Commission says no to Culver’s, car wash plans

The Village of Grafton Plan Commission did not approve a site plan and conditional use permit for a new Culver’s restaurant on Wisconsin Avenue after a public hearing Tuesday despite staff recommendations to approve them. 

The commission also tabled action on a Tommy’s Express car wash site plan and conditional use permit votes, which would also be located on the three-acre property south of Goodwill and east of Blain’s Farm & Fleet.

The new Culver’s would replace the current restaurant just half a mile south on Wisconsin Ave. and use the existing Goodwill entrance. On the north side of the property, the Tommy’s car wash would include an outlet into the existing Farm & Fleet parking lot.

Plan Commission members and residents alike raised concerns about how the development would affect traffic on Wisconsin Avenue. 

“It is already a very busy area, especially due to the median turn lane causing issues of getting to the NAPA or Ace parking lot already,” commissioner member Kevin Curtis said. “It is a concern of mine that we are not doing any sort of traffic management in this area.”

Site plans for both businesses also raised concerns. 

The Culver’s plan calls for 62 parking spaces, just more than three times the number permitted by local ordinance for the 4,810 square foot building. Those at Tuesday’s meeting worried it would be difficult for customers and emergency vehicles to navigate sharp turns and narrow passages in the parking lot. 

“I know (the truck path diagram) shows basically the bare minimum of how to fit a truck in there, but when there’s actually an emergency, I don’t think firefighters will have the time to drive slowly and carefully around these tight corners to make sure they don’t hit anything or damage anything,” Grafton resident Trent Dowling said.

Commission member Mark Paschke took issue with the high retaining walls on the pedestrian-facing sides of each business. Culver’s would be built on top of a 6-foot-tall retaining wall while the double wall by Tommy’s would reach 10 feet, which development planners say are necessary to transform the parcel into “two flat pads.”

Although both walls would be screened by trees, Paschke said the architecture is “in your face.”

“I don’t think people understand the three dimensional aspect of this site when you look at the plan here, because you have a 10-foot raised plinth … you’d be looking at the car wash acropolis sitting on top of that plane,” Paschke said.

Village President Dan Delorit, who is chairman of the Plan Commission, said the property will be difficult to develop regardless of what businesses are built on the site. He voted to approve the conditional use permit for Culver’s and said he did not see major issues with the car wash plans, which were discussed but not voted on.

“It’s a tough piece of property to work on, and I’m not sure there is a great answer for what specific businesses should go there,” Delorit said.

Devin Ahlers, the owner of the property, asked the commission how traffic concerns on Wisconsin Avenue should be addressed since it seems like that is a major impediment to developing the property.

“I guess I’m just trying to understand, how do we solve that if (traffic) is a deal breaker for some of this stuff?” Ahlers said.