The Notes: Week of May 16 - May 20, 2022

It's mid-May and we are once again in a Full Council Week in City of Appleton government.  Thanks for tuning in again for the latest, neighbors!

There are a couple of "other meetings" scheduled for this week and I'll sprinkle those in as we go along on this summary post.  

The week begins with a Monday, 05/16/2022, 7pm meeting of the Zoning Board of Appeals.  There are three property owners requesting variances this week:

1. At 1731 N Edgewood Drive, the owner would like to build a deck within the 25-foot rear property setback area.  Apparently, an existing deck was built without a permit some years ago and is already in "non-compliance" and the owner would like to replace it with a fresh new deck.  Since this property already has a legal non-conforming backyard setback (the house, too, is built into the 25-foot rear yard already), it's likely that the deck replacement project will be granted a variance.
   
   
2. The owners of a property at 1523 N Charlotte Street would like to use the structure on that property (a small garage-like structure) for "light manufacturing" -- as a 3D printing/decal printing business -- and the zoning code of this property does not allow for "light manufacturing" there.  This one looks like a tricky one which might not be granted for this applicant.  In theory, since there are alternative uses for the property, a variance should not be granted.  But... as I always say with variance request hearings, one never knows what could happen! 
   
   
3. The owners of a restaurant property at 1103 W College Avenue (where the "old Elks Lodge" was) are requesting a variance to provide only 13 parking spaces for their facility where 33 spaces are required by municipal code.  Since the lot of this property is much smaller than "your average restaurant," there is really nowhere on this property to add parking.  As such, this property will likely be granted this variance request. 

The Library Board will meet on Tuesday, 05/17/2022, at 4:30pm to discuss the usual -- bill registers, cash flow statements, etc -- and also talk about naming rights for areas of the new library.  They will likely create a matrix of sorts of all of the areas in the new library which will be available for naming and the contribution dollar amounts needed for donors to procure those naming rights.

They will also discuss the library construction project with the below anticipated timeline:

Stay tuned as we move forward on this project as there are some substantial budget issues that will need to be made by the common council to reconcile the current budgeted amount for the library project -- $26.4M (plus an additional $2M in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for "broadband infrastructure") -- with the most recent estimates for the project -- over $39M!  None of this can happen without "finding more money" somewhere and I am very wary of the additional taxpayer burden of this project in our city's future.

The Finance Committee (6:30pm) and the Utilities Committee (6:45pm) will both meet just before the full council meets on Wednesday, 05/18/2022.  The Finance Committee will hear a presentation by Baird regarding the 2022 sale of bonds and issuance of notes for the city before looking to approve the following: 

• Sale and issuance of $15.53M general obligation promissory notes for 2022.  This is borrowing -- taxpayer debt -- that the city needs for the projects mentioned in last week's blog post.
• Sale and issuance of $11.46M in bonds for the city's sewerage system.  This is also taxpayer debt to be incurred by the city.  The city sells the bonds and investors buy them with the assurance that the bonds will be paid back with interest to the investors in a specified time.  

The Utilities Committee will meet to take up the approval of a resolution to allow the City Engineer in the Department of Public Works (DPW) to work with the state's Department of Natural Resources (DNR) on behalf of the City of Appleton regarding a DNR grant for controlling urban storm water runoff pollution sources. 

Then, at 7pm, (Wednesday, 05/18/2022), the full Common Council will meet.  Here are the highlights of the agenda that might be of interest to you: 

• The mayor will ask the council to approve the hiring of a new Department of Public Works (DPW) director.  This new director has big shoes to fill but has a great resume and comes highly recommended by the Human Resources Department and the mayor. 
  
  
• From the Municipal Services Committee: A resolution regarding adding a "revamping" of Soldier's Square to the city's 5-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) is recommended by this committee for denial.  I watched the discussion of this committee in this regard and agree with denial of this resolution, despite the fact that the council and the city feel deeply the importance of our veterans.  This project needs more work and more definition before the council can approve moving forward with it.
  
  
• From the Safety & Licensing Committee: The committee recommended the second of two options presented by the city clerk for some small changes to our wards/districts subsequent to state of Wisconsin redistricting.  I agree with this second option (mentioned last week) and will be voting to approve it in full council as well.  
  
  
• Of importance to District 13 neighbors but not showing on this week's full council agenda is the rezoning of the property bordered by French Road, Ashbury Drive, Providence Avenue, and Glory Lane.  I mentioned this in last week's post but will also be writing a separate blog post on this as the full council should be taking up the item very soon.  In this upcoming post, I will provide further detail on the plans of the property owner (Apostolic Truth Church) and share details of the potential impacts to this neighborhood.  Be sure to follow this blog so you don't miss this important post.  Sign up with this link and you'll receive an email every time an update to this blog is posted!

And that's just about that, folks.  If you have any questions in regards to any of the above items or if you have other questions or concerns about anything City of Appleton government-related, I'd love to hear from you!  Please always feel free to get in touch with me.

I wish you a beautiful mid-May week and will see you back here next week for more.