The Notes: Week of April 19 - April 23, 2021

It will be a busy and exciting week for new aldermen in the City of Appleton!  The following districts have new representatives on the Common Council:

• District 11 welcomes Alderman Kristin Alfheim
• District 13 (that's us!)
• District 15 welcomes Alderman Chad Doran

The week begins with a Board of Zoning Appeals meeting on Monday (April 19, 2021).  This board is made up of mayoral appointees who take up appeals by Appleton citizens for variances to city zoning ordinances.  If variances are granted, they follow the property into perpetuity so requesters must show good cause for them and the board must carefully assess the requests.  I was the chairman of the City of Sheboygan's Zoning Board of Appeals back in the 1990s/early 2000s and found it really interesting... and sometimes pretty quirky. 

On Tuesday (April 20, 2021), the Library Board meets.  This board is currently made up of community member mayoral appointees and Alderman Siebers (of District 1, the district in which the library is located).  The board will take action on bills/payments and updates to employee policies and talk about updates to the Children's Programs and Community Partnerships Program. If you're interested, tune in to the video link here at 4:30pm.

Tuesday night at 5:15pm in Houdini Plaza (weather permitting), all alderman in the odd-numbered districts (newly elected and re-elected) will take the oath of office for their Common Council seats.  All are welcome!  Afterwards (at 6pm), the Common Council will meet informally to review council rules and department and committee functions.  

Wednesday (April 21, 2021) brings another organizational meeting at 6pm in which the council president and vice president will be elected by council members and all will commit/re-commit to the council's Code of Conduct.  Then at 7pm, the regular formal meeting of the Common Council begins.  

This week's highlights/items of discussion:

• Public hearing on the repeal and recreation of Article X of Chapter 23 of the Municipal Code (relating to Floodplain Zoning).  This action brings Appleton's city code into alignment with the the Wisconsin DNR's revised model floodplain ordinance (issued in 2017).
• From Municipal Services: There are quite a few requests by Creative Downtown Appleton, Inc. and Appleton Downtown, Inc. to bring some exciting events and a sidewalk sale to the downtown area in the coming months.  I don't know about you, but I'm excited about the thought of hosting these events downtown very soon.  Moving us closer to a sense of "normalcy" feels good!
• From Safety and Licensing: The revisiting of a city-wide prohibition on large-scale commercial dog and cat breeding will be taken up.  I absolutely do not wish for puppy- and kitten-mill animals to be sold in the city.  But my concern with this broad-sweeping proposed ordinance is just that... that it's broad-sweeping.  "No pet store shall sell, deliver, offer for sale, barter, auction, give away, or otherwise transfer or dispose of cats or dogs."  I'd be interested in your thoughts on this.  Please let me know!

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns on anything noted above or anything else city-related.  I'm ready to listen!