By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer

HOWARD – A request from T-Bone Investments to rezone two parcels along Milltown Road from R-5 Rural Estate Residential to B-2 Highway Commercial was approved last month by the Village Board.

The Howard Plan Commission recommended the rezoning a week earlier, when it also backed a site plan for Maplewood Meats to construct a parking lot, drive connection from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s proposed Evergreen Avenue to Milltown Road – a portion of which will be vacated by the DOT and the village – and to reconfigure and expand the primary parking lot located west of Maplewood Meats.

Community Development Director Dave Wiese said the project is intended to stay ahead of the State Highway 29/County VV interchange construction.

“The village is going to have to vacate some right-of-way,” he said. “There’s going to have to be certain improvements going in. Things are going to have to be, obviously, buttoned up.”

Wiese said the project is consistent with the development of the area.

“Their long-term plan was to develop the property,” he said.

Devin Winter of Excel Engineering spoke on behalf of the project last month, when he told the commission the two parcels being rezoned are on the north side of the existing Milltown Road.

“What is happening is the applicant is more or less doing the connection from the proposed, or what is currently being constructed as Evergreen (Avenue), connecting down to what is the existing Milltown Road for a connection to access their existing parking lot,” he said.

Winter said the portion of Milltown Road being vacated will be split among property owners.

“The north side would then be a trailer/truck parking (area), with additional vehicular parking on the north – future expansion on the north for future expansion on the east,” he said. “And then, as part of that as well, would be an expansion of the parking lot on their main facility, which is what they currently have right now, and then addressing grading and stormwater issues as part of the project.”

Village President Burt McIntyre said he is excited for the project.

“I know (Maplewood Meats) have been trying to grow for some time, and you want to get this cork out of the bottle,” he said.