By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer
HOWARD – After the village’s Plan Commission held three public hearings Monday, Oct. 28, the Howard village board gave final approval to two conditional use permits and a rezoning request.
Board members unanimously approved a conditional use permit for Enterprise Rent-A-Car to locate a truck rental facility where the company will lease an existing building at 2666 N. Packerland Dr.
Community Development Director Dave Wiese said the permit was required on the property zoned B-2 Business because the rental of vehicles is a conditional use.
Doug Reiser, who appeared before the board representing Enterprise Rent-A-Car, said the company is currently servicing the Green Bay market from Appleton and wants to locate at the Packerland Drive site because of the large demand for trucks.
“It would not be car rental as you traditionally think of it,” Reiser said. “It is the Enterprise brand. We rent basically anything from your light-duty pickup truck to 15-foot, 16-foot and 26-foot box trucks for moving, a little different than some of the moving truck competitors. Most of the stuff is out on long-term leases to industry partners.”
The company’s plans call for having a retail lobby area approximately 1,000 square feet with the current garage area being used for hand washing trucks.
There would be no mechanical work conducted on the site and no bulk oil or fuel stored or used there.
This retail operation would be staffed with three to six employees with the expected hours of operation being from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday and from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday.
Outside storage
Board members approved a conditional use permit allowing William Smits a three-year trial period to have outside storage at 2132 Riverview Dr.
Village President Burt McIntyre, who also chairs the commission that recommended only a one-year trial period, cast the board’s lone dissenting vote.
McIntyre said he was concerned about the effect outside storage could have on future development in that part of the village, where an apartment project is planned across the street from Smits’s property.
“The reason I was happy about the one-year (trial period) is because the gentleman’s plans right now are pretty fluid,” he said. “He doesn’t really have any plans other than he’d like to build a building and stuff like that.”
McIntyre said Smits in a year would be able to better define the project he wants and could have come back to present it to the board with more detail.
Wiese said there would be a $250 application fee to seek another permit.
Smits said it took three months to clean out the property, where he is now looking to temporarily store campers, trailers and vehicles outside to generate some income before eventually constructing a building in the back of the property.
He said the one-year trail period recommended by the Plan Commission wouldn’t be long enough with the plans he has to develop the property, for which he also would have had to reapply for a permit.
“My intention is in a year, maybe two years, we’ll have a building back there,” Smits said.
Trustee Ray Suennen said limiting the time to a year seemed “not adequate for someone to go into a business operation.”
Suennen suggested the three-year trial period.
“The party seems to be willing to do something in Howard, they’ve cleaned up a piece of property and are continuing to clean it up,” he said. “They know they want to do some sort of business operation. Normally, one year doesn’t give anyone much motivation or security, particularly when you’re not used to working with the local municipality.”
Smits said he would like to construct a business suite on the property and be able to run sewer to the building.
Rezone for garage
To allow for the construction of a 1,600-square-foot, detached garage, the board approved a rezoning request from Josh Kimps to rezone two parcels along South Riverview Drive from R-1 Residential Single Family to R-5 Rural Estate Residential.
Wiese said the project will also require the two lots to be combined into one.
Kimps said he purchased the lot east of his house at 2553 Riverview Dr. and meets the requirements for R-5 zoning to construct a storage garage for personal use.
Cold storage plan
In a matter not requiring board action, the commission approved a site plan for RainMaster Irrigation to build a 36x36x16.25-foot cold storage building for business use at 2296 Sachs Court.
The storage building will have colors to match the existing building and be located to the back of the property.