HomeMy WebLinkAbout003_Bronken Warehouse Narrative - site plan submission
December 3, 2021
City of Bozeman Planning Division
20 E. Olive St. 1st Floor
P.O. Box 1230
Bozeman, MT 59771
RE: Bronken Warehouse
Project Narrative for Site Plan Review (Revision 1)
Bronken’s Distributing is a beer and wine distribution company serving the Bozeman area since
1977. Owned and operated by Peter and Derek Bronken, their facility currently resides in NE Bozeman
near the Bozone Brewery. Currently, the Bronkens operate out of multiple antiquated warehouses
which are tightly arranged on a restricting lot. The current facility poses various challenges in terms of
efficiency, safety and growth. For these reasons, our proposed project provides a new distributing
facility located on lots 5 and 6 of the Nelson Meadows Subdivision located at the corner of Nelson RD
and Prince Ln (see attached A1 form indicating zoning district and vicinity map).
The proposed Bronken’s Distributing Warehouse is a 68,264 SF facility consisting of
approximately 62,923 SF for beer and wine storage and 5,341 SF for office space. The warehouse is
approximately 33’ tall and the office area is approximately 16’ tall. Onsite parking will include 15
standard stalls for general public parking. Within the secure yard there will be 21 stalls for employee
parking and 12 oversized stalls for delivery truck parking. The intent and overall goal for this project is to
provide an efficient facility that can house all the storage needs under one roof, provide adequate office
space to serve the daily business operations and provide a site that can accommodate the trucking
requirements of this type of facility.
As previously stated, our project will occupy lots 5 and 6. Currently, there is an existing storm
drain utility running N-S between the lots (in the utility easement). As part of our efforts to aggregate
these two lots into one, we are also proposing to relocate the existing utility and easement to the west
so as to run along the parking and loading zone. See associated civil drawing depicting proposed re-
routing. With the storm drain utility and easement re-located to the west, the proposed structure will
reside on the south east corner of lot 6, allowing the general parking and secure yard (containing truck
parking and loading/unloading zones) to reside on the west side, behind the building and out of sight
from Nelson Rd and Prince Ln. Access to the secure yard will be provided by a one-way entrance off
Nelson Rd and a one-way exit on to Prince Ln. The access off Nelson Rd will be located within the 30’
Right-of-Way at the north end of the property. There will also be a dedicated access to the general
parking area off Prince Ln.
The proposed building consists of two primary areas; a warehouse area and office area. The
warehouse is comprised of 4 loading docks, rows of ‘pallet racks’ and a large cooler space for the
storage of ‘cold product’. The warehouse walls are intended to be precast, tilt-up concrete panels and
the roof is intended to be steel deck over steel framing. The office area consists of 7 individual offices,
an open office area, two conference rooms, a staff break room and other auxiliary spaces to support the
office operations. Construction is proposed to be framed walls cladded with CMU and metal siding and
the roof will be steel deck over steel framing. See attached floor plans and elevations for additional
information.
Our project timeline indicates design completion by the beginning of 2022 which supports a
construction start by spring of 2022. Construction is expected to last 10 -12 months which would turn
the building over to the owner by spring of 2023.
After touring the Bronken’s existing operation it is clear that a new facility and a new location is
long overdue. The proposed building and site improvements will give the Bronken’s the opportunity to
improve their operation and further grow their business. We are more than excited to assist them in
these goals.
This project has previously been submitted for the Informal Site Plan review. Comments from
the City of Bozeman have been received. Responses to those comments are attached.
Revision 1 update: This project has been submitted for a Site Plan Application. Comments have
been received from the City of Bozeman and responses have been provided.
Request for Departure
1. Will the City of Bozeman support a departure from the 10% transparency requirement for
‘Other Frontages’?
There are two main challenges created by the 10% transparency requirement.
1) The excess of natural light entering the warehouse.
This facility will be used to store and distribute beer and wine and natural light is harmful to this
product. Allowing excess natural light into the warehouse is a direct contradiction to the
program requirements of this space.
2) An excess of penetrations in the south wall of the Cold Storage area.
The program requirement is to keep this space at 40 degrees for specific types of beer and wine.
Glazing units in any of these wall assemblies will make it more difficult to keep this space at 40
degrees as well as create troubling condensation issues.
The attached elevations address these issues, resulting in a more functional building for the client. On
the south and east elevations, we’ve removed the lower band of Kalwall (previously shown in the
informal submittal) to both reduce the amount of natural light and eliminate the penetrations in the
cold storage. In lieu of the Kalwall, the panel texture has been carried through. As for the upper band of
Kalwall, it remains on the east elevation and is replaced by aluminum composite panel siding on the
south elevation. The aluminum composite panel is intended to mimic the look and pattern of the
Kalwall, which gives the illusion of transparency as well as providing additional break-up and visual
interest to the elevations. Together, these changes drastically improve the performance of this facility
and respond more appropriately to the programmatic needs of the client.
Please see the attached elevations (A2.0) and the attached transparency diagrams (A2.1) for specific
quantities and percentages.
2. Will the City of Bozeman support a departure from BMC 38.510.030 G? This section of the code
requires at least one entrance to the building visible and directly accessible from Prince ln.
This code section would require the main doors to face south and away from the general parking area.
We would prefer to keep the doors facing west, towards the parking lot. The current design has made
an effort to locate the vestibule as far south as possible in order to engage Prince Ln and has also been
designed with an increase in glazing on the south side to draw attention to this area of the building,
helping signify the entrance. We feel this approach addresses the intent of the code while providing a
clear entrance to visitors approaching from the parking lot.
3. Will the City of Bozeman support a departure from BMC 38.520.070, sub-section C? This section
of the code requires landscape screening around the trash enclosure.
The trash enclosure is located behind a 6’ tall, opaque security fence and will not be visible from the
general parking area or any other pedestrian pathway. Because of the trash enclosure’s location, we
would request a departure from landscaping around the enclosure.
4. Will the City of Bozeman support a departure from BMC 38.530.070. This section of the code
would require us to treat blank walls that are intended to be removed for future expansion or
are located within the secure (and screened) loading dock yard.
If there was ever a desire to expand the warehouse, the intent would be to grow the facility to the
North. For this reason, the North elevation has been kept simple so as to not waste resources and
design energy on an elevation that may get demoed in the future. Also, because this elevation does
not directly face Nelson RD and adding glazing has a direct negative affect on the product being
stored, we have purposefully omitted any glazing. We did however add aluminum composite panel
to mimic some of the other design elements elsewhere on the building.
In regards to the West elevation, the metal panel siding has been designed with the panel joints
articulated to mimic some of the other rhythms created by the doors and windows at the office area.
The intent is to provide a simple and effective screen for the empty kegs and pallets that will be
stored in this area. We would also like to point out that the west side of this facility is dedicated to
the utilitarian side of the warehouse and will not be viewed by the public or even seen from any
public way (there will be a 7’ tall, opaque security fence around the entire loading dock area). The
owner has also expressed a desire to maintain a simplistic approach to the design elements in the
loading dock area so as to not distract the truck drivers from safely navigating their equipment in
and out of the loading docks.
For the reasons outlined above we would request the City of Bozeman to consider a departure for these
elevations.
Sincerely,
Jake St. Sauver