Redlands Council to Consider Super Walmart, Church Agreement, Firefighters

The Redlands City Council is expected to consider the Super Walmart project, an agreement with a church that cut down healthy Redwood trees, and a memorandum of understanding with the Redlands Professional Firefighters Association, according to the agenda for Tuesday Oct. 16.

The council meeting coincides with the second presidential debate, which will be nationally-televised.

Unfinished business on Tuesday's agenda includes consideration of certifying a final environmental impact report and a conditional use permit for the 256,614 square foot retail and commercial center anchored by a Walmart Supercenter.

The 32.97-acre project includes fast food retaurants, retail stores, a sit-down restaurant and a flood-control basin, at San Bernardino Avenue and Tennessee Street.

The group of developers who want to build Redlands Crossing and the Walmart Supercenter requested the City Council reschedule discussion of the project from Sept. 4 to Oct. 2, a city spokesman said last month.

The developers asked for more time to gather additional information requested by the council, Redlands spokesman Carl Baker said.

The applicant seeking city approval for the proposed Redlands Crossing development, which includes plans for the Walmart Supercenter, is Walmart Stores Inc., said Robert Dalquest, assistant director of city's development services department.

To read more about the project, click here.

More than 250 people attended a public hearing at Citrus Valley High School when the project was presented to the City Council on July 18.

In new business on the Oct. 16 agenda, the Redlands council will consider an agreement with the Redlands Seventh-Day Adventist Church and the Southern California Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists to replace Redwood trees located on Buena Vista Street.

Church leaders have already agreed to pay the full cost of replacing two redwood trees that were cut down Aug. 31 without permits or notifying the city, a Redlands spokesman said Oct. 4. The full cost of purchasing, transporting, planting and maintaining the replacement trees is estimated at about $80,000.

Also in new business on the Oct. 16 agenda, the Redlands council will consider a memorandum of understanding with the Redlands Professional Firefighters Association.

Representatives of the RPFA and the Redlands Association of Fire Management Employees expressed support Oct. 9 for a tentative agreement reached with city negotiators that addresses compensation including overtime, retirement and benefits.

The Redlands Professional Firefighters Association had 57 members and under the tentative agreement there will be 54 members, association president Bill Conway said in an interview last week.

The Redlands Council is expected to meet at 5 p.m. Tuesday, break for closed session, and reconvene about 6 p.m.

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