Amended Wal-Mart plan OK’d Abutting Brewer property owner to provide road easement

BREWER – After a potential last-minute kink was resolved, the planning board unanimously approved an amended site plan Monday for a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter.

The problem, which could have delayed the project, was averted after representatives from Wal-Mart, the city and Wilson Street property owner Deborah Darling agreed to a solution suggested by Andrew Hamilton, a Bangor attorney representing Darling.

The issue involved the entrance road from Wilson Street into the Wal-Mart property. The transfer of a portion of Darling’s land to Wal-Mart for the road would have created a nonconforming lot for Darling because her property would not have had met the city’s minimum frontage requirement.

After discussing the issue at length before and during Monday’s planning board meeting, the parties involved came up with a mutually acceptable solution. Darling will provide Wal-Mart an easement for the road, which will enable her to retain her frontage until Wal-Mart has constructed the road to city standards. Once the city has deemed the road acceptable, it will accept it as a public way. That will provide Darling, whose land abuts the proposed road, the additional frontage needed to comply with the city’s requirements. Wal-Mart will assume maintenance responsibility and liability associated with the road.

In other discussion, project manager William Bloemen of Sain Associates, the Bangor firm managing the project, outlined proposed changes to the site plan approved last summer for the proposed 158,400-square-foot Supercenter. The changes were aimed at reducing impact on wetlands and improving parking, drainage and storm water management on the site.

Michael Waugh of Surry Engineering Associates, the firm handling the application’s traffic study, said that the company’s decision to eliminate plans to use two “out lots” would result in a 30 percent drop in the new traffic the store is expected to generate on Wilson Street. Wal-Mart typically locates gasoline stations and fast-food restaurants on such lots.

Drew Sachs, the city’s economic development director, earlier estimated that the $10 million to $12 million Supercenter will generate between $250,000 and $300,000 in new property tax revenue once it is completed. The impact fee the city will assess for project-related infrastructure improvements has been set at $227,357, according to documents associated with the project.

Wal-Mart officials say the store will employ about 300 people, about 70 percent of them full-time. The store will be open 24 hours a day.

Bloemen said the company has been issued the necessary environmental permits. It expects to have its traffic movement permit in hand by June.

Off-site improvements planned as part of the Wal-Mart project include the widening of a section of Wilson Street to five lanes from the current four and the installation of traffic signal and master control. The company also will build sidewalks along its portion of the street-widening project.

Bloemen said construction is expected to start this summer. A corporate spokesman said earlier that if all goes according to plan, the store would open early next year.