The owner of Main Street Plaza in Imperial will have to improve the parking lot before three out-lots may be sold to new businesses.
Jefferson County Planning and Zoning Commission members voted 4-2 on Dec. 14 to deny a request for a variance from No. 8 LLC of St. Louis County for the shopping center on the northwest corner of I-55 and Main Street in Imperial.
The plaza includes Frankie Gianino’s Bar and Grill, a Subway Sandwich shop, China Wok, Gershman Mortgage and Island Nails Spa.
The variance No. 8 LLC sought would have allowed the company to keep the pavement at the two entrances along Main Street near the out-lots at the same thickness.
In her staff report, county planner Rachel Krispin noted that the shopping center was developed in 2003 and 2004 as a single lot, and the pavement thickness of the traffic lanes through the center met the standards in effect at that time. However, No. 8 LLC wants to sell off the three out-lots along Main Street and subdivide the 14.23-acre shopping center, which requires the owner to meet current standards.
“By subdividing it, it changes the nature of the roads into a different category of road than what they were when it was just a big parking lot,” said Dennis Kehm Jr., deputy county services director.
The county planning staff recommends a 3-inch asphalt overlay at the entrances to meet current codes.
However, Carol Onest, an engineer with Govero Land Services in Imperial, who represented No. 8 LLC at the Dec. 14 at the meeting, asked planning commissioners not to make the owner fix something that’s not broken.
“This pavement at this site, it’s been there 20 years. It’s been providing a safe and efficient access route to the development for anybody who wants to go there. I work close, so I’m there frequently. I go to some of the restaurants in that strip mall, but as long as I’ve been going there, those three out-lots in front have been vacant. They’re just waiting for development. It’s time to get those lots to a point where they meet the current business trends and let them be sold as individual lots.
“When you look at what’s changed in 20 years, yeah, the pavement design has changed in 20 years, but have our expectations of how pavement functions changed in 20 years? No, I don’t think so,” she said.
Onest said granting the variance would “allow the owner to provide proper pavement management to provide a safe and efficient movement of goods to the current and future business owners, and that will also improve the county’s tax base.”
The planning staff’s report advised against granting the variance.
“It appears the request is based solely on the applicant’s desire to avoid the cost of the overlay,” the report said.
No resident spoke for or against the variance application.
Planning commissioners Mike Huskey, Danny Tuggle, Johnathan Sparks and Jeffrey Spraul voted to deny the variance, while Jessie Scherrer and Larry Adkins voted no.