By Melissa J. Brachfeld

Sentinel Staff Writer

The community of Landover Hills held a meeting at their town hall Thursday evening to discuss redevelopment plans for Capital Plaza, which will include a new Wal-Mart store and a number of other shops and restaurants.

The meeting, which packed a full house into the town hall's small multipurpose room, featured county councilman Thomas Hendershot (D-New Carrollton), members of the Annapolis Road Inner Beltway Alliance and District 3 Civic Associations and representatives from Wal-Mart and the Nellis Corporation.

"The goal of this meeting is to get people to sound off about Wal-Mart coming into the community," Landover Hills Mayor Lee P. Walker said.

Randy Levitt, principal of the Nellis Corporation, said Nellis bought the Capital Plaza property in December 1991 and began considering redevelopment plans about seven or eight years ago. He said Nellis entered into talks with Wal-Mart about four or five years ago about acting as the anchor for the once busy shopping center. Levitt said the retailer officially signed on in October 2004.

"We want to redevelop Capital Plaza and bring it into the 21st century," he said.

Levitt said plans for the 45-acre site include trying to attract national chain stores, such as Trader Joe's, Marshalls and Best Buy, along with "good sit-down restaurants" and a convenience retailer.

"Our plan is to overspend on it and make it super-nice," Levitt said.

However, he said the completion of the project is at least three to five years away. Levitt said he sees the redevelopment of Capital Plaza as the first step in revitalizing the 450 corridor.

Rhoda Washington, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, said she believes Landover Hills, New Carrollton and other surrounding communities will only benefit from Wal-Mart's presence. She said other businesses have thrived thanks to Wal-Mart, and that she hopes the Capital Plaza store will relieve the "over shopped" Bowie and Clinton stores.

"We wanted to come and talk with you and we wanted your input because it's your Wal-Mart," she said.

As the floor was opened up for discussion, members of the community expressed their concerns over security issues in the shopping center, what would be sold, the store's hours and traffic on the already busy Annapolis Road.

Levitt said, as of right now, there are no plans to alter Annapolis Road or any other roads around Capital Plaza.

"It's my belief that the roads will be able to manage the traffic," he said.

Residents also said they would like to see the Capital Plaza Wal-Mart turned into a Wal-Mart Supercenter. However, Washington and Hendershot both jumped in to add that a supercenter is not an option because of a county council bill that prohibits large retailers, such as Sam's Club and Wal-Mart, from selling fresh produce and meats. The legislation was passed in October 2005.

"While I'm anxious for Wal-Mart to move in here, I'm not anxious to see the impact they'll have on good, local unionized businesses in the area," Hendershot said.

Tiffany Burge, a resident of Glenridge, said she is in support of the Capital Plaza redevelopment.

"At this point I think I'm for the project," she said. "I would like to see further development going on in the area because I think that's what we really need."

She also added that she would like to see Wal-Mart provide more jobs for people in the area.