Menards is coming, but not right now

“Menards is coming. Menards is coming,” chanted Van Buren Township Planning Commissioner Bob McKenna on June 24 after the planning commission approved the final permit Menards needed before moving forward with construction of its home improvement store.
But Tom O’Neil, real estate representative for Menards, told the Independent following that meeting that he doesn’t know when construction would start.
“It’s a big project,” O’Neil said of the building of a 1,019,014-square-foot facility and two accessory structures.
When asked about the Scio Township store, where construction has been delayed, O’Neil said that store will be opening this summer.
O’Neil said he realizes that the Van Buren Township store originally was scheduled to have a ground breaking in April and that didn’t happen. It had been scheduled to open in February, 2016.
He did say that Menards does own the property now where it plans to build, just north of Walmart on Belleville Road.
O’Neil was asked if construction was being delayed because the agreement with Walgreens has not been finalized to close its drive onto Belleville Road just south of the proposed Menards’ drive that already has a traffic signal.
O’Neil said Menards has been assured that the Walgreen agreement will not hold up the project.
In its actions June 24, the planning commission unanimously approved Menards’ final site plan and its tree removal permit.
Menards has been working on approval to build at this location for more than a year and had tried to get approval for a separate site before that on the North I-94 Service Drive / Belleville Road near the old Farmer Jack. It pulled out of work on that site.
The present site is about 27.24 vacant acres.
At the June 24 meeting, planning consultant Sally Hodges of McKenna Associates said Menards wished to put a chain link fence around the north drainage pond in the woods, instead of a decorative wrought-iron looking fence required by the township around drainage ponds.
Hodges said the chain link can’t be approved administratively because conditions can change and the pond may be visible to the condos to the north. The planning commission would have to decide on that, she said.
Commissioner Bryon Kelley said, “It should be wrought iron.”
Commissioner Joan Franzoi agreed. “Some of the condos are two-story. It should be a decorative fence.”
“I would tend to agree,” Commissioner McKenna said, adding the pond could be seen from the second story of a condo.
The commission agreed to require the decorative fencing and O’Neil said Menards would do it if it was required.
Hodges and the commission also wanted amenities by Belleville Road – “A bench or two and a few other things,” said Commissioner Don Boynton, who was presiding at the meeting in the absence of chairwoman Carol Thompson.
“We did not see it as a pedestrian corridor,” O’Neil said of Belleville Road. “But if you want it, they will do it.”
Hodges said, “It is surprising. A 45-mph corridor and the number of people who walk.”
Commissioner McKenna then complained about the missing cover of a trash container he observed at the Menards location in Livonia.
“Hopefully that’s an aberration,” O’Neil said, noting it was the store manager’s job to maintain the containers.
McKenna didn’t like the looks of the trash containers, but O’Neil said that is the container all the Menards stores have.
O’Neil said it was Menards’ understanding that the lights in the north part of the pallet area would be below the roof of the 14’ enclosure and on the south and west sides the light could be four feet above the pallets, as in all the other Menards stores.
He said the lights are arm-mounts and recessed shoebox in nature, tilted to the interior of the lumber yard. He said it was 800 feet away from the residences.
Hodges said that the township hadn’t agreed to some lights being higher and all the lights needed to be below the roof.
O’Neil agreed to lower all the lights below the 14 feet. He also agreed to adjust the photometric plan to make sure the lights don’t shine into the residences.
David Nummer of Wade Trim engineers asked, “If the north pond ever overflows, where would it go? It’s a higher elevation than the south pond and it is designed to drain to the south pond.”
He asked Menards to create a swale to direct the overflowing water to the south pond instead of just overflowing.
“It would be a rare occurrence, if it happened at all,” Nummer said.
O’Neil wanted to know if this change would interfere with the storm water permit he got from Wayne County and Nummer said it wouldn’t.
As part of the last permit granted — the tree removal permit — Menards agreed to replace 236 trees on the site and pay the township $81,550 for the tree fund allowing trees to be planted elsewhere in the township. That was for trees that couldn’t be replaced.
Clark gas station final approval
Joe Nasser received final site plan approval from the planning commission for his plan to rebuild the existing Clark gas station at the corner of Sumpter and Hull roads and to add a convenience store with a new 2,000 square foot brick building with a peaked roof.
The 1.01-acre site at 15400 Sumpter Road was recently rezoned C-1 which allows gas stations as a permitted use.
Actually, although it has been a Clark station, all the drawings show a Citgo sign like his Citgo gas station at the corner of Sumpter and Willis roads in Sumpter Township.
Nasser said the planning consultants wanted his sidewalk to go all the way to the street, but Wayne County said the sidewalk should stop before the intersection.
Nummer explained that you have to have ramps on both sides and since there isn’t anything across the street, he needs to stop short of the roadway.
Nasser said he plans to start construction in a few weeks.
Like the Menards’ project, Nasser’s gas station project has been in the works for years.