Meijer begins filing site plans for new store

City boards consider variances, design

A year after buying a site for a new shopping center, Meijer Stores LP has site plans for its new location in Lorain.

A year after buying a site for a new shopping center, Meijer Stores LP has site plans for its new location at 5350 Leavitt Road in Lorain.

The company has two variance requests submitted for review by the Lorain Zoning Board of Appeals on July 3.

Meanwhile, the Lorain Design Review Board will consider the store’s exterior plans July 10.

The store is planned for the former Super K store.

A construction schedule was not included in the documents on file at Lorain’s Department of Building, Housing and Planning.

The Lorain store is slated to open in 2020, according to the company.

It will be a super center with an estimated 250 employees, fresh produce, full service bakery and meat departments and a variety of goods for sale.

The variances are not uncommon for a project the size of Meijer, said Lorain Chief Building Official Richard Klinar.

Meijer representative Lanie Weiss of Woolpert Inc. is requesting a variance for the allowable number of signs and building wall signage for the building.

The store wants six identifying signs totaling 722.9 square feet of wall signage on the front of the building; the maximum allowable size is 600 square feet.

Due to the distance between the store and the road, the proposed signage would identify Meijer and guide customers to the area for services they are seeking, according to the variance request letter.

“We believe this is an appropriate compromise as it is similar to what the Kmart that was previously on the development while maintaining the purpose of the building signage by identifying the business and directing customers to the appropriate entrances,” the variance letter said.

The previous Super K had several signs totaling more than the allowable 300 square feet for the front of its building, according to Meijer’s variance letter.

Meijer is seeking to place 505 parking spaces in front of the building and about six 12-by-40-foot loading spaces at the truck loading docks.

Required parking would be 607 spaces for the 159,264-square-foot building; the previous Super K had 1,490 spaces at the front and sides of the building and 12-foot wide loading spaces.

The Meijer building would be the size of the Super K, but fewer parking spaces would allow easy access to appropriate entrances.

There also would be green space in the development area and ample room for future development of the site and outlots, according to the variance request letter.

Meijer bought the Lorain site in June 2017. The company is building a store in Avon this summer.

The Lorain Zoning Board of Appeals is scheduled to meet at 9 a.m., July 3, in the first floor Council Chamber at Lorain City Hall, 200 W. Erie Ave. The city Planning Commission meeting follows immediately after.

The meetings are open to the public.