Haymarket Town Council members on Monday expressed a willingness to fight the the county harder on the prospect of a Wal-Mart Supercenter coming to the intersection of U.S. 15 and Route 55 than they previously did on other land disputes.

Councilors said in interviews that they've learned lessons from past fights, including when their position did not hold against the Board of County Supervisors on Haymarket Landing and University of Virginia Foundation property a few years ago.

"(We'll) file an action at the least, the very least, against the subdivision. The county and the developer, I guess," said council member Bob Weir.

He later added, "The plat's not valid until we approve it, at least that's my understanding."

That said, Weir still said he doubted that there would be anything the town could do to permanently stop the construction of the buildings.

"It's a big tangled mass of crap," he said.

The town council's normal monthly meeting is generally held on the first Monday of the month but had to be pushed back this month to October 5 as to accommodate town attorney John Bennett's schedule, according to multiple council members. That's when the council planned to discuss its next course of action.

During the last two weeks, three council members and Mayor Pamela Stutz raised concerns about the potential traffic impact that would stem from a Wal-Mart and Kohl's retail center and how the Wal-Mart would affect small businesses in town.

Other unanswered questioned raised by the council members include what sort of agreement the town would need to reach with the county police force and the property owner in order to patrol the area.

The Town of Haymarket police station is located about a mile down Washington Street while the nearest Prince William County substation is on Wellington Road in Manassas. That means the town police would be the first responders in the event of an emergency since the Wal-Mart will be located well within a mile radius of the town's borders.

"It would impact how you would respond to the calls as well because the county can and does dispatch our policemen as well when they don't have the county available unit," said council member David Leake. "We often cover this extended area, even though it's not in the legal town limits. We're right on the cusp of that edge."

According to Cole, "our police will not stand by" during an emergency and will respond, "but we have to have consideration for that."

Both Leake and Cole agreed that the Wal-Mart bringing in more than 300 jobs to the area would be beneficial.

However, they speculated the types of jobs largely created would be more low-wage jobs geared toward high school students and seniors citizens instead of the white collar jobs normally associated with upper-income earners that make up a sizeable portion of Haymarket's population inside and outside of town.

"They're very popular stores. There's no denying that. But the problem is that intersection there is our gateway to town and I don't want that to be our gateway to town," said vice mayor John Cole with a laugh.

He added, "We wouldn't be supporting our businesses here if we wanted that Wal-mart."

Another issue raised by council members is that a big box store would directly impact the view of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the west.

"Now you're looking at concrete and brick," said Leake.

Cole piggybacked on that comment, mentioning, "There's no way you dress up a big box store." He also mentioned how the design of the Town of Haymarket is meant to be more colonial and that stores like CVS had to be modeled to fit in "like the age period that we have in our comprehensive plan.

"It's very difficult to do that with a big box store."

Given that the property is outside of the town's borders, it would not be required to meet town building standards. The town also would not be subject to receive direct tax revenue unless an agreement is otherwise struck with the county or a boundary line adjustment is made westward to include the property.

Council members have before discussed the possibility of annexing the land, though that was still when a Home Depot and Safeway grocery store were planned for development.

"We're all assuming that the Wal-Mart goes in," said Cole. "So all of these arguments will be presented to the county. Again, if the cost to the town is too high, then we're going to do all we can to prevent that from going in."

He added, "We'll be getting all of the responsibility (and) all of the traffic; all of the bad and none of the good."