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ize a new store to meet their needs, we appreciate that the city's democratic process provides affected parties an opportunity to do their own due diligence and raise valid concerns if necessary."
• The opposition group recently submitted 6,300 petition signatures seeking to refer a City Council decision to rezone about 40 acres of land from agricultural use to commercial use. The group needs 5,100 valid signatures to force a public vote next April. Wal-Mart says the group has only about 4,200 valid signatures.
• Save Our Neighborhood spokeswoman Dana Palmer said the group believes it has enough valid signatures and that the challenge by Wal-Mart is discouraging.
• "They're trying to squelch the public's right to have a voice in this matter," she said. "Wal-Mart doesn't want to hear from the public."
• Wal-Mart has agreed to several changes such as smaller signs to make the planned store a better fit for the neighborhood. The company also has said it has received positive feedback from people in the community.
• The city clerk's office will decide whether the petitions contain enough valid signatures. The process will take several weeks, City Clerk Lorie Hogstad said.
• Her office was preparing to do a standard review of the signatures regardless of any public challenge to the petitions. That step involves a cursory review of 5 percent of the signatures as a sample to judge whether the petitions as a whole are valid.
• Wal-Mart's challenge creates a second step.
• "By law, I need to respond in writing to each discrepancy they have attached to the affidavit," Hogstad told the Argus Leader newspaper. "That will require research and going through each signature."
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