The concept plan for a storage facility to be built by Menard’s south of its store on State Road 135 in Greenwood. The updated plans highlight commitments imposed by the city for masonry, shrubs and other landscaping.
Provided by City of Greenwood
Menards is expanding in Greenwood, adding a new self-storage facility adjacent to its westside location.
Representatives of Menards, 300 S. Marlin Drive, came before the Greenwood Board of Zoning Appeals Monday to ask for a use variance to allow them to operate an outdoor storage facility. Menards Self-Storage would be located on vacant land west of Menards’ lumber yard and south of the main store.
Over the last few years, Menards has been undergoing a massive expansion nationwide. As part of the expansion plans, they’ve been adding self-storage facilities next to their stores. There are currently half a dozen facilities operating, with another half a dozen coming online in the next few months, said Nick Brenner, a Menards real estate representative.
Now they’re planning to add Greenwood to the list by investing $3 to 4 million to construct a self-storage facility.
The facility would operate similarly to Menards’ outdoor lumber yards, with store employees and management in charge. It would also be fully secured and monitored by security cameras. To gain access to the facility, people will have to go through a guard gate similar to what exists at the store, and use a code to access their units, Brenner said.
“Only people with current units have a code,” he said. “So as soon as you get rid of your unit, your code deactivates and you can’t access the facility.”
Additionally, access to the facility will only be available during store hours, he said.
Low traffic use is expected for the facility, along with hardly any light pollution, Brenner said.
“It’s actually a good buffer between the more high-intense commercial use of the store and the out-lots to the east, to the residential units to the west,” Brenner said.
Menards will also build a frontage road on the east of the facility. After the road is built, a two-acre lot to the east of the road would be ready to develop for commercial purposes, he said.
The use variance is needed because outdoor storage facilities are not allowed under the land’s current zoning, commercial large. The facility would be classified as an outdoor facility under city code, however, Menards representatives say the site will be 100% screened and that the storage use would not be visible from outside the facility, according to city documents.
Brenner also discussed some of the difficulties Menards has had with the city regarding the project.
The company first approached city planning staff to discuss the expansion in February 2022 and was told it would be allowed under the land’s current zoning, Brenner said.
However, six months later, and after spending “thousands of dollars” designing the facility, they were told it was no longer a permitted use. Brenner said there was a change in the city’s planning staff, and their interpretation of the code changed.
At the time, city staff was still in support of the project, Brenner said. However, earlier this year city staff told Menards they no longer supported the project, he said.
“In the course of one year, we have gone from a permitted use to a use variance with staff support to a use variance with staff report conditions to a use variance with no staff support,” Brenner said.
Planning director Gabe Nelson later addressed Brenner’s comments, saying the changes in staff support resulted from a different interpretation of the city’s definitions of indoor and outdoor storage facilities. Menards’ proposal was closer to the outdoor storage facility definition, he said.
Under the city’s definitions, an indoor facility does not allow access to the units from the outside. However, facilities containing individual, self-contained units that are accessible from the outside are considered outside storage facilities, Nelson said.
“Previously, they were under the impression that this was an allowable use because of possibly a wall around the storage units,” he said. “I felt that it was still accessing them from the outside, each unit was still being accessed from the outside, and that it did not fit that (indoor) definition.”
Nelson said he understood Brenner’s frustration with the situation. City staff ultimately decided to pull their support for the variance because they felt the property did not have a particular hardship or reason why it couldn’t be successful commercially, he said.
Brenner said the land, which is owned by Menards, has been for sale since they built the original store 20 years ago.
“It’s been on the market for 20 years,” Brenner said. “We have sold some of the lots, however, since then but this one has never really gained the attention.”
The BZA ultimately voted unanimously to approve the variance, with conditions. Menards will be required to add masonry walls and plant trees, shrubs and other landscaping around the development, officials said.
Menards will likely have to return to the BZA to get dimensional variances due to the design of the building not meeting the city’s standards, Nelson said. Brenner said the store has communicated with the city about this already, and may not have to come back to request variances.
