The following is being shared with permission from a community member, Amanda Winters. If you have questions or information that you would like to share with you neighbors, please send it to protecthanover@gmail.com .
1. Let’s look at Walmart’s Distribution Center in Harrisonburg, VA, to see best practices.
2. All vehicles enter and exit the Walmart Distribution Center in Harrisonburg, VA, by driving on the road that goes through the two fields which are actually raised to a height that covers the roof of the tractor trailer trucks!
3. Trucks enter and exit the Walmart Distribution Center in Harrisonburg, VA, on a road parallel to Route 81. Trucks pass a huge empty field surrounded by chain link fencing with barbed wire. Note the substantial earthen berms or hills surrounding the portion of the property that is the back of the facility. Walmart seems to have used a combination of both natural features and manmade earthen berms.
4. Note that the Walmart Distribution Center in Harrisonburg, VA, uses substantial natural landscape features or earthen berms to buffer both appearance and noise on the non-highway sides of its facility.
5. Employees of the Walmart Distribution Center in Harrisonburg, VA, enter and exit past a huge raised empty field on the DC side and substantial manmade earthen berms and natural landscape buffer on the other side.
6. What is behind the huge raised field at the Walmart Distribution Center in Harrisonburg, VA? Tractor trailer operations that are fully shielded from view. To be clear, there is a huge raised field, then manmade earthen berms, then natural landscaping. The far side of the employee lot has more earthen berms and natural landscape buffers.
Editors note: Thanks to people like this reader for their contributions to our website. This virtual tour shows what a company can do, even when focused on their bottom line. Walmart doesn't have the high income clientele that some supermarkets have, but they took the time to develop their business thoughtfully, and that resulted in a location that was appropriate for the intended use and didn't negatively impact 1,000's of residents.