Brewer board OKs Supercenter 155,000-square-foot Wal-Mart would employ about 300 people

BREWER – A proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter cleared a major hurdle Monday night when members of the Planning Board gave the proposal a unanimous thumbs up.

After a lengthy public hearing in which Wal-Mart officials and consultants addressed store design, parking, traffic and other issues related to the project, the board approved the company’s site plan.

The only remaining hurdles for Wal-Mart’s 155,083-square-foot Brewer store, to be located on a 23-acre parcel on outer Wilson Street, are permits from the state transportation and environmental protection departments, Economic Development Director Drew Sachs said after the three-hour meeting. Applications for both permits have been filed and are pending.

According to Wal-Mart representative Margaret Bowles, Supercenters typically carry a full-service grocery department that generally includes produce, meat, dairy, frozen food, bakery and deli sections, along with the usual general merchandise departments. The store planned for Brewer, she said, will employ about 300 people, about 70 percent of those positions full-time. Plans are to have the store open 24 hours a day.

Among the notable project aspects discussed Monday is that the Brewer store will be among the first to use the so-called “New England design.” Wal-Mart traditionally has used a gray, red and blue color scheme. The prototype, developed at the behest of Brewer City Planner Tom Kurth, calls for an earth-toned exterior in shades of tan with dark green accents. Keeping with the New England theme, dormers and gables will be used at the one-story building’s primary entrances.

Kurth has been on medical leave since late May. His day-to-day duties, including those pertaining to the Wal-Mart project, are currently being handled by Linda Johns, a land surveyor from Clifton, and Stephen Condon, economic development director and code enforcement officer for the adjacent community of Holden.

In a related development, the company is working on plans for two “out lots” with frontage on Wilson Street. Though plans for those parcels have not been firmed up, Wal-Mart typically locates gasoline stations and fast-food restaurants on such lots.

Wal-Mart is among several development projects expected to increase traffic on busy Wilson Street, where a 72-acre Eastern Maine Healthcare park and Eremita and Valley’s proposed restaurant and hotel are currently in the works. Those projects were considered in the traffic analysis required by state transportation officials, according to traffic consultant Michael Waugh, president of the Surrey Institute. He said a proposed parallel access road the city plans to build between Wilson Street and Interstate 395 to ease traffic congestion could not be factored in.

During his presentation, he said that a lighted intersection and five traveling lanes, two each for north- and south-bound traffic and a center turning lane, are among the improvements expected to occur on Wilson Street. On Saturdays, expected to be Wal-Mart’s busiest day, an estimated 1,160 trips will be made to the store. On weekdays, the peak was projected at 960 trips.

According to Sachs, the $10 million to $12 million Supercenter will generate between $250,000 and $300,000 in new property tax revenue after it is completed in the next year to year and a half. The project also is among the first that will be subject to the impact fee city councilors recently adopted. The formula by which the fee will be assessed is still being developed. However, Sachs said the sum is aimed at having developers whose projects require new or enhanced city services and infrastructure to pay a share of the related costs.

The Brewer store is one of three proposed for the region, with others proposed for Bangor and Ellsworth.

In other business Monday, the planning board approved a contract zone change requested by Woodlands Inc., which proposes to build a residential care facility and a Alzheimer’s unit on a roughly 5-acre site at the end of Taylor Drive. The decision to change the zoning there from medium-density to high-density residential followed a joint public hearing with city councilors.

Lon Walters, president of Woodlands Inc., last summer announced plans to construct Woodlands, a 22,000-square-foot residential care facility, and a 15,000-square-foot Alzheimer’s unit to be named “Evergreen.” The facilities’ combined estimated value would be $5 million.

Though the project had no opposition, an Eastern Avenue man expressed concern about whether the Water District had the necessary capacity to serve the project. He said water pressure in that part of Brewer has been low.

The facilities will be located across from the Ellen M. Leach Memorial Home, located off Chamberlain Street, and just beyond the Brewer Housing Authority.

The Leach Home, located at 1 Colonial Circle, serves a relatively elderly independent population, while the Woodlands will provide a higher level of care, including case management, the administration of needed medications, nursing care and three meals a day.

The Leach Home also was the subject of action during the meeting. The planning board approved a site plan amendment for a proposed 8,500-square-foot addition that will add 30 more housing units, a solarium, a new patio and 17 covered parking spaces at the Brewer facility.