Zoning board approves Menards superstore

After months of setbacks, Menards cleared the last hurdle to putting up a superstore at the Ind. 37 Bypass at Fullerton Pike Thursday. The Monroe County Board of Zoning Appeals took only about 15 minutes to approve Menards' plan to reduce the size of its parking lot from 800 spaces down to 406.\nProject attorney Gary Clendening said construction should start later this month. The 161,000-square-foot home improvement store could be open as early as December.\nThe five-member board unanimously approved Menards' zoning variance petition without debate. Project engineer Steve Smith of local firm Smith & Neubecker won over skeptics by announcing that the home supplies chain planned to dedicate another 1 1/2 acres on the site to green space.\nMenards had already planned to leave 13 acres of green space untouched. It requested the zoning variance to leave 1 1/2 acres open for another light industrial development.\nAnd company officials said 406 spaces would be enough to serve the store's customers.\n"It's a number based on a lot of sites in a lot of towns," Smith said during his presentation to the board.\nConcerns over lot size and potential parking spillover held the development up several months. Most recently, board member John Irvine requested a delay so he could hand count the number of parking spaces at Wal-Mart and Lowes, a Menards competitor.\nWhen Menards first proposed cutting the size of its parking lot in half, board members alleged it misled the Monroe County Plan Commission, which had already given preliminary approval to the project. In keeping with zoning ordinances, Menards originally proposed constructing 800 parking spaces.\nIrvine and fellow board member Carol Wise refused to vote for the variance if Menards didn't pledge to dedicate more green space on the site. Menards, which had planned to lease out the entire three acres, then asked for more time to rework its proposal.\nBut it then ran afoul of Bloomington Utilities officials, who initially refused to grant Menards an extension of city water and sewer lines on the grounds that the project constituted "leapfrog development." In May, Menards officials cut a deal with the city in which they would foot the bill for the line extensions. They also agreed to set aside part of the site for a water storage tank to service the southwest side of town.\nThe zoning variance then came up before the board during a June meeting, at which Irvine asked for another month-long delay. But Irvine, who had been one of Menards' harshest critics, cast the deciding vote for final approval of the project at a contentious plan commission meeting just two weeks later.\nCritics expressed the concern that the project would cause traffic congestion on the burgeoning West side of town. They also questioned whether a big-box home improvement store could really be considered light industrial, which is how the site is zoned.\nBut no such voices of dissent were heard at Thursday's meeting.\nWise asked Smith if an existing row of trees at the site would be preserved on the additional green space. Smith said it would. Wise then asked if the area would be maintained.\n"It's going to be mowed, I'd imagine," Smith said. "It's just right off the sidewalk. It would look unkempt if it were allowed to grow wild."\nIrvine stepped in and asked if Smith knew what the mix of trees would be at the site.\n"As far as I know, they're all poplars," he said.\nNo one had further questions or comment, and the petition came to a vote.\n"I'd like to thank you gentlemen," Board President Matt Dillion said after the variance was approved. "I know it's been a struggle."\nBud Burnitt, real estate agent for property owner Bill Brown, expressed relief after the uncharacteristically short meeting.\n"We're very pleased with the site," he said. "We're creating 200 new jobs, preserving green space and bringing in a good quality company"