Wal-Mart Strikes Out Again in Oviedo

ORLANDO-Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, has failed for the second time in 18 months to convince the Seminole County planning board that its proposed 230,000-sf, $28 million Supercenter in Oviedo would be a plus and not a negative stigma to one of Orlando’s affluent suburbs.

At a public hearing July 9, the board turned down the Bentonville, AR-based firm’s request for a rezoning of 55 acres at Red Bug Lake and Mikler Roads, just west of the one-million-sf Oviedo Marketplace mall. County commissioners will make the final decision on the project Aug. 12.

Oviedo city commissioners rejected a similar Wal-Mart Supercenter in February 2002 at State Road 426 and Red Bug Lake Road. In June 2002, the county’s planning board turned down a developer’s request for a shopping center at Red Bug Lake and Mikler Roads, the same location Wal-Mart now is targeting. The project wasn’t submitted later to the county commission.