By Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


The Kroger store in Hamburg Township will be expanding.

The Board of Trustees met Tuesday afternoon and approved plans for the expansion of the existing store in the Chilson Commons Shopping Center.

Planning and Zoning Administrator Chris Madigan said the building is just over 60,000-square-feet and the expansion will be just shy of 30,000-additional feet. The store will remain open during construction and Madigan said there will be 148 proposed new parking spaces and the expansion will require will relocation of the stormwater basin further to the southeast portion of the site. The applicant has also proposed taking some of the leftover dirt from the project and bringing it over to another lot to the west of the existing gas station.

Madigan told the board that at the August 18th meeting, the Planning Commission recommended approval with a number of conditions related to lighting; receiving all required state, county and local permits; and making sure tree clearing takes place at the right time. He said the Commission also attached a condition that when the dirt is moved, because trees have to be cleared, that the applicant work with staff to provide a tree survey and work with staff to identify trees the township wishers to remain in place.

The applicant requested approval of a 49.5-square-foot sign on the east entrance – which is the sign with Kroger and urgent care under it. The Planning Commission approved the waiver for that expansion so no action was required from the township board. The applicant will further be required to install a bike rack in front of the store.

Madigan noted their staff engineer also had some outstanding items but felt they could be finalized following board approval. One was that the faux roundabout at the intersection at the west end of the development be changed to more adequately address the stresses and demands around it. The PC supported having the applicant work with the township engineer to find an adequate solution.

Bill Watch with Chilson Commons stated that over the years, a number of different solutions have been looked at and they’ll work with the engineer to address the problem. He added that they would like to have the expansion complete and the new store open by the end of 2022, but acknowledged that’s pretty aggressive.

The board approved final site plans with the recommended conditions from the Commission and staff, which included the soil stabilization and traffic circle requirements before the final land use permit would be granted.