After months of emotional debate and hand-wringing over whether the city should allow a 24-hour Wal-Mart store in North Concord, the developer has pulled the plug on the plan.

This is the retail giant’s third failure this year in Contra Costa County — Antioch rejected a Wal-Mart expansion earlier this year, and Hercules is using eminent domain to stop the store.

The Winton Jones Development Co., which proposed the 28-acre Jones Ranch shopping center along Arnold Industrial Way, pulled the project by sending a letter to City Hall on Tuesday afternoon.[…]