Wal-Mart plans Dumfries store
Wal-Mart also is planning a new store near Manassas in addition to the county’s two existing locations in Sudley and Woodbridge.
According to sketch plans submitted to the county planning office, the proposed Dumfries Wal-Mart will sit on 25 acres between New Cherry Hill Road and Wayside Drive.
It is expected to draw an estimated 9,650 cars each day, an impact some area residents and county officials think will be crushing to the existing gridlock.
“Route 1 is jammed as it is — traffic is a nightmare,” said County Supervisor Maureen S. Caddigan, R-Dumfries. “I think to put a big blue box there, in front of a subdivision, is not a good idea.”
Sandy Keefe, who lives off Jefferson Davis Highway, said she would love to see a Wal-Mart in the area but also was concerned about traffic.
“Unless they do something to accommodate traffic, it’s a bad idea,” she said.
The site, which is currently undeveloped, is less than five miles from the Wal-Mart on Worth Avenue, off Prince William Parkway.
“There’s already one in Woodbridge. Why do they need another one?” said Wesley Hodges, who lives near Dumfries.
The proposed Wal-Mart will be close to 143,000 square feet with a 728-space parking lot that will face the highway.
Caddigan said she met with project engineers from Freeland and Kauffman of Greenville, S.C., who told her the site would include a grocery store and gas pumps.
Gary Davis, Wal-Mart’s civil engineering manager for Virginia, said the company is planning a regular store, not a Wal-Mart Supercenter, which includes a grocery store.
But the site includes land that could be used for another development, such as a restaurant, said county planner Don Margraf.
There is a Food Lion directly across the street from the site and a Giant nearby.
The Wal-Mart site is zoned for business development, so no public hearing will be held on the plans. The company has about a year to submit final site plans to the county, Margraf said.
There are nearly 1,650 Wal-Mart stores and 1,066 Supercenters in the United States.
With nearly $220 billion in revenues, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was named the biggest company in the world by the annual Fortune 500 list that will hit newsstands Monday, the Associated Press reported.