Cabela's corporate expansion project to begin in the spring

Cabela’s continues to its expansion in Sidney on two fronts, not only adding to its corporate campus, but also making certain there is enough housing in the area for its growing workforce.

The planning commission held a public hearing last week for the preliminary plat of Cabela’s corporate campus expansion, which will take place in the 27 acres west of its current headquarters. The commission recommended approval to the city council. The body agreed with the plans.

Dennis Armstrong, architect for Cabela’s, spoke with the commission.

“The purpose of this initial plat will take care of the entire 27 acres, with just a portion of it being built out in the first phase,” Armstrong said.

The first phase will be the most labor intensive, he explained.

“The effort to bring the full master plan into place will be an extensive effort which will require us to work on the entire 27 acres,” Armstrong said. “We’ve planned over lot grading and a collaboration with the Reganis property to do the over lot grading to the west.”

The initial phase of construction will include pads and parking lots for the first building, as well as future buildings included in the long term plan. The overall storm water management plan will include a major detention pond area, from which storm water will be held and released over time, Armstrong said.

“That pond has been sized not only for the development requirement of the 27 acres, but has in fact been made larger so we can accommodate a reduction in storm water runoff from the system,” Armstrong said.

Some issues that will have to be provided for in the project are a relocation of a major water line through the site, an extension of the sanitary sewer line and a re-sighting of a United States Air Force missile cable.

There have been no major problems with relocation of the missile cable, but the process takes time, Armstrong said.

“They’ve not presented obstacles, they just have a process we have to go through,” Armstrong said.

This process is taking longer than expected, he added.

“We will be working with the city, addressing comments that have been made, dealing with changes to the water system, the sanitary sewer line extension and the other utilities that need to be accommodated to serve the site,” Armstrong said.

Cabela’s is willing to work with the city to decide how to deal with traffic coming into the site.

The city’s storm water regulations were beneficial, in Armstrong’s opinion.

“What we have now is something that’s very descriptive for what we need to be following,” Armstrong said. “As a developer we now know what we should be following for rules and what regulations. So from our standpoint it’s been very helpful.”

The entire 27 acres of the development will be built over time.

“The initial development would include the office building, the associated parking, all the grading and all the deep utilities to set up this building for the future development over time,” Armstrong said.

Currently the water runoff in this area is uncontrolled.

“What we’re looking at is a revision to this area that allows us not only to collect the storm water and to carry it through the site but also to bring it to a spot where it is detained,” Armstrong said.

This detention will include bioswales, which well help to release some of the water back into the ground. Some will be released at an historic rate.

“The overall game plan right now is to control the release through a combination of swales, a detention pond facility,” Armstrong said.

The company added an additional three acre feet of detention to allow storage of 10 acre feet to detention pond plans, he said.

The city’s consultant has reviewed the storm water management plan.

“For the most part he is very happy with the plan,” Armstrong said.

The company plans to start moving dirt in Spring 2014.