The Subway restaurant on West Fulton Street is relocating to a new spot on the street.
Construction of a new 1,680-square-foot restaurant at 1050 W. Fulton St. is expected to begin this fall after the Waupaca Common Council voted 10-0 on July 15 to approve Dean Zanella’s request for a special use permit.
The restaurant’s current location is at 822 W. Fulton St.
The council’s vote followed a July 9 public hearing and discussion by the Plan Commission about the proposal.
Brennan Kane, the city’s community development director, said that area of the city is zoned a B-4 Strip Commercial District.
In that district, a special use permit is required for the construction of a restaurant.
The property the Subway restaurant will be built on was split from the Village Inn property last October and is owned by Zanella Investment Properties.
The Zanellas have cross access and cross parking agreements with that adjacent landowner.
Zanella told the Plan Commission he and his wife Connie have been Subway franchise owners in the area for 24 years.
In addition to the restaurant they own on West Fulton Street, the couple also own Subway restaurants on Churchill Street, as well as in Manawa and Marion, he said.
Their Subway restaurant in the Kmart Plaza has had consistent sales growth, Zanella said.
They are relocating that restaurant, because they want to be closer to U.S. Highway 10, he said.
In addition to the request for a special use permit, the site plan for the property was also before the Plan Commission during its July 9 meeting.
A site plan includes details about layout, lighting, parking and landscaping.
Site plans are handled at the Plan Commission level, and the Commission approved it based on the recommendations in the staff executive summary and a planned conversation between John Edlebeck, the city’s director of public works, and Zanella’s engineer.
That conversation took place on July 10, and Kane met with Zanella on July 14 to go over the plan.
During both the Plan Commission and Common Council meetings, Ald. Alan Kjelland expressed his concern about one of Kane’s recommendations.
Kane recommended that some of the colors proposed for the new restaurant be revised to provide more contrast.
Zanella told the Plan Commission he thought the color combination of brown and tan was a good one.
He said the colors would be similar to those on the Subway restaurant in Weyauwega.
“It’s bothersome that we’re prescribing colors schemes. Each of us has a different opinion on color,” Kjelland said during the Plan Commission meeting.
John Kneer, a member of the Plan Commission, said a lot of Subway restaurants have the look the Zanellas proposed, and Connie Zanella said what Subway and they want to pop out is the sign. It does so against a cream color, she said.
Kneer said the color scheme should be open for discussion between the Zanellas and Kane, and it is.
Plan Commission member Pat Phair said, “I think we need to ask questions on occasion. We always have to think of the entire community. We have to have the right to look at and discuss, to be able to oversee that.”
During the Common Council meeting, Kjelland again brought up his concern, saying he was bothered that city departments have an arbitrary process for color choices.
“I thought it was reasonable,” he said of the colors proposed by Zanella Investment Properties.
Kjelland is not sure the city should be “dictating colors for construction.”
Mayor Brian Smith said he appreciates his concern.
“I think that is something that will start at the Plan Commission and come back to the council if there are any revisions,” he said.