By MARK HAYWARD MANCHESTER – City planners gave the go-ahead for a new Walmart Supercenter on Gold Street last night, but only if the retail giant can convince aldermen to close three residential streets in the neighborhood to the west of the proposed site. The planning board approved the plan by a slim 5-4 vote. It calls for keeping only President Road open to through traffic, making it the western entrance for the 183,000-square-foot Supercenter. Walmart plans to close its nearby Keller Street store once the Supercenter is built at the site of the shuttered Associated Grocers warehouse. Company spokesman Alexandra Serra last night said there is no timetable yet about when construction would start. She said there appears to be no red flags in the plan approved last night. "We want everyone in the community to be happy about this store. We're excited about it," she said. She added that the community wants the store, along with the additional jobs it will provide. About a dozen residents of the neighborhood to the west of Walmart attended the meeting. "It's still not what we wanted," said Gold Street resident Rene Fortin, the leader of the neighborhood opposition. "We wanted to have no traffic impact in any neighborhood." He said backups already exist on President Road. And it's anybody's guess what impact Walmart shoppers will have at the intersection at Brown Avenue and South Beech Street and the nearby highway interchange.

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