Warsaw is one step closer to getting a Walgreens Drug Store after Monday's Board of Zoning Appeals and Plan Commission meetings.

The BZA granted Preferred Development, the company designing the Walgreens, a use variance to build a retail business in a mostly residential area.

The 14,560-square-foot store is planned for the block between Center Street, Argonne Road and Market and Roosevelt streets. An abandoned nursing home sits on the northwest corner of the block.

The BZA's approval was based in part on a report by Ken Herceg and Associates to change the Parker Street-Center Street-Argonne Road intersection. Herceg recommended Walgreens cede an area that measures approximately 60 feet on Center Street and 100 feet on Argonne Road. That area would be necessary for city use when the intersection is reconfigured.

In response to concerns of several remonstrators, Steve Snyder, attorney for the developer, assured the BZA that the proposed landscaping and buffers would protect surrounding residences on Market and Roosevelt streets. BZA members were concerned about the traffic patterns, which city planner Jeff Noffsinger said would be handled by the Plan Commission.

Walgreens proposes three cuts for driveways, two on Roosevelt Street and one on Argonne Road. No cuts would be made off Center and Market streets.

The final BZA resolution, to allow a use variance for a commercial development in a residential area, made by Dan Hampton, was subject to approval of the traffic pattern, signage, lighting, buffers, right of way donation, parking and curbs by the Plan Commission. The resolution was approved by four BZA members and opposed by Alan Clingan.

The Plan Commission meeting, which immediately followed the BZA meeting, also dealt with the Walgreens issue, or, more specifically, the site plan for the store.

Again, traffic and safety were the main concerns of the board.

Plans indicate delivery trucks would enter the property via Roosevelt Street, turning east into the parking lot, then leaving by the exit on Argonne Road, Snyder said. The loading area will be confined to the south side, where the buffering will be the most dense.

Commission members worried about large trucks making left-hand turns onto Argonne, and Noffsinger suggested the Argonne Road cut be made "right-in, right-out" only, meaning drivers could only turn right on leaving the parking lot, and could only turn right off Argonne into the parking lot.

However, Snyder said, if the drive is made right-in, right-out only, "it won't work, Walgreens will fold."

Commission chairman Joe Thallemer suggested they wait another month to get advice from the city's traffic commission. Snyder requested a decision Monday because the issue already had been delayed at least one month.

"Tell us what you want us to do and we'll do it," Snyder said.

"We don't have the expertise to do that," Thallemer said.

"You have to," Snyder said.

"Then we'll just delay it for another month, then another month, then another month," Thallemer said.

"The courts won't let you do that," Snyder said, stressing that the commission's job was to approve the site plan or recommend changes to it.

Thallemer polled commission members as to their concerns about the traffic safety, and Jim Gast, Dewey Lawshe, Lacy Francis and Alan Clingan said their concerns had been satisfied.

The site plan was preliminarily approved subject to moving the Argonne Road exit one lane to the north, with Jeff Grose and Clingan voting against the approval. [[In-content Ad]]