An unidentified restaurant may move into one of the outlots by Meijer, but first the developer was hoping the one-way road off Anchorage Road to Meijer could be changed to a two-way.
The Warsaw Traffic Commission at its meeting Wednesday approved the request part way.
City Planner Jeremy Skinner told the commission, “We have an applicant that is requesting to extend the two-way lanes, coming off Anchorage Road one way, and it’s one way all the way to the Meijer site. Their request is to make that two-way go back so that Outlot C has two-way access coming off of the Meijer Drive. It would still be a one-way in at Anchorage Road.”
GreenbergFarrow is the architect/engineering firm involved in the design of the outlot and building.
Skinner said the commission looked at the possibility a few years ago and they discussed what would happen to Outlot C but because nothing was developed on it yet, it was just let go until such time as someone came in with a building request.
“My conversation with them is … I don’t have an issue giving them two-way access off Meijer Lane, but my question is where do you draw the line and how far do you go in, how much is left one-way?” Skinner reported.
While the developer wants a two-way street all the way to the proposed restaurant’s second entrance near Anchorage Road, Skinner said didn’t know if he was in favor of doing that.
“I would much rather keep it further back toward the Meijer development,” he said. “You’d be more tempted to sneak out the one-way if it was that close.”
“And there are cars that do that now,” City Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins stated.
Skinner said in his discussions with Greenberg Farrow, “I’d be in favor of drawing a line somewhere around where that first entrance (is proposed), and then the rest of it would still be one-way.”
In explaining it further, he said diners could come to the restaurant from Anchorage Road or Meijer Lane, but could only leave toward U.S. 30 on Meijer Lane.
“I don’t think it changes their traffic pattern at all if it’s one-way all the way to here (between the restaurant’s two enter/exits),” City Engineer James Emans said.
The proposed restaurant would be on the north side of Meijer Lane. There is proposed overflow parking on the south side of Meijer Lane. Emans said if a motorist couldn’t find parking near the restaurant, the traffic pattern would still allow the driver to get to the overflow parking spaces.
Mayor Joe Thallemer said based on the drawing, he assumed there was no drive-thru option the developer would want a specific traffic pattern for, and Skinner said they hadn’t requested a drive-thru.
Skinner said he figured he’d eventually get more feedback, but wasn’t sure how far along in the process the developer was on the proposed restaurant.
“Initially, they’re probably just trying to figure out what they can and can not have, and that may make the decision of where they locate,” he said.
Thallemer said the proposed plan is to have 157 parking spaces where only 129 are required.
“The developer would be responsible to widen Meijer Lane?” Traffic Commission Administrator and Warsaw Police Department Captain Kip Shuter asked.
Since Meijer Lane is private, Skinner said that would be between Meijer and the developer to figure that out. “Obviously, our concern is the sidewalk stays,” he stated.
If restaurant officials don’t see the approval of both egresses and ingresses, Skinner said he doesn’t know what they will do.
“We give it up to the first exit, somewhere in that range, and after that it stays a one-way,” he said.
Dobbins made a motion to approve the ingress and egress route as proposed by Skinner, and her motion was unanimously approved.
In other business, the Traffic Commission:
• Voted unanimously to leave parking “as is” on the southwest corner of Market and Lake streets and to remove the unused handicapped parking space.
If needed, the city will look to see if a handicapped parking space could be placed somewhere else downtown in a better place.
Shuter reported at the January meeting that he was contacted by MutualBank Branch Manager Stephanie Salyer about the difficulty of patrons and staff unable to see traffic as they pull out of the parking lot onto Lake Street due to the angled parking on the west side of Lake Street.
During the January and Wednesday’s meeting, the commission discussed options available, including removal of another parking space or changing parking from angle to parallel parking.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Shuter told the commission he will make contact with the bank and let them know that no changes will be made to the parking but that the handicapped parking space will be removed.
• Tabled a suggestion to open up the angled parking on the north side of Market Street west on Lake Street to unlimited parking from two-hour parking since 1st Source Bank moved out of its former location at the corner of Lake and Market streets.
