Frenchtown, MI. Still Time to Fight

Frenchtown Wal-Mart plans pushed back [Monroe News (Mich.)]

Construction of a planned Wal-Mart Superstore in Frenchtown Township across the street from an existing store on N. Telegraph Rd. may still be months away, local authorities say.

First, several buildings need to be demolished on the site and approval from the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is needed on a plan to widen Telegraph.

“They pretty much have everything taken care of” with the township, Supervisor James McDevitt said about Wal-Mart’s plans. “They still have to get their demolition permits, though.”

Wal-Mart bought about 35 acres off N. Telegraph north of Mall Rd. and east of the state highway to build a superstore. The township board approved rezoning the land to commercial in January and the planning commission okayed a final site plan in June. The giant retailer must first tear down the old Wickes Lumber Co. and Foster Trucking facility plus several abandoned homes on the site before doing anything, Mr. McDevitt said.

Wal-Mart also must remove a railroad spur from the CSX Railway that leads into the Wickes property. The spur is not being used and has no benefit to the store. The railroad company generally does that on request of the developer, he said.

The five acres were needed to align the 219,244-square-foot store with a proposed road entrance to the store from the north.

Annette Hopper, township zoning administrator, said the retailer had not requested any demolition permits as of Thursday. She referred further media inquiries about the store to Damon Garrett, project manager for Wal-Mart who works for Atwell Hicks, an architectural design company in Ann Arbor. He did not return calls to The Evening News. However, Nick Infante, senior public relations manager for Wal-Mart’s Michigan operations, confirmed Friday that Wal-Mart is hoping to start work in “mid summer.” He said the firm is still awaiting for some approvals from MDOT.

At one time, a ground breaking was hoped for in 2007.

Mr. McDevitt said Wal-Mart might not break ground until April because of the demolitions and work to add a deceleration lane along Telegraph.

Barry Buschmann, the township engineer, said Wal-Mart might not start construction until later.

“They first said Feb. 15, but that’s idealistic and awfully aggressive,” Mr. Buschmann said. “Nothing is cast in stone at this point. I think April is more realistic, (but) it could be early June if they don’t get all the permits and the minor issues resolved.”

Telegraph will be widened to five lanes between the existing Mall Rd. and the planned Mall Rd. extension to the north near Lowe’s, Mr. Buschmann said. There will be two lanes northbound and two lanes southbound with a center left turn lane in between.

“Unfortunately, we’ll still have the bottleneck south of Mall Rd.,” he said.

MDOT plans to add a signal light on Telegraph at the north Mall Rd. intersection. The signal would be about 1,500 feet north of an existing signal at the south end where Applebee’s is located.

The north entrance to the store would line up with the Mall Rd. extension. Another entrance would be built near the Wickes’ site.

Mr. McDevitt said the giant retailer has a “lot of money” already invested in the site.

“I’m fairly confident they will build” there, he said. “It’s going to be a great facility and create jobs and tax base.”

Wal-Mart already has a general merchandising store with 124,631 square feet of space just south of the proposed new store. A supercenter offers the same merchandise, but also would include a full-line of groceries, including meat, deli and bakery departments.

Asked about concerns about too much traffic congestion in the area, the supervisor said that might move up MDOT’s plan to widen Telegraph in 2010-11.

“The more congested the area, the more you can get MDOT to look sooner at” the widening, he said.

As part of its site plan, Wal-Mart agreed to add more parking spaces to meet a local ordinance requiring parking for six cars for each square foot of usable space. There will be enough parking to accommodate about 1,245 cars rather than the 1,127 spaces proposed earlier by the retailer.