By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer
HOWARD – A site plan to build a 30,250-square-foot warehouse addition with new truck loading docks for Woodman’s Food Market at 2400 Duck Creek Parkway was approved Aug. 16 by the village Plan Commission.
Community Development Director Dave Wiese said the project will eliminate a 44-stall parking lot and some adjoining green space on the northeast side of the existing building.
“If you drive (near) that area, you notice (the 44-stall parking lot) is not used that frequently,” he said. “It’s kind of (an) overflow area.”
Wiese said the warehouse will be constructed of precast concrete wall panels and match the existing food market.
“(Woodman’s is) working on proposed stormwater (drainage), whether or not that can be handled through the existing ponds that are in the area, or whether or not they would need an additional treatment area,” he said. “There could be a possible proposed stormwater pond that’s shown on that Woodman Drive area coming through if it’s needed or necessary.”
Jim Arneson of FoxArenson, the design/build contractor for Woodman’s, said the addition was proposed when the original building was constructed.
“At this point, Woodman’s has decided that they would like to expand the building,” he said. “This store is the smallest prototype that Woodman’s has, even though I know it’s large. It is the smallest. There’s only one store that is this size of their 19-store fleet. They really feel that they would be better served with an expanded warehouse at this location.”
Arneson said the existing five, at-grade loading stalls used for van delivery vendors will be replaced by three new loading stalls.
“(Three loading stalls are) all we have with any of the new prototypes for Woodman’s,” he said.
Arneson said the warehouse probably will end up adding a stormwater pond because of an increase in impervious surface with the addition.
“We’ve struggled to locate the calculations for the pond behind the store,” he said. “I guess it was modified at the time the Menards facility was built, and apparently the plans aren’t available. By treating the added impervious (surface) with a new pond, we feel that we’re just taking that right out of consideration.”
Camping World service
In other action, the board approved a site plan for Camping World to modify the existing Gander Outdoors building at 2323 Woodman Drive.
The modification will remove exterior storage on the east side and add six overhead doors to provide access to new recreational vehicle service bays.
Patrick Blees, an architect of Core States Group, the project applicant, said a service zone for RVs will be placed in the existing building, which previously had all retail space.
“I think it’s important to recognize that servicing the RVs does not include, if you will, mechanical service for vehicles,” he said. “It’s more of an installation bay. The retail area sells a lot of products for RVs… This is the bay that they would bring those RVs in.”
Blees said a 14×14-foot door on the north wall near the northwest corner is also being added to bring an RV into the sales area to demonstrate how products being sold could be used.
“(The door on the north side) would rarely be used,” he said.
Village President Burt McIntyre, who chairs the commission, said he is thrilled to see Camping World make use of the Gander Outdoors building.
“We’ve got buildings that are getting empty, and it’s really great to see somebody taking them over and reusing them,” he said.
BCS Supply storage
The commission also approved a site plan for BCS Supply at 1510 Brookfield Ave. to construct a storage building approximately 3,200 square feet.
Wiese said the building will be used for storing maintenance equipment.
“They are looking at basically a steel type of structure,” he said.