City planning commissioners debated for two hours over whether to grant the big-box retailer a conditional-use permit. But when both motions - one to approve the permit with conditions and one to deny it all together - failed, so did Wal-Mart's application to build a 209,000-square-foot store on the southeast corner of Parrish Lane and 400 West.

Wahoo!'' said resident Tanner Egan as he and several others wearing anti-Wal-Mart T-shirts stood and gave each other high-fives.

There are seven members on the planning commission, but Chairman Brian Hulse, a real estate attorney whose firm has conducted business for Wal-Mart in the past, recused himself months ago from any dealings with the company. That left six members, and they voted 3-3 on the matter.

The application fails for lack of a majority,'' Cory Snyder, economic development director, stated for the record.

John Owens, an attorney for the company, said regional Wal-Mart officials not in attendance at the meeting would decide whether to appeal. Owens made Wal-Mart's final pitch before Wednesday's vote, saying the company had made extensive changes to its plan to accommodate the conditional-use permit throughout the process.

We've even agreed to noise levels when no noise ordinance exists in Centerville,'' he said, as he listed several accommodations the company had made to its designs for the new store.

Snyder reminded the council that city staff members found that the application met the city zoning ordinances for the area, which is zoned commercial, very high.''

Those arguments didn't hold up in the opinion of Lee Duncan, who made the first motion to deny the application. He listed 25 mitigating reasons, most pertaining to traffic and safety concerns of the citizens.

It's not the responsibility of the planning commission to look at a regional trade area but to look out for what's best for the citizens of Centerville,'' he said. Centerville's trade area is satisfied.''

Acting chairman Scott Waterlaus then made a motion to approve the permit, which was amended four times by other council members, who wanted to limit the store's hours of operation and restrict delivery truck parking and loading and noise levels at the site.

His motion also ended in a 3-3 vote.

Sometimes, you can just amend it to the point that it isn't of any value to the applicant anyway,'' said commission member Ken Averett.

The site plan and the subdivision plan for the Wal-Mart failed outright, by a vote of 4-2.

lorib@sltrib.com