Wal-Mart will join the lawsuit challenging the city’s building moratorium at Sixth Street and Wakarusa Drive.

“We have decided to join in the lawsuit along with the property owners,” Keith Morris, a spokesman for the retail giant, told the Journal-World Wednesday morning. “We just made that decision here yesterday.”

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6Wak Land Investments LLC, the owner of land on the northwest corner of the intersection, filed the original lawsuit last month after the city denied building permits for a Wal-Mart store and a related restaurant on the site.

6Wak’s lawsuit challenged the denial of the restaurant building permit, though the entire moratorium would presumably be struck down if the company won its lawsuit.

The Lawrence City Commission instituted the building moratorium after Wal-Mart applied in May to build a 132,000 square foot store at the site. City officials say Wal-Mart is a “department store” prohibited from the site; the retailer contends it is a “variety store” — undefined in city regulations — and thus allowed to build.

6Wak is a partnership of Lawrence developers Bill Newsome and Doug Compton. The next court hearing in the lawsuit is scheduled for July 17,