City Council Meeting – April 2026 (Part I)

 

Today’s post will be all about Walmart; tomorrow, in a part II, I’ll post the usual city council meeting hits.

 

 

First things first: Minto attorneys and city staff reiterated multiple times that Walmart meets all technical requirements of the City of Westlake’s code, charter, laws/bylaws, master plan, menu, to-do list, hoops, etc… all of it! Legally it is Walmart’s use by right to come to Westlake and the city council has no grounds to deny them. Forget about what anyone else is telling you, these are the facts. So buckle up guys, Walmart is coming.

 

 

 

And, ope, I’m buyin’ what Walmart is sellin’! Truly, on paper, this looks like it could be quite the boon for Westlake.

 

City staff mentioned multiple times that Walmart has been wonderful to work with, more than willing to go above and beyond, and to agree with almost everything Minto (the land owner-seller) and the city has requested of them.

 

I believe it, because when the city council, mainly Mayor O’Connor and Councilmember Gary Werner, asked for Walmart to agree to specific conditions, Walmart attorney McGregor Love had no hesitation agreeing to them on the spot.

 

Walmart’s representatives wanted to get across that there are more than 50 different Walmart “products” out in the world. Many of these are outdated, decades-old stores that are struggling to get up to modern codes. That’s why, to start off on the right foot, Westlake’s “bespoke” Walmart Supercenter will be a modern, improved store with all the bells and whistles.

 

This “new era” store will prioritize order, cleanliness, and aesthetic screenings.

 

 

This is NOT a 24-hour Walmart but will instead be open 6AM-11PM.

 

It will bring about 400 jobs to Westlake. I asked for a percentage of full-time positions but didn’t get that answer.

 

Over almost 25 acres, Westlake’s Walmart Supercenter will have:

 

 

The 768 parking spaces will include:

 

 

The building itself, which is huge, will have a dynamic facade so as to architecturally break the building up into its different departments for easy, convenient access and entry. The “Walmart blue” will help direct shoppers to get where they’re going. Also, 100% of the signage will be made of 3-D channel letters (the fanciest of commercial signage!), all the way down to the smallest of characters. And crosswalks will have high class pavers. Real brick and Hardie plank will accent the main entrances. Fixed metal awnings will cover the windows. Substantial landscape, of hearty and native plants and trees, will line the store and shade the parking lot. The outer surrounding fences will be architectural metal (not chainlink).

 

Importantly, Councilmember Erik Gleason, our law enforcement councilmember, spent a lot of time talking to Walmart representatives about community safety. Walmart understands that Westlake has essentially no crime and does not plan to bring any to the area. Instead, Walmart will provide a high standard of safety backed by rigorous asset and risk assessment procedures, enhanced lighting and open sight lines, extensive AI-enabled camera coverage,  advanced security technology, and a clean, uncluttered environment. On-site anti-theft personnel will be be on hand and Walmart, at Councilmember Gleason’s urging, will prosecute thieves, and I assume any offenders, to the fullest extent of the law.

 

So don’t bring that riff-raff!

 

Also, contrary to popular belief, Walmart does not allow for overnight parking. Westlake’s Walmart will include signage saying as much (no loitering, too!) so that PBSO can be empowered to cite or tow offenders.

 

Traffic will be affected! And Westlake has required that Walmart connect with Palm Beach County in the first six months to a year to see how the northbound, mid-block traffic is queuing up (see image below). If there’s spill back into northbound SPW, Palm Beach County will need to make that northbound single-laned left turn into a double-laned left turn.

 

 

For Westlake’s Art in Public Places program, Walmart has elected to contribute 1% of building costs to the fund instead of installing their own piece of art.

 

Here’s the City’s packet with all the info. Alright, more tomorrow!