(WICHITA, Kan.)—
Some West Wichita neighbors are joining forces to prevent a new Sam's Club from opening up in their back yards.Plans call for the store to be built on a vacant piece of land near 29th and Maize Road, right next to the Fox Ridge housing development.
"I like it because its secluded, you really get to know your neighbors really well," said Fox Ridge Homeowner Will Bowman. "You can't really hear the traffic from the road ."
Now Bowman is worried that will change. He and dozens of his Fox Ridge neighbors have signed a petition to keep a major retailer out.
"This Sam's club coming in is just going to destroy our resale, our property value," said Homeowner Shanon Kalb. "Not only is it going to affect the homes that are directly looking at it, its going to affect the entire community. There is going to be traffic, noise, lights, trash."
Right now this land near 29th and Maize is zoned for residential only, so for Sam's Club to build here Wichita City Council members will need to rezone it for commercial development
"It was laid out light commercial, which meant business offices, maybe a few restaurants, retail stores," Bowman said. "Not a big box store, no."
The issue drew more than 100 people to a meeting Thursday night, to find out more about the rezoning process.
Both city and county leaders have to approve the zoning change for Sam's to start building, but these neighbors say they'll fight it every step of the way.
"We are willing to take it as far as we need to take it," Bowman said.
The next step in the zoning change is to have it come up at a District Advisory meeting on September 10th and a Planning Commission meeting on September 20th.
