EAST MARLBOROUGH — When Russell Carrier visits the Corner Store on Route 82 these days for fresh coffee cake, thoughts of Wal-Mart are not far from his mind.
Carrier, a West Marlborough race-horse trainer, likes the small-town feeling that comes with knowing the gourmet cafe's owners, Timmy and Sissy Wicks, and other residents by name.
But if a Wal-Mart store is built on 26 acres at Route 1 and School House Road, Carrier said, he fears that close-knit environment will begin to disappear.
"I just think Wal-Mart will come in and destroy all the small-town atmosphere that we have here, the small shops that we have here," he said. "They just can't compete."
A Chester County Court judge ruled late last week that the discount store could be built in East Marlborough, after 2 1/2 years of hearings and more than two years of litigation.
Wal-Mart entered its bid to build a store in the township in January 1994, drawing scores of protesters from the township and surrounding areas who sought to preserve the area's rural character. Supervisors approved Wal-Mart's application in February 1997, but added 51 conditions.
The discount store appealed 38 of those conditions, but a settlement was reached involving the township; Wolfson-Verrichia Group Inc., the developer; Longwood Gardens, a neighbor; and Peter and Margaret Alonzo, the landowners.
Chester County Court Judge James P. MacElree 2d approved the settlement.
Despite the years-long battle, Marc Kaplin, a Blue Bell lawyer representing Wolfson-Verrichia, of Plymouth Meeting, said his client might not build a Wal-Mart store at the location. The developer has the option of building a single store or a shopping center on the 26-acre site, according to MacElree's ruling.
"Whatever they build is going to be atrocious," resident and long-time Wal-Mart opponent Mary Lou DeVido said. "Although, if it is Wal-Mart, it's probably worse than whatever other store they could put in."
DeVido, who moved to East Marlborough because of its rural setting, said the discount store would only contribute to the "depersonalization of America."
"We were still a small town, and I think that's the beginning of the end of this being a small town," DeVido said.
Richard Turner, a 20-year resident of East Marlborough who opposed the store from the beginning, said he believes MacElree's ruling signals that township residents have lost the battle against Wal-Mart. He and his wife, Joan, decided prior to the ruling to move to Newlin next year to escape East Marlborough's growing development.
