Home Depot coming to Wasilla

WASILLA -- The Home Depot is slated to become the latest national franchise to set down roots in the city of Wasilla.

Home Depot recently filed a conditional-use permit with the Wasilla Planning Department, thus seeking the city's blessing to build a new branch of the hardware and services outlet off the Palmer-Wasilla Highway Extension.

Katherine Gallagher, spokeswoman for Home Depot, confirmed that the store would be coming to Wasilla in the near future, though she couldn't say exactly when.

"The timeline is pretty loose right now," Gallagher said. However, she also said the store would most likely be commencing its plans to occupy the Wasilla lot sometime in 2005.

Plans for a Home Depot store in Wasilla have been several years in the making, but decisions over where the store should be located prolonged the process. Recently representatives of Home Depot selected a site along the Palmer-Wasilla Highway Extension as the location for the 102,000-square-foot building.

Landowners holding property within a 1,200-foot radius of the future store will be notified individually about the construction plans. Before the process begins, there will be a public hearing so these landowners can comment on plans for the development. However, even those who do not own land adjoining the Home Depot site will be allowed to comment at the hearing.

Sandra Garley, Wasilla city planner, is ensuring that city codes are observed prior to groundbreaking. Home Depot is also providing theState Department of Transportation with a traffic impact analysis to determine what, if any, measures will need to be made to address the changes in traffic patterns that the new store will create.

The Home Depot, like most large stores of its kind, demands a stop light situated adjacent to its access road to help manage incoming traffic, and the Wasilla store will be no exception. The location for this traffic light has already been drawn up by officials from the city and the business, and Home Depot has agreed to fund its construction as well as its connection to the city sewer system.

The Home Depot will be able to take advantage of the city of Wasilla's ongoing plans to extend water utility service along the Palmer-Wasilla Highway Extension with the aim of establishing a hookup with the water main along Knik-Goose Bay Road.

The store will employ 150 employees, 90 of them full-time and 60 part-time, according to a press release announcing the venture. Average wage for salespeople will begin at $12.50 per hour.

Wasilla Mayor Dianne M. Keller said she is pleased with the prospects of further economic development in Wasilla offered by the new store.

"This will add several job opportunities for city and borough residents while adding developmental depth to our community. I am excited to see businesses taking advantage of the development opportunities in this part of the city," she wrote in a press release.

Keller said she is also optimistic about the strengthening of family bonds that this new development will encourage.

"This company will provide entry-level positions for our youth as well as offer family-wage jobs that will afford more family time due to less commuting," Keller said.

The Wasilla branch will be Home Depot's fourth Alaska store, and the first in the Valley area.

"We're very excited to be able to provide home improvement equipment and services to Wasilla," Gallagher said. "This will be a great asset to the community."

Contact Daniel Spoth at daniel.spoth@frontiersman.com.