On Wednesday, planning commissioners, who once rejected the retailer's plans for a 200,000-square-foot supercenter, began imposing conditions and regulations for “when'' the store opens, and even in the event it closes.

“The company has quite a reputation for dark stores and leaving buildings vacant for competitive purposes,'' said Planning Commissioner Jim Palmer, calling on the company to come up with a two-year contingency plan.

“This is the gateway to our community and it would be depressing to drive by that every day if it were to sit vacant or unkempt for very long,'' Commissioner Diana Moesinger added.

Not to worry, said Wal-Mart legal adviser Robin Salvaggio. He said the company has a division devoted to refurbishing, releasing and reselling its warehouse-sized stores.

Among the other restrictions:

l No drive-through restaurants on the adjoining property.

l No outside storage.

l No idling trucks.

l No loading or unloading of semi trailers between the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.

l No RV parking.

l No noise from trash compactors above 55 decibels.

The company only had a few quibbles with the 30 restrictions planning commissioners placed on them - mostly dealing with the number and kind of delivery trucks serving the store.

“It could be considered unfair business practice to ask us to curtail the small delivery operations from coming before 7 a.m., especially since they are already in the neighborhood making deliveries at other markets,'' Salvaggio said.

The company also questioned why there was a need for a daily limit on the number of semi-trailers making deliveries to the store when the company had stated there would be less than 10. The commissioners made an exception for the holiday season.

Residents, resigned to the fact that Wal-Mart is coming, hoped that commissioners might impose enough restrictions to deter the company.

“We did write some letters to the planning commission about our concern,'' said Jean Jensen of the Wal-Mart opposition group Centerville Citizens First. “Some of those comments have been brought up here tonight, so we think we were able to do some good.''

Commissioner Kathy Helgeson hoped to add a 31st condition, by limiting the 24-hour operation to from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., but that was met with an immediate threat of a lawsuit from one of Wal-Mart's attorneys.

There is no city code in Centerville that limits the hours of other stores' hours of operation, he said.