Muskego panel delays action on Wal-Mart

Muskego panel delays action on Wal-Mart [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Wisc.)]

Plan commissioners delayed action on a site plan for a Wal-Mart Supercenter near Moorland Road and College Ave. after raising concerns about sound, the design and landscaping.

Wal-Mart is proposing to build a 156,400-square-foot retail building on a site off Moorland Road across the street from a future GE Healthcare distribution center.

The proposed Supercenter would operate 24 hours a day and bring 320 jobs to the area, said Deborah Tomczyk, an attorney representing Wal-Mart.

The building would feature a new design, said Richard Hayes, director of architecture for pb2 Architecture & Engineering of Chicago. The building’s three entrances would be enclosed in glass and stretch about 30 feet high. Canopies would cover sidewalks and public areas.

But plan commissioners expressed concerns that the building needed additional refinement. Commissioner Noah Fiedler said noise from the building could be a problem along the property’s south side.

Fiedler said he wanted additional landscaping added to the property. He also asked that the building façade be changed so the three entrances would be higher than the roofline to add interest to the design.

Fiedler also asked that the company reconsider the design of light poles for the parking lot, which he said clashed with the building’s more upscale look.

Tomczyk said Wal-Mart would be willing to work with the city on those concerns.

Deliberating before a room full of residents, many of whom wore yellow “Not in our Neighborhood” stickers, plan commissioners said they also wanted to wait to allow time for a public hearing on the proposal.

Speaking from the audience, Ald. Tracy Sneed requested that a notice of the hearing be sent citywide. The plan commission could take up the proposal again at its June 3 meeting.

Major green features of the building would include a white roof to reflect energy and a daylight harvesting system that would use skylights to light the store, Hayes said.

But Wal-Mart doesn’t have plans to pursue the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification system, Hayes said after the meeting. The system is an independent third-party verification that a building is environmentally friendly. It is also more rigorous than most building codes.

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Wednesday, May 07, 2008

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