Austin Wal-Mart ruling postponed

The four-day trial over a proposed Wal-Mart at Northcross Mall ended Friday morning in the Travis County Courthouse with no judicial resolution.

District Judge Orlinda Naranjo set a ruling for mid-December, stating that she needs further time to review the arguments.

The citizen group Responsible Growth for Northcross is suing Lincoln Property Co. and the city of Austin to block the construction of a Wal-Mart Supercenter in the area. The group argued that development would violate city codes and could cause flooding, drainage, erosion, traffic and crime problems.

"The court is going to take the time to read the briefs," Naranjo said. "I'm going to take the time that is necessary to make the right decision in this case. I understand how important it is to give a ruling as soon as I can."

Developers and lawyers representing the city called the group's argument a "shell game" and "bloodless literalism."

"You don't hold up a developer and charge him with solving everybody's problems on both sides of the roadway and upstream," attorney Bruce Scrafford said during closing arguments. "Those are the people that say, 'I found this clause in the Second Amendment that says I've got the right to bear arms so I can carry a machine gun into a post office,' or, 'I found some provision in the Constitution that says I don't have to pay income taxes.' If we're interested in actually following the law rather than distorting it, we've got to look at these phrases in context."

Northcross lawyers responded, stating that the terms used in their argument are defined in the Environmental Criteria Manual.

"What we're asking for is a declaration of what was the law on the day this site plan was approved," said attorney Doug Young.

Responsible growth spokesman Jason Meeker said he felt confident about his lawyers' presentations.

"We should all be very proud today of our attorneys' performance here in Travis County Court," Meeker said. "Our claims related to traffic, water runoff, tree ordinance and other important issues need to be addressed."

Though workers have begun bulldozing portions of the mall, they have not touched the area where the proposed Wal-Mart would stand.

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