Wal-Mart is moving closer to its first store in Midtown Miami, after the city said it expects to issue an architectural design permit to the retail behemoth this week, Miami Today reported.
Wal-Mart’s plan to open at 3055 North Miami Avenue had been rejected in February by the Urban Design Review Board, which serves as an advisory panel to Francisco Garcia, the city’s planning director. The company then turned in a new set of revised plans, Garcia told Miami Today, and if details comply with regulations he said he would issue the permit in the next few days.
“Once we confirm that all those requirements are complied with we will issue” the permit, Garcia told the newspaper.
Wal-Mart’s attorney, Alfredo Gonzalez, declined to comment to the newspaper but had earlier said that it was essential the project move forward.
Critics of the plan argue that it create traffic congestion in the neighborhood and cut Midtown off from Wynwood.
“It would flatten the area,” Grant Stern, a Miami-based community activist, told Miami Today. [Miami Today] – Hiten Samtani