downsize and still maintain a viable store.

"It seems like this is just a big parking lot. I just envision walking through with my wife and daughter with a path and picnic tables and Maggie Moo's, but maybe I'm an idealist. I don't want to chase you off, but this is not what I envisioned downtown Cedar Hills looking like."

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D1.