While it was a long road to get a final approval, a Meijer supercenter is officially coming into the city of Waukesha.
The city’s Common Council approved the final site plan and architectural planned unit development Tuesday night of a 192,000-square-foot store and 2,500-square-foot gas station.
Aldermen Steve Johnson, Eric Payne and Kathleen Cummings voted against the project.
The Plan Commission signed off on the food, clothing and home merchandising store, which would be located at the corner of Tenny Avenue and E. Sunset Drive, at its meeting last week.
The store will be open 24 hours a day.
The process for Meijer to build at that site started more than a year ago, and it was met with backlash from neighbors who said they did not want a big-box store impeding into a residential area. As a result, many neighbors filed a protest petition with the city.
The neighbors, as well as Johnson, also previously requested that the gas station be removed from the plans.
However, city officials approved the project each step of the way last summer.
First, the Common Council approved of a land use change for the property from residential to commercial and then rezoned the site to a Community Business Planned Unit Development, approvals needed for the project to keep moving forward.
A year later, after details for a related road project on Sunset Drive were finalized and Meijer officials worked with city staff further, the project was finally brought back before the council this week.
City Planner Jennifer Andrews said preliminary site work could begin this fall, but a majority of the construction will begin next spring.
Brian Randall, Meijer’s attorney, said it takes about a year to build a Meijer store. Andrews said she expects the store to open mid-2016.
Waukesha’s Meijer supercenter will be the latest for the Grand Rapids, Mich.,-based store in Wisconsin.
Randall said construction has started for Meijer stores in Wauwatosa, Sussex, Oak Creek, Grafton and Kenosha. Stores are also being planned in Greenfield and Janesville.
Meijer has more than 200 supercenters in Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois.
Poll: Are you excited about this new supercenter coming into the city of Waukesha?