Walmart Says No to Limiting Truck Exit Points from Darien Towne Center

is unwilling to include a condition in a development agreement that would require its trucks to enter and exit from a drive on the west side of the Darien Towne Center strip mall, city officials said Monday.

Ward 6 Alderman Sylvia McIvor, as well as several residents, said at the City Council meeting that they were concerned about Walmart’s refusal to accommodate that request.

“I think it’s just a little thing that would give (nearby residents) peace of mind that Walmart is going in there with its neighbors in mind,” McIvor said.

The proposed condition would have been attached to an ordinance up for City Council vote Monday regarding the transfer of about 1.2 acres of property to Walmart.

Luis Navarro lives on Wilton Avenue behind , which is on the east side of Darien Towne Center.

Trucks unload and drivers use forklifts at Home Depot after 10 p.m., despite a city noise ordinance restricting such commercial activity from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m., he said. He said he was concerned that Walmart drivers might pull through the east drive and add to the commotion.

“At the end of the day, what would it mean to our family?” he asked. “What would it mean to our quality of life?”

Last week Walmart architect Jim Gallagher, of the firm pb2, told the Planning & Zoning Commission that the store would be willing to put a rule limiting trucks to using the west entrance in its operating manual for the 75th Street location.

“The trucks using the dock that we’re talking about are Walmart trucks,” he said. “They will tell them where and when to go.”

Both Navarro and McIvor said they were concerned that Walmart appeared to be backtracking on this pledge.

“To have Walmart already at this early stage come forward, and then two days later say ‘Not really’—what else is going to change before this is all said and done?” Navarro said.

Gallagher said that he either misspoke or was misunderstood.

Because Walmart owns the trucks, he said he meant that they could suggest limiting entry and exit to the loading area to the west side.

The store balked at placing an ironclad restriction on how trucks could pull out because none of the other stores in Darien Towne Center have such a rule, he said.

“They would like to have your approval to do what everyone else is allowed to do,” Gallagher said.

Trucks will, for the most part, enter and exit from the west side by default, said Walmart engineer Greg Cresto, of Manhard. They need to have a traffic signal to be able to exit safely, and there isn’t one on the east-side exit, he said.

McIvor said she still believed it would be a goodwill gesture for Walmart to formalize that condition since the city was already compromising by allowing Walmart to decrease the buffer zone between it and neighboring properties. 

Walmart plans to construct a truck turnaround on about half of the 1.2 acres it will receive from the city. The ordinance that will allow the city to convey the property to the store passed by a vote of 5-1, with McIvor casting the lone dissenting vote.