LEWISTON – The Planning Board gave a unanimous thumbs-up Monday to a plan to build a new Wal-Mart Supercenter at Exit 80.

The project, which calls for a 191,000-square-foot store, now needs approval from the state Department of Environmental Protection before it can break ground.

“We think that will take some time,” said David Hediger, city planner. “I believe they hope to have the store open for ’08 holiday shopping.”

The store is the anchor tenant in a 35-acre parcel that the city identified for retail development in September 2005. There’s room for another 22,000-square-foot store or restaurant on the same site, which is owned by Wal-Mart.

“We haven’t heard anything about who that might be yet,” Hediger said.

When finished, the store will generate about $500,000 per year in new property taxes. There is no city money going into the development, said Gil Arsenault, director of city planning and code enforcement.

“No city money for improvements, no TIFs, no tax breaks,” he said. “It’s all on Wal-Mart.”

An adjacent 40-acre parcel is also under retail development by Gendron & Gendron, but there have been no plans submitted for that project as yet.

Six people attended the Planning Board meeting to voice concerns about the Wal-Mart project, most of which were about traffic issues.

A presentation by Gorrill-Palmer traffic engineers answered many of the questions, Arsenault said. Wal-Mart will make about $2 million in off-site road improvements to facilitate traffic going into the store and around the project.

He said in response to one neighbor’s concern, a sign will be posted directing traffic from Little Canada and New Auburn away from Goddard Road and toward River Road to the shopping complex.

Two people also spoke against the proliferation of big-box retailers and their degenerative effect on a community and its economy. Arsenault said board members sympathized with many of the opponents’ points, but noted that discussion was beyond the scope of their authority.

“The board was very clear in that they could only look at the project in terms of the city’s development review criteria,” Arsenault said. The plan was passed by a 6-0 vote.

Artist’s renderings of the completed project showed a Wal-Mart Supercenter with an elongated facade and extensive landscaping.

“They will be screening the truck areas and storage areas, to make it as attractive as possible from the highway perspective,” Arsenault added.