County approves Menards

Months of heated debate came to an end Tuesday, when the Monroe County Plan Commission gave final approval to a Menards on the southwest corner of Ind. 37 and Fullerton Pike.\nProject engineer Steve Smith of local firm Smith Neubecker said construction should take four or five months. The 161,000-square-foot home improvement store could be open as early as December.\nThe project -- which opponents fear will cause further traffic congestion on the burgeoning west side -- squeaked by on a 5-4 vote. John Irvine, one of Menard's harshest critics, cast the deciding vote.\n"It gets in through a loophole," he said, echoing the criticism of commission president Brian O'Neil. "But I think it is within the law. Therefore, I am voting yes."\nIrvine and others criticized O'Neil and councilman Scott Wells for seeking to prolong the debate over the merits of the planned big-box superstore when it was up for final plat approval.\nCommissioners customarily air out their differences at the preliminary approval stage. After the plan commission has given its seal of approval to a development, appointed county officials go over the plans to ensure compliance with zoning ordinances. If they recommend a project, final plat approval is seldom more than a rubber stamp.\n"I'm sorry to see that there's still dissension after this has headed to final plat," said commissioner Jane Martin, urging O'Neil to call a vote after about an hour of discussion. "We've once again revisited issues that we've already voted on."\nWhile supporters said the proposed land use met zoning requirements, O'Neil argued that it barely passed muster.\n"We all know the only reason this is coming through is by virtue of a loophole," he said. "When the property was zoned light industrial, no one had a large retail establishment in mind."\nThe light industrial zoning means the land can be used for a lumberyard, which is how landowner Bill Brown presented Menards. O'Neil said the impact of such a store would be disastrous on traffic, already congested on the fast-growing west side. \n"As elected officials, we're supposed to be strategic with what we do with our government resources," he said. "We're supposed to make strategic investments to the neighborhood. This won't just clutter up the store with cars from our counties, but all the surrounding counties."\nCommissioner John Newlin, who voted in favor of the development, had a quick retort to O'Neil.\n"I thought we wanted money coming in from other counties," he said.\n"Bottom line: This will create 200 new jobs," Commissioner Charlie Felkner echoed.\nBut dissenters didn't give up on the "loophole" argument. Wells asked county attorney David Schilling what percentage of Menards' stock would have to be lumber.\n"There's no percentage -- it's not 50 percent or 40 percent," he replied. "It's like prostitution. You know it when you see it."\nWhen Schilling couldn't produce a quantitative figure, Wells just furrowed his brow and hung his head in frustration. The petition came to a vote shortly thereafter.\nWhen first introduced, the project ran afoul of Irvine, who demanded that unused space be preserved as greenspace. It was then delayed for three months after the City of Bloomington refused to provide the site sewer and water extensions in spite of preliminary county approval.\nMenards resolved the dispute by offering to pay for the lines itself and allowing city utilities to build a water tower on the site. It also agreed to the county's demand to foot the bill for a new stoplight at that intersection.\nMenards is still seeking a zoning variance that will allow it to cut the parking lot from 800 to 400 spaces, but attorney Gary Clendening said it wouldn't affect the start of construction.