BY JONATHAN YORK
More details have come out on Walmart’s plans to build a store in Kyle.
The new store will be at the southeast corner of Interstate 35 and Kyle Parkway, the company’s spokeswoman, Kellie Duhr, wrote in a statement, and it is expected to create 300 jobs and to take up 150,000 square feet.
Two other new Walmarts, in the northeast Austin suburbs of Manor and Elgin, are expected to be built first, Duhr wrote. Another store is planned for Cedar Park.
A public hearing on Walmart’s plans is on the Planning and Zoning Commission agenda for next Tuesday. City spokesman Jerry Hendrix said that the company has not applied for a building permit, as originally characterized in a story in the Hays Free Press. Instead, the company is looking for approval on some of its plans for the store.
By seeking approval of those plans now, Walmart is moving ahead quickly, Hendrix said. He had been in some concept meetings with Walmart, but he did not know yet what the new store would look like.
One Kyle-area resident has said that she intended to gather neighbors to speak against Walmart at the meeting. Mayor Lucy Johnson said residents have sent mixed signals about Walmart in Kyle.
“Before Walmart was thinking about coming and it was just a rumor, I swear every single person who talked to me about it wanted this to happen,” Johnson said. “Now that Walmart is actually coming, the only emails I’ve gotten about Walmart are, ‘We don’t want a Walmart. Please bring in a Costco.’”
Additional reporting by Wes Ferguson.
