Sturgeon Bay’s Second Kwik Trip Conditionally Approved

This drawing depicts what a Kwik Trip convenience store would look like on Sturgeon Bay’s west side. Submitted.

With the new Kwik Trip development completed this year on the city’s east side, plans for a second store near the intersection of Highway 42/57 and Duluth Avenue (County S) on Sturgeon Bay’s west side received conditional approval Monday from the city’s Aesthetic Design and Site Plan Review Board.

The board’s motion approved the project’s building and site design, but it included a condition that the entrance/exit along Highway 42/57 would need to come back before the board if the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (DOT) required a change to that driveway or a raised median on the highway in that area.

The project as designed includes three entrances/exits, with the other two also having two-way traffic located along Duluth Avenue.

Board member Pam Jorns, who expressed concerns about the impact that a new Kwik Trip could have on the amount of traffic on County S – particularly if access to the entrance/exit on Highway 42/57 was restricted with the construction of a raised median – voted in opposition.

Community development director Marty Olejniczak said the Kwik Trip planned on the west side would be similar to the one that opened this fall on Egg Harbor Road.

Olejniczak said a roughly 11,000-square-foot convenience store/car wash with diesel and gas-pump canopies would be built on the approximately 20.7-acre, two-parcel site. Existing buildings would be demolished.

“They don’t need anywhere near that much land for this development, so at some point, the excess land may be parceled off and sold for additional development,” he said. “That remains to be seen.”

Olejniczak said the building would face Highway 42/57 to the north, even though it would be located behind the Quality Inn, Verlo Mattress and the three-unit commercial building that’s now under construction for a Starbucks, AT&T retail store and Door County Medical Center clinic where Woldt’s Corner Pub was torn down.

“The driveways to Duluth Avenue are wider than what we would normally allow, but with semi traffic and stuff, the city engineer has the authority to approve that type of access,” he said.

Olejniczak said the DOT informed city staff last week that it’s likely a raised median would be required along Highway 42/57 for Kwik Trip access. There is currently a left-turn lane in the median.

“That potentially would impact not only Kwik Trip, but also other properties along there,” he said. “DOT is still investigating this. We don’t expect a final answer on that until maybe January.”

After Jorns asked how the board could approve the project plans if it doesn’t know what the DOT wants to do, Olejniczak suggested giving conditional approval related to the driveway.

Kwik Trip’s director of real estate, Troy Mleziva, asked that the board allow the company to keep the project moving forward.

“Our plan would be to bid the project over the winter to get the contractors lined up for construction coming here in spring and summer,” he said.