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Thursday, September 23, 2004
Neighbors suing to block Wal-Mart win trial delay
BY JOE DEJKA
WORLD-HERALD STAFF
WRITER
Neighbors
who sued the City of Papillion to stop a Wal-Mart shopping center
won a nearly two-month delay Wednesday in the trial of their
lawsuit.
The delay
raises doubts about whether the developer would have time to grade
the 74-acre site at 72nd Street and Giles Road before winter.
The judge
has denied the neighbors' request for a temporary restraining
order to prevent construction, but the developer would take a risk
by moving ahead before the lawsuit was resolved.
The trial
opened Wednesday with the introduction of more than 60 city
documents as evidence. There was no testimony on the key issue in
the case: whether the Papillion City Council's vote approving the
project was arbitrary and capricious.
Sarpy
County District Judge George Thompson initially brushed aside the
concern of neighbors' lawyers that he had rushed the case to
trial.
Attorney
William Gast complained that the case, filed July 23, was in
"extremely high gear," and there had been no time to review
documents and interview witnesses ahead of time.
"We're
having to do the impossible here," Gast told the judge.
Mike
Schirber, the Papillion city attorney, said he was concerned that
the neighbors' attorneys were manipulating the system to force a
delay.
He said
the city has about $2 million at stake, the city's estimate of
potential annual tax revenue from the shopping center, which would
contain a Wal-Mart Supercenter, a Kohl's department store and
smaller shops and restaurants.
Steve
Delaney, attorney for the developer, said granting neighbors a
delay could keep the developer from grading the site this fall.
"They
know that grading can only be done at certain times of year,"
Delaney said. "It is something that's harmful to our client to
have this delay."
But after
reviewing lawyers' schedules and his own, Thompson agreed to
postpone the trial until Nov. 16.
Developer
Owen Buckley, president of the R.H. Johnson Co. of Kansas City,
Mo., declined to comment on the delay.
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