Urbana, Illinois, is home to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the appetites of approximately 50,000 students who are annually enrolled there, not to mention an estimated 238,000 additional residents in the greater Champaign-Urbana metropolitan area. A local developer sought the addition of a new Culver’s restaurant along West University Avenue, a bustling thoroughfare carrying traffic east-west through the City.

MSA was chosen to conduct the surveying, site design, permitting, and construction staking components of the project, working closely with TCT Construction, a general contractor based in Urbana. In total, the project would encompass 45,505 square feet of impervious area development.

The surveying phase of the project consisted of a full boundary and topographic survey for re-zoning and re-platting purposes as well as two ALTA/NSPS land title surveys to facilitate the sale of land to the developer. The site’s design needed to meet the stringent criteria set forth by Culver’s, a national corporation with rigorous standards, as well as the City of Urbana, known regionally for being a challenging municipality to satisfy. MSA’s design team tackled the task with clear, consistent communication between parties throughout alterations to 15 draft sets and three formal revision sets of plans.

An unusually high number of regulatory and permitting entities exerted their interests on the development. Requirements set by the Culver’s Corporation, the City of Urbana, the Urbana-Champaign Sanitary District (UCSD), Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA), Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), and State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) all needed to be met, all within an expedited timeline.

As an added wrinkle of complexity, the property’s north boundary, University Avenue, is an IDOT right-of-way at this location (US Route 45), which was scheduled to undergo reconstruction concurrent with the construction of the site. Not only did MSA’s design team have to navigate IDOT’s drive entry permit process, but it also had to design the University Avenue entry to match the future condition as proposed by IDOT.

As the project progressed, the City expressed a non-required interest in saving two “legacy” oak trees on the property. While one of the oaks, positioned within the building footprint, would ultimately have to be removed, MSA’s design team was able to save the other by redesigning the geometry of the site’s parking lot.

Work began on the new Culver’s restaurant in the fall of 2018, and final plans were signed on July 9, 2019. The business held a grand opening celebration just one month later on August 9, 2019. Culver’s is now serving their famous ButterBurgers and frozen custard to the very happy residents of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.