Not in town's power to reject Walmart

There seems to be the impression that people didn't have a say when commercial property was approved that will end up with a Walmart on it.

When Virginia Ranch was approved in 2004, it was properly noticed and went through the normal process. The Town of Gardnerville discussed it, as did the Douglas County Planning Commission and the Douglas County Commission.

A report of the meeting in December 2004 reveals an amazingly quiet hearing for something that promised more than 1,000 homes, and would, as commissioner Jim Baushke pointed out at the time, help double the size of Gardnerville.

What we didn't know at the time, nor would be revealed to us until now, was the tenant.

There weren't very many people who questioned that the land around Les Schwab Tires should be zoned commercial.

The issue over Walmart isn't the zoning, which was approved nearly five years ago, it's the Walmart.

But the county doesn't get to decide who a landowner does business with. Its role is to determine the best use for a piece of land given its location and surrounding use. The best use for the property along Highway 395 was determined to be commercial in the 1996 master plan, and confirmed by county commissioners in 2004.

The Gardnerville Town Board is about to be overrun by folks opposed to Walmart, whose input is five years too late to prevent it from coming.

There's very little the town can do to prevent a business from availing itself of existing zoning.