Building on village square to be demolished
By Tracy Ouellette
Editor
The pretty yellow building with the pink and white striped awning on the East Troy village square will be demolished in the coming months and (hopefully) rebuilt.
Jim Rohrer, of Kinovie LLC, which owns the building, said the structure is unsafe to be renovated and had to come down. The company came before the village Plan Commission Aug. 10 to request permission to demo the building and with plans to rebuild on the same footprint.
The new building plans are for a three-story building with the same color scheme and awning to replace what will be torn down. The upper two floors of the building will be apartments, Rohrer said, and the street front space will be for business use.
There are some caveats to the plan, however. Because of the 1.4 feet of right of way owned by Walworth County on all the properties on the square, the village wasn’t able to give Kinove the go ahead for the new construction until the county approves it. It is hoped by village officials and Kinove representatives that the county will approve of the plans because the construction will enhance the square and isn’t a huge departure from what is already there.
There was discussion between the board members and representative of Kinove as to why the project couldn’t have been approved at last week’s Plan Commission meeting instead of having another week delay for the full board to vote on it.
Trustee Ann Zess said she was concerned about making sure East Troy was “business friendly” in situations such as these and business owners should have to attend three, four or more meetings to get approval for something like this. Especially businesses like Kinove, which has an outstanding track record in the village for improving properties in the square.
Rohrer said he was “frustrated” by the delays and that Kinove had hired the village’s own consultant to put together the package with the plans for the building at 2886 Main St. and they were told at last week’s Plan Commission meeting things like the awning would need a permit once they took it down they would need a permit to put it back up. They were also told their lighting specifications for the outdoor lights didn’t meet village standards because the number of lumens wasn’t listed in the plans.
Village Board President said the problems with the awning stemmed from the fact that there was never a permit taken out to install it in the first place, as village ordinance requires and because of that it was an “illegal awning.” According to the ordinance Kinove would have to take out a permit when it wanted to re-install the awning on the new building.
In the end, the board decided to “grandfather” the awning into the new building plans and not require a new permit to re-install it. As for the lighting, after more discussion, the board approved the plans with the provision that the outdoor lighting installed meet village standards.
Kinove also wants to put up bicycle racks on the square and plant trees, which were part of the plans at last week’s Plan Commission meeting, but there are a few details to be worked out over that as to placement of the racks and trees. The commission members wanted square improvements such as those to be looked at from the view of improving the entire square and not necessarily a single storefront or street.
Department of Public Works Director Mike Miller also had concerns about planting trees over old sewer and water lines and said he wanted to work with Kinove’s arborist on any tree placement so as not to endanger existing infrastructure. Concrete Robotic Demolition was suggested as a possible solution if the demolition was to be done in different segments. The board members may consider this when deciding whether to keep the old structure or construct a new one.
All of the board members said they were in favor of the new building and Kinove’s plans and complimented the company’s representatives and Rohrer on the work they’ve done on there other buildings on the square like the Cobblestone and the restaurant 2894 On Main.
Rohrer said their next step will be the demolition permit to bring the existing building down while they wait on word from the county as to whether or not they can rebuild in the same space.
