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ATLANTA-Elected officials in Avondale Estates, a suburban city of 6,000 residents five miles east of Downtown Atlanta, have listened to their constituents and rejected an annexation plan that would have allowed Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to build a $15-million, 203,000-sf supercenter at the shuttered Avondale Mall site.

Officials at the retailer's Bentonville, AR headquarters declined to comment but area brokers familiar with Wal-Mart's strategy tell GlobeSt.com the company is considering asking the DeKalb County commission to rezone the 23-acre tract for general commercial use. Wal-Mart purchased the land in September.

If the county rezones the land, residents are expected to push for a mixed-use development that would incorporate a limited amount of specialty retail, some residential and a park but continue to exclude a Wal-Mart store, brokers who attended the recent public meeting on the annexation request tell GlobeSt.com.Avondale Estates government's decision to bar Wal-Mart comes only a month after the city planning and zoning board recommended the annexation of a 23-acre tract that would have allowed Wal-Mart to build the supercenter. However, the recommendation came with a list of 40 conditions--one of them being the store could not operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.