By Mark W. Olson

Wal-Mart officials have informed the city of Carver that they are withdrawing plans for a store in the town.

Last fall, Wal-Mart and property owner Mark Lano entered into a purchase agreement for 26.5 acres of farmland, near the County Road 147 and Highway 212 intersection. At Monday night’s Carver City Council meeting, Planner Cindy Olness announced that the company had withdrawn its plans.

The purchase agreement was cancelled, said City Administrator Jim Elmquist, on Tuesday. With a sewer line not reaching the property until late 2009 or early 2010, it kept the project on hold for too long, officials were told. It was “too far out for them to want to keep the property at this point in time,” Elmquist said.

The store would have sat next to property purchased by Fleet Properties Inc. for a Mills Fleet Farm store.

Plans for an environmental assessment, called an Alternative Urban Area Review (AUAR), are continuing for the Fleet Farm and proposed Wal-Mart site. The site is actually located in Dahlgren Township, until the township and Carver enter into an orderly annexation agreement.

Wal-Mart is still contractually obligated to assist with financing the AUAR study, Elmquist said.

One thing Carver officials are certain of – the land will be developed. “It will be a commercial/retail-type development,” Elmquist said. “It’s a very marketable corner.”

Officials are now estimating that completion of new Highway 212 to the Highway 147 intersection will be this July.