Wal-Mart may one day build a new Supercenter four miles from its new store, soon to open, in American Canyon.

The Vallejo City Council on Tuesday deadlocked on a motion to study the retail giant’s plans to build a 393,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter and retail center building at the site of a former K-Mart fronting Sonoma Boulevard and Redwood Street.

The two-story building would include 14,000 square feet of non-Wal-Mart retail and 173,000 square feet of first-floor parking, according to the plans.

Wal-Mart representative Shell MacPherson of Roseville-based PacLand said the 220,000-square-foot Supercenter will include grocery and retail. The main retail area will be on the second floor.

Tuesday’s 3-3 vote came after more than a three-hour debate in front of a packed city council chambers.

Councilman Gerald Davis did not attend the meeting, so the matter will be brought back before a full city council.

On Thursday, a spokesman for the city of Vallejo, Mark Mazzaferro, said that session could be scheduled Nov. 14.

“That’s the earliest the Wal-Mart item could be heard by the full council. For a variety of reasons, one council member or another is going to be absent from meetings until then,” Mazzaferro said in an e-mail.

The plans for the Wal-Mart Supercenter, which would be built next to White Slough, a tributary of the Napa River, will require a series of in-depth reports, including a report on its economic impacts on the area and an in-depth environmental impact study.

The proposed building is too big under the rules spelled out in the White Slough Specific Area Plan, which would have to be changed to allow Wal-Mart to develop the commercial site.

The City Council has to decide if it will support revisions to the White Slough Specific Area Plan and give the green light to the reviews.

After the vote Tuesday, Wal-Mart spokesman Kevin Los-cotoff said, though disappointed by Tuesday’s vote, he was optimistic about gaining city council support for the project.

An opponent, Victoria Gray, chairwoman of Vallejoans for Responsible Growth, said she was not happy with the vote.

“I think it’s time to start talking recall,” said Gray, who was particularly unhappy with Mayor Anthony Intintoli’s efforts to pass a motion to move the project forward.

Wal-Mart now has a store at Meadows Plaza on Sonoma Boulevard, a short drive from American Canyon, and a 176,000-square-foot Wal-Mart is under construction at Napa Junction.

The Vallejo store will close when the American Canyon Wal-Mart Supercenter opens in January, Loscotoff said.

The four dozen speakers who took turns addressing the City Council for three minutes each were split on whether or not the Wal-Mart Supercenter should be built.

Supporters warned that Vallejo residents who now shop at Meadows Plaza will cross county lines and head for the new Wal-Mart Supercenter in American Canyon once it opens. After all, the city is $4 million in the red, they said.

Vallejo’s Wal-Mart is among the top 10 sales tax generators for the city, said Vallejo Community Development Director Craig Whittom after the meeting.Linda Roberts, a 64-year-old widow and lifelong Vallejo resident, urged the City Council to support the project to help families on fixed income.

“Let’s not make us go to American Canyon,” Roberts said.

Opponents like Gary Wettstein, 43, of Vallejo, a wastewater treatment plant operator, however was among those who bashed Wal-Mart’s corporate practices.

“Wal-Mart isn’t right for any city,” he said.

In the end, the three city council members who voted to proceed with the studies included Mayor Anthony Intintoli.

“It deserved the process the city has established,” said Intintoli, referring to the studies the city requires for big boxes.

City Councilwoman Stephanie Gomes voted “no,” saying the White Slough Specific Area Plan has “great potential.”

“They want us to adopt their vision,” she said of Wal-Mart.

Gomes, who said she had debated the issue with a lot of people including her mother, argued the issue is whether the plans are a good fit for the city.

“We need to think long term,” she said.

Another proposal discussed Tuesday was to place a moratorium on new projects for the White Slough area.

In the end, Intintoli, Vice Mayor Tony Pearsall and City Councilman Hermie Sunga voted to proceed with studies of the Wal-Mart application. Gomes, City councilmen Tom Bartee and Gary Cloutier opposed the motion. A similar second motion proposed by Intintoli also deadlocked.