The Ham Lake City Council voted 3-2 Monday to reject a proposed moratorium on new development near the intersection of Highway 65 and Crosstown Boulevard.

The moratorium called for a one-year halt to development while the city conducted a planning study for the busy intersection where Wal-Mart recently ? and unsuccessfully ? sought to win community support for rezoning to build a 203,000 square foot store.

With the City Council's vote to reject the moratorium, Wal-Mart is now expected to submit a new proposal for a smaller store on a smaller site that would not require rezoning.

Up until yesterday, moratorium supporters thought they had the votes to win the council vote, said Christine Dahlman, vice chair of Citizens for Responsible Development in Ham Lake, Inc. "I don't know why Wal-Mart has such pull here," she said. "We have signatures from thousands of residents."

The community group came together to oppose the proposed Wal-Mart store at the intersection and then, once Wal-Mart withdrew its proposal last month, asked the city to adopt a moratorium to allow the community time to plan for the wisest use of the area.

Residents, including many union members, expressed concerns about traffic, water run-off, the lack of city sewer service and the community impact of big box development at the site.

"This moratorium is not about stopping Wal-Mart. This moratorium is an opportunity for us as a city to step back? and make some important decisions that will affect what we look like in the next 20 years," said Farrell Tuohy, representing Citizens for Responsible Development in Ham Lake, Inc.

"Wal-Mart has triggered people's awareness about the need for planning in this city," said Council Member Paul Meunier, who supported the moratorium. "We need to make decisions based on a long-term vision of what we want the city to be."

"The question is not if we're going to grow," said Meunier. "The question is how we're going to grow."

"The intersection is the single most important commercial node in the city, but has been developed in a piecemeal fashion in the past," noted the proposed resolution to enact the moratorium. The resolution continued: "There is a need for a comprehensive planning study for the area, to include, among other things, traffic, drainage, sewage and environmental factors."

As a compromise to the proposed one-year moratorium, Meunier said a six-month moratorium could give the city sufficient time to complete the planning study. He did not, however, offer a formal amendment to the original moratorium.

When Mayor Gary Kirkeide introduced a resolution to reject the moratorium proposal, he was joined by Council Members Jolynn "Joey" Erikson and Diane Theodorski. Meunier and Council Member William Larson voted against Kirkeide's motion.

After the vote, moratorium supporters gathered outside City Hall to share their disappointment and plan next steps.

"We fought them tooth and nail. We got them to pull their 'super box.' We thought we had a moratorium," said Leonard Lee Yotter, a retired member of United Transportation Union Local 1000 who lives in nearby Oak Grove.

"We've been working hard," Yotter said. "We've got all kinds of information we presented to the City Council: the tax impact, the environmental impact, the community impact."

"We're a whole cross-section of the community," Yotter said of Citizens for Responsible Development, including residents and business people, union workers and non-union workers.

"This wasn?t about Wal-Mart," said Bernie Hesse, organizer for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 789. "This was about listening to your citizens and figuring out the impact of a big box."

"Wal-Mart remains very interested in constructing and operating a store in your city," a Wal-Mart representative, attorney David Sellergren, told the council during the public comment period before the moratorium vote. "Wal-Mart is committed very strongly to work with the city to address any site-specific issues," he said, including traffic and other concerns.

Sellergren added, "Wal-Mart believes it will be a positive force in this community if you let us come in."

Steve Share edits the Minneapolis Labor Review, the official publication of the Minneapolis Central Labor Union Council, AFL-CIO. E-mail him at laborreview@mplscluc.com