A rendering of a typical Meijer's facade, showing the home and fresh sections along with the drive-through pharmacy.

Glen Carbon planning and zoning commissioners granted the overall preliminary site plan for Meijer and two of its three variance requests but there was definite pushback on one variance regarding signage at a special planning and zoning public hearing Wednesday.

Meijer, based out of Grand Rapids, Michigan, is looking to establish a presence in southern Illinois (the closest Meijers is in Springfield) and the beachhead for that is a location within Orchard Town Center in Glen Carbon. It will be the development's new anchor, after Menard's pullout.

Planning and zoning chairman Bill Davison was absent, so Brenda Roosevelt was named as chairwoman pro tem for this meeting. Six of the nine commissioners attended - Roosevelt, Mary Christine McMahon, Keith Schmidt, Laren Maricle, Jim Poehling and Kyle Kennett.

Allen Shelden, Meijer's real estate director, said the company originated the supercenter concept - having grocery and retail items under the same roof. Founded in 1934 in Greenville, Michigan - today, the grandchildren of founder, Hendrick Meijer, are all involved in the company in some form, he said. Meijer has 260 stores in six states with 75,000 team members. He touted some of the company's charitable efforts, such as each store donating six percent of its net profits to charities and community organizations such as food banks. He said last year, the company donated $3.9 million to food pantries and food banks in the six states where they have a location, which translated to 5.6 million meals to those in need. He said Meijer stores make pre-natal vitamins and select antibiotics are available at no cost.

Keri Williams, a project engineer with GreenbergFarrow out of Arlington Heights, said the company plans to offer more greenspace and open space than Menards since Meijer's footprint is so much smaller. There will be a lot of landscaping and green areas, she added, noting there should be less stormwater runoff due to less impervious surfaces. The landscaping plan is still being reviewed by the village's G.L.E.N. Committee. She said on the north side of the building, there will be a 20-foot-square concrete pad with a picnic table, a bicycle rack and a 10-foot-wide shared-use path that connects to the nearby Madison County Transit Goshen Trail with a second connector to the trail on the site's southern side with another bike rack.

She said Meijer is planning to build a store with a footprint of almost 160,000 square feet (Menard's would have covered 209,000 square feet) and it will comprise 60 percent groceries (the Fresh side) and 40 percent retail (the Home side). Besides the two separate entrances, the store will feature a truck dock on the north side, a drive-through pharmacy and a garden center. However, this location will not feature a gas station and convenience store as some other Meijer locations offer.

The company requested three variances - parking, lighting pole heights and signage. 

Glen Carbon requires 640 required parking spaces for a site this size, with 13 ADA spaces and two bicycle spaces. Meijer submitted a request 543 spaces and 20 ADA spaces. Added to the regular parking space count are six spaces for electric vehicles (EVs) near the merchandise pick-up area (on the Fresh side) and eight merchandise pick-up spaces and two bicycles racks. Another feature will be a bus shelter in a pull-off area for Madison County Transit. Shelden said once the EV infrastructure is available in the area, adding one or two more EV spaces will not be a problem. Building and zoning administrator Stacy Jose, additional stations will be placed later within the rest of Orchard Town Center.

Shelden said this site will employ approximately 300 people and one-third of them would be working any given Saturday at the store. This lead to the next variance request, lighting. The company asked for light poles and concrete bases that total 32.5-feet high, versus the village's 24-foot high requirement. Meijer officials said the higher height translates into fewer overall light poles and less underground wiring.

Signage was the major hurdle during the hearing. The company claims it isn't asking for anything Menards did not ask for and reps Wednesday pointed to neighboring stores and their signs. Unfortunately at least one example used, Schnucks, is in Edwardsville, and Walmart, which was grandfathered in before the current ordinance was enacted. 

The store's main building sign exceeds the allowable square footage by almost 888, the monument sign at Troy Road and Lavelle Drive is 16 feet taller than allowed, has 19 square feet more than permitted and exceeds maximum allowable number of monument signs.

Commissioner Kyle Kennett believes this process was hurried and he is unsure of know why, calling it "a case of having your cake and eating it, too." He said the process allows 21 days for revisions and comments from the commissioners and the developer and it has not been nearly that long.

Kennett was initially most resistant to Meijer's sign changes but he took umbrage at the other variances as well.

"The signage variance is asking for 800 percent of the village allotment of sign space," he said. "Generally speaking, when someone asks for a variance,  my first question is 'what's the hardship that the developer is trying to overcome?'" He thinks they are pushing the parking limits as well, with 100 spaces devoted to employee usage on Saturdays and the only defense being that the company knows best what it needs for the space.

"The light standards are a third taller than our specifications. They're not a foot over; they're 8.5 feet over," he noted. He didn't buy the rationale that a hardship would exist with more light poles that make for a busier setup underground with two-watt wiring on 18 acres.

Tim Lowe, with Staenberg Group, the project's developer, rebutted Kennett's comments, noting first that Glen Carbon's codes are not setup for a project of this size. He cited Walmart, Dierbergs and Schnucks around Orchard Town Center as examples. 

"I think what they're asking for in other communities is very consistent with what the code is," Lowe said. He said as far as lighting pole height, with no residential areas nearby to consider, they go with the higher height for fewer total number of poles and better light distribution.

Kennett said Lowe's comments answered his concerns to a degree but he noted, "This is not our [the village's] first supercenter. Once you get into a variance, you're already operating outside of the code."

He conceded that some changes will need to be made and the upcoming comprehensive plan changes will take some of this into account as well.

"I don't find it compelling when a development says, 'This is our standard sign package; this is what we use.' We've told other developments, 'No, you will do it this way.' He said he denied Menard's similar request and when they questioned why Schnucks has one, Kennett replied Schnucks is in Edwardsville. Walmart's sign was grandfathered in, the sign existed prior to the ordinance being enacted, he noted.

The final votes were: overall preliminary site plan was approved 4-1 except for Kennett, who voted no; the parking variance was approved 5-0; the signage variance failed on a 4-2 vote, with Roosevelt and McMahon voting for it. The lighting variance was unanimously approved. This commission is only a recommending body; village trustees can overrule the commissioners' votes.

Building and Zoning Administrator Stacy Jose said she would need to talk to Mayor Bob Marcus and Village Attorney James Schrempf about how to proceed on the sign variances. Jose told the commission that she originally hoped to be able to present this for a final vote at the board's Sept. 27 meeting but now, she said it will be on the agenda at either the board's Oct. 11 or Oct. 25 meeting. 

Charles Bolinger covers Edwardsville, Glen Carbon, Maryville, Edwardsville Township and the Collinsville School District for The Edwardsville Intelligencer. A graduate of Webster University in St. Louis, he has been writing for the paper since 2018.