Kwik Trip Plans Laid to Rest in Menomonee Falls

It’s been said there’s a time and a place for all matters under the sun. Unfortunately, for Kwik Trip developers, it was neither the time nor the place for a new convenience store and gas station near Silver Spring and Lilly Road.

Convenience Store Investments proposed rezoning a vacant parcel of land in the High Point Commons shopping center to allow construction of 5,900-square-foot, 24-hour Kwik Trip convenience store and gas station.

The Plan Commission unanimously early in March. The Village Board on Tuesday followed the Plan Commission’s lead and unanimously denied the request, which put to rest plans to build a Kwik Trip on that parcel.

More than 1,000 people signed petitions in opposition to the Kwik Trip proposal in the months prior to the Village Board meeting. A three-fourths majority would have been needed to approve the zoning request.

Village Board members agreed that a convenience store and gas station wasn’t the best use for the land in that spot in the village.

“My concern as a board member has always been, ‘Is this the best use for this particular piece of land?’” Trustee Michael McDonald said. “Once this goes on there it’s going to be there for quite some time, and the ability to knock something down once it is built is very difficult.”

Trustees repeated that their decision was not based on whether Kwik Trip would bring competition to other similar businesses in the area. Rather, there was concern that the new development would block the view of existing merchants in the shopping center and would complicate traffic on Silver Spring Road.

Trustees felt there was a better use for the land, such as a restaurant, which was in the original plans approved by the village in 2005 for the development.

“This just isn’t the right place for a Kwik Trip,” said Trustee Dennis Farrell. “Kwik Trip is a good retailer and I think they belong (in Menomonee Falls), but not there.”

A bitter pill to swallow

The denial of the Kwik Trip project was a bitter pill to swallow for High Point Commons owner Jerry Erdmann. Erdmann said he has struggled to attract a developer to fill the vacant plot eyed by Kwik Trip. Since 2006, he has attempted to lure a variety of developers there without success. The shopping center is at 50 percent occupancy.

“The project is at a critical point,” Erdmann said. “Property values have dropped and we are at a $3 million loss on the (High Point) property. We’re hugely underwater.”

During the public hearing Tuesday, Erdmann told the Village Board he wasn’t given a fair chance to give the proposal before the Plan Commission. He accused McDonald of searching for a way to deny the request before hearing the proposal in March.

“Plan Commissioner McDonald indicated that he and Mr. Newman had already talked with the village attorney before the meeting even took place, and had strategized on how they wanted to turn this project down,” Erdmann said.

Erdmann also made a point to mention that there are a lot vacant properties all over the village.

“Just driving up Appleton Avenue here up to the high school and back I’ve counted over 50,000 square feet of vacant space,” Erdmann said. “There’s a lot of other vacant space in Menomonee Falls.”

Trustee Stephen Raymonds took Erdmann’s later comments as an affront to the village.

“It’s a tough economy and vacancies are not something that Menomonee Falls has by itself," Raymonds said. "It’s something that is shared by everyone around the country.”

McDonald also addressed Erdmann’s accusation that he had a predetermined destination for the Kwik Trip project. He affirmed that his decision to vote against the project was based solely on the best interests of the village.

“It has nothing to with the petitioner, it has nothing to do with competition, it has nothing to do with any kind of a coercive thing that you are trying to make people believe I was involved in prior to this meeting going on,” McDonald said. “In my 20 years on the Village Board and the Plan Commission, we’ve had the foresight necessary to make Menomonee Falls a vibrant place.”