Business

When it opened in the early 1960s, West Hills Shopping Center was the place to be in Moon.

"There was a skating rink, Sacco's bowling lanes, the Orbit Lounge ... a hardware store, the Village Dairy, West Hills beer distributor, the shoe repair shop," recalled Phylliss Collins, 59, who as a teenager worked at the center's Kresge's dime store, forerunner to Kmart.

It supported two grocery stores on either end of the L-shaped plaza.

"It's a shame," said Collins, whose Budget truck rental in a former Jenny Lee Bakery is one of just six businesses that remain in the strip mall. "It was the No. 1 place for people to shop; for kids to hang out."

Many neighbors in the township agree that something should be done about the shopping center, light on shoppers but heavy on asphalt cracked with weeds. But the latest proposed solution is roiling emotions in this community of about 22,000 people.

Wal-Mart purchased the center in January 2007, and has proposed to replace existing buildings with a 148,000-square-foot supercenter, including garden and auto shops. Projected to open in 2010, company officials say it would employ about 350 people -- three-quarters of them full-time.

Moon supervisors held two raucous meetings in as many weeks, first rejecting Wal-Mart's proposal 3-2 in the wee hours of July 3. Since then, two supervisors have had second thoughts.

At a July 10 meeting reversing their earlier votes, Michael Hopper said he was worried about possible litigation by Wal-Mart against the municipality and himself; and James Vitale said he had not understood that Wal-Mart would make certain improvements to traffic along University Boulevard and Brodhead Road. Only Marv Eicher retained his no vote in the new, 4-1 tally.

Wal-Mart's traffic management plan is being reviewed by PennDOT, but the future of the superstore remains uncertain.

Company spokesman Keith Morris said the retailer is determining whether it can retool its plans to meet the township's specifications. While the supervisors granted its wish to build further from the University Boulevard/Brodhead Road intersection and closer to a neighboring apartment complex than zoning rules allow, relief from other restrictions about the parking lot layout, pedestrian access and masonry were denied.

"There are some potential changes we may be able to make. We're not proposing to come in with a scaled-down, unattractive architecture design," Morris said. "We're looking at trying to revitalize a mostly vacant shopping center and bring some additional tax revenue and additional jobs to the area."

Nor is the battle over for Moon First, a month-old group of residents concerned about the impact Wal-Mart would have on traffic and surrounding businesses -- including a Kmart and a Kuhn's supermarket just across the intersection. Co-founder George Kniss, a Meade Drive resident, said Moon First will meet within the next two weeks to decide on its next move. While opinions vary, he said the group is not opposed to Wal-Mart outright.

"But we all agree that this Wal-Mart is not of the scale or quality to fit into that property in accord with the spirit and the word of both our overlay plans," he said. "They're trying to squeeze their cookie-cutter supercenter into this location, and asking for variances to make it fit."

Moon's three-year-old overlay districts -- development rules designed to control sprawl -- include the village-like Carnot overlay along Beaver Grade Road. Municipal officials say the University Boulevard overlay allows for big-box development.

Carol Masri differs with many Moon First activists who direct shoppers to the supercenter seven miles away in the Pointe at North Fayette. She would rather her community take in those tax revenues.

But as a 35-year resident, Masri worries Wal-Mart's traffic plan underestimates the amount of congestion she already encounters daily along Brodhead Road.

"I'd rather shop here in Moon than have the money go to Robinson," Masri said. "But (Wal-Mart has) to do it in the right way."

Supervisor Frank Sinatra said an increase in traffic is the price of development.

"We have to realize that Moon is no longer just farmland. We should be happy about that," Sinatra said. "The housing values have climbed, new schools are being built. This is all happening because of developments like Wal-Mart."

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