Wheaton council hears request for Aldi expansion

Wheaton council members appeared on board with a proposed expansion to a long-standing Aldi store Monday, but they debated how large new signage on the property could be.

Aldi has requested to expand the entire east side of its building at 20 West Loop Road out by about 20 feet, creating a 3,300 square foot addition. The 25-year-old building currently amounts to about 14,900 square feet.

Aldi representatives say the addition would allow the store to carry more retail products to meet consumer demand. They have plans to also reconstruct the parking lot, which is in poor condition, and expand a detention area for stormwater.

"There's a lot of investment going into this store," said Robert Gudmundson, a representative for Aldi. "I think it's fair to say it's a successful store and they want it to be even more successful in our community."

City council members expressed support for the addition, but questioned the need to install new signage on the most northeastern point of the property that is much larger than the 48 square feet the city code allows.

"The existing sign that they have is under what the requirement is," said Jim Kozik, the city's director of planning. "To bring them up to what the code allows would allow them over a 60 percent increase in the size of the sign. What they're asking for is about 150 percent."

Gudmundson said the store lacks visibility from Naperville Road because it stands behind a Walgreens, McDonald's and a new, almost completed CVS. Aldi is included on shared signage in front of Walgreens, but the word "Aldi" is hardly visible, due to plants and cars blocking it.

"We're trying to get a little more prominence so people know where we're at," Gudmundson said.

Councilman John Rutledge said he thought the council should agree to the more than 12-foot high, 76-square-foot signage that Aldi was requesting.

"We want our businesses to be successful. I think we've got a lot of things in our signage ordinance that ought to be reviewed," he said. "People like Aldi are not stupid, they don't waste money on any more sign than they need if they think it will support their business."

But Mayor Michael Gresk, councilwoman Suzanne Fitch and councilmen Thor Saline and Todd Scalzo said they were not in favor of something so big.

"I understand if you're a business you want as big a sign as you can get, but with a store like Aldi I've got to imagine the vast majority of customers are repeat customers who live locally and know where it is," Scalzo said.

The council will vote on an ordinance approving the proposed project, with a sign sized at the maximum square footage allowed by the city code, at an upcoming meeting.