The Notes: Week of July 17 - July 21, 2023

Hello again, Neighbors!  Welcome back to a Full Council Week alderman blog post.  We have a few other meetings besides the Wednesday council meeting so let's get right to it!

On Monday, 07/17/2023, at 7pm the Zoning Board of Appeals will meet to take up two zoning variance requests:

1. The owner of an irregularly shaped lot on the corner of Cherokee Drive and Seminole Road would like a variance to replace an existing (old and dilapidated) fence that's over three feet tall in their "front yard" with a 6-foot fence.  Municipal code calls fences no taller than three feet in a front yard of a property.  This one is likely to have a variance granted due to the irregular shape of the lot and the fact that it's on a corner (which makes a "front yard" scenario more difficult). 
2. The owner of an orthodontist's office space on South Mattias Street would like a variance to create more parking space at this office.  Code calls for a landscape buffer zone of eight feet around this parking area.  The owner would like to expand the parking lot to include four more parking spaces and lessen the landscape buffer zone to five feet.  This is a tricky one because this office space is in a residential area.  A smaller landscape buffer means that the surrounding properties will see and hear more parking traffic in that parking area.  The property already fulfills the minimum parking spaces required by code.  (Twenty-one spaces exist and code calls for a minimum of 14).  The discussion on this one will be interesting.  The current office occupants are asking for the variance because they claim have a need for more parking; but a variance follows a property forever so the current occupants of the property cannot be the deciding factor in this discussion.  
   

It will be interesting to hear how board members debate and work to try to solve the issues brought forward by these property owners!

The Library Board will meet at 4:30pm on Tuesday, 07/18/2023.  Board members will go through and look to approve the June bill register, a report of the board's finance committee, a small budget amendment, and a notice that the library will be closed for the groundbreaking ceremony for the "new" library on 07/25/2023.  The ceremony will be held at 2pm so the board will vote on closing the library from 1pm to 5pm so that library staff can attend the ceremony.  The board will also be asked to approve a consultant for the new library's internet access services and data communications.  The library intends to access a federal reimbursement program for these services and the consultant will receive a total of 6% of the federal program reimbursement (which means somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000 to the consultant).

There will also be an administrative report, a president's report, and a staff update for the board members' review.

The full Appleton Common Council then meets on Wednesday, 07/19/2023, at 7pm.  There are two Committee Meetings Weeks worth of action items for full council consideration!  (Here and here are the last two weeks of topics for your review.)  The mayor will present the 2023 Flag Day Parade Awards, share two (only two!) proclamations, and give an overview of the upcoming 2024 budget process before the council takes any voting action.  After the mayor's business, the items most likely to garner additional discussion at the full council meeting are...

• From the City Plan Commission: A resolution is on the table to create a new Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) District (TIF #13) in the city's Southpoint Commerce Park.  (Review here.) While I am not at all a fan of TIF district financing (for the many reasons I've mentioned in previous blog posts), this particular TIF district is proposed to only finance public infrastructure in the business park and not include public TIF dollar support for private developers.  This makes this proposed TIF district more palatable to me.  What are your thoughts?  
• From the Human Resources and Information Technology Committee:  The addition of a Community Health Supervisor to the city's Health Department is on the table for full council approval.  I expressed last week my concerns regarding the expansion of the city's health department.  Since that post, I have spoken with the department's director, asked numerous questions in this regard, and expressed to him that there needs to be a definition of "success" for this position and that we expect not to see any additional city tax dollars allocated to this position.  I was assured that there are federal, state, and private grant dollars available to fund the position through the next state audit of the city's health department.  That audit will be the proof of whether this position has been a successful addition to the city or not.  As such, I voted in committee to approve this staffing addition.  Let me know if you agree or if you have continued concerns in this regard.  I'd be happy to talk through it with you! 

I encourage you to look back through the last few weeks of blog posts and let me know if you have any questions on the rest of the items on the full council's agenda for this week.  I'd be happy to hear your thoughts and ideas and share feedback with you on any of these items or anything else city-business-related so please reach out and let me know.

The Library Board's Nominating Committee will round out this week of meetings with their meeting on Thursday, 07/20/2023, at 9am.  Their only action item is the select nominees for the board's president and vice president for the upcoming term.  

Thanks for waiting until Sunday evening for this blog post, folks.  It's been such lovely July weather lately and we all know that summertime is fleeting.  We have to take advantage of as many outdoors experiences as we can get right now, right?  I look forward to sharing more with you next week.  So until another alderman blog post greets you... have a wonderful week!