Middleton board approves variance to allow Frank Beverage addition, with stormwater conditions

The Middleton Zoning Board of Appeals voted 5–0 to grant Frank Beverage Group a variance allowing the company to increase the lot’s impervious surface ratio (ISR) from about 84% to roughly 87% so it can build an addition at 2115–2211 North Pleasant View Road (date not specified).

Mike Frank, chief executive of Frank Beverage Group, told the board the family-owned business has operated in Middleton for decades and that the proposed expansion is intended to support ongoing operations. “Middleton remains our corporate headquarters to our nearly 950 employees statewide,” Frank said, describing the company’s local footprint and inviting board members to tour the facility.

Architect Steve Schulfer of Sketchworks and Wade of Wiser Engineering outlined a subsurface stormwater approach that would intercept roof drains and route runoff into underground open-bottom chambers intended to promote infiltration and slow discharge back to the site’s existing northeast outfall. “It would slow it down, it would clean it up, and we’d put it back into the ground,” Wade said in explaining the concept.

Staff told the board the application was brought forward because the site is already nonconforming under local code: Section 10.02427 limits ISR to 80% in the medium industrial zoning district and Section 10.0533(c) generally prevents enlarging nonconforming structures without compliance or a granted variance. The application states the existing ISR is about 84% and the addition would raise it to about 87%.

Members asked whether city engineering and advisory bodies had reviewed the concept and whether the system would be effective in a major storm. Daphne, a city staff member, said the conceptual plan had been routed to the city stormwater engineer, Eric Sorensen, who “generally believes that this is an improvement to their current stormwater situation,” but that a formal stormwater management plan had not yet been completed. Wade said the conceptual sizing shown is consistent with requirements for the new impervious area and that stormwater models are calibrated to current rainfall statistics, including 100‑year event assumptions.

John Wieganki, a board member, said he would prefer that approval be contingent on subsequent sign-off by water-resources and stormwater engineers. Other members echoed that framing and discussed adding language that the project should demonstrably retain more water on-site or not increase the effective imperviousness of the lot.

Paul (the chair) put the motion to approve the variance — allowing the ISR increase to 87% with conditions that the applicant meet water-resources and stormwater-engineer requirements and implement the proposed subsurface bioretention — and the board voted unanimously. The chair announced the motion passed on a 5–0 vote.

The board’s approval is conditioned on plan review and required stormwater approvals; final engineering validation and any additional agency reviews (including county erosion control or DNR review if thresholds are met) remain to be completed before construction. The board closed the meeting and adjourned.

Details of the application and referenced code sections (Section 10.02427 and Section 10.0533(c)) were read into the record by staff during the hearing. The application packet and the city’s stormwater plan-review process will provide the technical validation required by the conditions of approval.