Posted: July 27, 2010 |(2) Comments

Muskego — It's a little harder to get into a shopping center at Janesville Road and Racine Avenue these days as an access drive connecting Overlook Bay Road to Janesville Road to the center's parking lot has been blocked for nearly two weeks.

That means drivers headed for Piggly Wiggly, McDonald's, Kwik Trip and other businesses have been heading down the access road and then making U-turns once they hit the barricade.

And no, you can't blame this traffic tie-up on summer road construction.

Instead, the barricade was set up by residents of the Overlook Bay condominiums in response to the number of customers and delivery trucks using the private road to get to the Muskego Center.

Who's going to pay?

The road is being used so much that it needs to be repaved, and the condo association wants businesses in the center to help pay for the work.

The cost of paving the access drive is about $28,000, and the association is proposing splitting that cost with the businesses.

Only two of the businesses so far have agreed to come up with the cash, so the association has taken the drastic step of setting up the barricade to block access to the center.

"We're not trying to be unreasonable," said William Gleisner, a member of the association board said of the dispute, which has been simmering since March. "Lots of trucks go through there. Lots of stores use this as an access route for delivery vehicles."

Making it tough on drivers

The roadblock is creating headaches for those who want to get into the center because Overlook Bay Road and the barricaded connector drive is the only direct access to the center from Janesville Road for eastbound drivers. They cannot use the center's one access from Janesville Road because a median blocks left turns. The median stops at Overlook Bay Road.

Two businesses, Kwik Trip and McDonald's, have said they would chip in the $2,330 that the association is seeking from each of them. The group has sent requests to five shopping center tenants and the center's management.

The problem is that it would not be fair to accept payment from just a couple of tenants, association attorney Bush Nielsen said.

The association believes it has a right to make the request because of a deal it has with the center that provides an easement to the road. That agreement says the businesses will pay for the cost of repair, Nielsen said.

The attorney for Piggly Wiggly and the manager of the shopping center did not return telephone calls from a reporter.

Deadlines have come and gone

The original deadline for center management and tenants to respond to the association was June, Nielsen said. The lack of response caused the deadline to be pushed back to July 1 and then July 21. The barricades went up July 16.

"We don't want to be bad neighbors or be disrespectful," Gleisner said.

Since the barrier went up, semitrailer drivers have been driving their rigs through the heart of the condominium complex, Nielsen said. They have no room to turn around, so they go straight through the complex and come out on Sunset Drive, he added.

They not only are over the road's weight limit, he said, but they pose a safety hazard to children playing at the condos.

City officials want the dispute resolved, but acknowledge that it is mainly a civil matter.

"It appears we don't have a lot of power," said Mayor John Johnson.