Mariano's Could Soon Have Larger Parking Lot

Attention, Mariano's Fresh Market shoppers. Your store could soon have a larger parking lot.

The voted unanimously Tuesday night to direct staff to draft an ordinance to allow the expanded parking lot on the Mariano's site. The new 134-space lot would be constructed just east of the existing lot on 1.89 acres of land.

John Kalmar, assistant village manager and director of community development, provided an update to the village board. He said the planning and zoning commission voted 4-0 to recommend approval of the parking lot.

According to a written summary provided to the village board, representatives from Roundy's and Bradford Real Estate Services Corp. explained to the commission at its Aug. 8 meeting that "Mariano's opened in mid-June 2011 and has been wildly successful to date."

"This success has brought with it a challenging parking situation, which resulted in Bradford and Mariano's building a new parking lot on the north side of the building in late fall 2011," village staff stated in the summary. "Even with the new lot, customers at certain peak periods are continuing to experience a lack of parking. Mariano's indicated to Bradford that they believe that they are actually losing business due to customers not being able to find a parking space."

The new lot would be used by employees and customers. There would be three cart corrals in the lot.

Kalmar said construction on the lot would start in September.

"The hope is that the construction would be completed by the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays," said Kalmar.