Reports: City departments ready for 'big box' store

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Analyses supplied by various city departments and New Ulm Public Utilities indicate the city is fairly well prepared to accommodate a retail store the size of a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

The City Council will review these reports during an informational meeting Thursday, starting at 5 p.m. in the City Hall first floor conference room. Councilors also will go over revised language for the city's fence regulations ordinance.

A 200,000-square-foot store could be accommodated in either the B-2 (Service Business District) or B-3 (General Business District) zone, according to information forwarded to the council by City Manager Brian Gramentz.

The only change required would be to modify the city's Comprehensive Plan, but, as noted in the reports, the plan already has been modified recently to accommodate assisted-living developments on the city's western perimeter.

A report goes on to indicate that if an operator of such a store were to build on land adjacent to the city limits, such as across from the airport, that would allow for annexation into the city.

That's because the analysis anticipates that a store of that size would pay approximately $320,000 in property taxes, of which 40 percent or $128,000 would go into the city's coffers.

As for sales tax, the report states, "Currently the City of New Ulm receives approximately $800,000 in sales/excise tax. We do not have enough information to project sales tax revenue."

However, when Wal-Mart officials first expressed their interest in locating in New Ulm, their figures indicated New Ulm could expect $400,000 in sales tax revenue annually, a 50 percent boost in the city's annual sales tax collections.

NUPU calculates it would receive $98,799 annually in additional revenue as a result of serving such a store. That doesn't include the "start-up" costs of providing electric, natural gas, water and sewer connections to the site which could be as high as $500,000 depending upon the distance involved.

While noting that no information relating to traffic or utility demand has been forthcoming from the retailer, City Engineer Steve Koehler said "access could be provided off of the newly constructed Westridge Road west of North Highland Avenue."

He also envisioned the need for another roadway north of the retailer to handle both car and truck traffic.

"A traffic signal system would most likely have to be installed on U.S. Highway 14 at North Highland Avenue subsequent to a Traffic Signal Justification Study," he added.

However, he concluded that most, if not all, issues involving the city engineer's office could easily be addressed in the Development Agreement phase which occurs during the plat approval process.

Street Commissioner Tom Patterson estimated the impact to street maintenance operations would be minimal.

"Even now, as the City grows and new streets are added, street department operations will have to expand and adjust to include the new development, but no extreme measures are anticipated."

Park and Recreation Department can foresee no special requirements stemming from this size development, and the only real impact might come from "any associated Park Dedication fees that might be adopted."

Neither New Ulm Police Department nor the New Ulm Fire Department foresees any major problems.

Fire Chief Curt Curry said a retail development that size would not have an impact on his fire department because "Minnesota State building code requires a retail building of that size to be equipped with a sprinkler system through the entire building."

Ron Larsen can be reached at rlarsen@nujournal.com.