The Notes: Week of December 16 - December 20, 2024

Hello, Neighbors!  Thanks for stopping in once again and giving the weekly alderman blog a read.  This week before Christmas is a Full Council Meeting Week; so of course that meeting is scheduled.  But a few other meetings are scheduled as well.  Check out what we'll be talking about below:

Monday, 12/16/2024

Board of Zoning Appeals - 7pm  These board members last gathered in October to review and discuss some requests for variances to the municipal code.  This time around, we will hear them discuss a familiar case -- one of a driveway extension/"turnaround only" (the latter per the homeowner even though there are Google maps/earth photos of vehicles parked in this driveway extension) in the front yard of a property on North Ballard Road.  A case for a variance for this exact issue was brought to the city's Municipal Services Committee a few months back (mentioned here and here).  That variance request was eventually denied by that committee.  But since that time, a city code change was made to send future variance requests of this type to this board of appeals rather than to a common council committee.  And with that new door opened for this property owner, here we are with yet another request for the same variance.  The definitions of the legally allowed reasons for a variance are spelled out clearly in this excerpt from the staff memo regarding this request:  

"The applicant has not met the hardship criteria outlined in Section 23-67(f) of the Zoning Ordinance. Below are each of the standards for a variance:

23-67(f)(l) Unique Physical Limitations. The application makes no reference to unique physical limitations of the parcel, such as irregular shape, topography or anything that would prevent them from meeting the code standards. The applicant does mention the high traffic volume along Ballard Road. However, this is not a unique condition for this property. Many properties are on busy streets.

23-67(f)(2) Harm to Public Interest. The applicant has not indicated any reason that denying the variance would cause any harm to the public.

23-67(f)(3) Self Created Hardship. The applicant created this problem by installing the driveway without a permit and in a manner that does not meet the code standards. The applicant stated in the application that removing the driveway would be a hardship. A self-created hardship should not be considered a hardship that warrants a variance.

23-67(f)(4) Unnecessary Hardship. The applicant may utilize their property for its intended use without this variance. Taking out the portions of the driveway that do not meet code could be accomplished and the applicant would still have a functionable, legal driveway. The accessibly needs of the current occupants and the types of vehicles they have should not be considered in determining a hardship.

The applicant has not met any of the area variance criteria."  

With this in mind, I expect that this second-try request by the homeowner will be denied.  While I feel empathy for the homeowner's situation, I am unable to see how this variance could be granted without proper cause. 

There is one other item on this board's agenda -- the potential approval of a parking variance for a proposed downtown business with no off-street parking available to the property (due to its location in a older neighborhood of the city).  In stark contrast to the variance request noted above, this variance request for a small restaurant on East Pacific Street is a perfect case for the granting of a variance as the property would be rendered unusable as a zoned commercial property.  

Tuesday, 12/17/2024

Library Board - 4:30pm  There are only a few action items up for approval by this board... but there are many items for discussion in the information items portion of their agenda.  They will look to approve the November payments and cash flow statement, a small budget amendment, the 2025 library budget (which was already approved by the common council as a part of the overall 2025 budget), the 2025 meeting schedule for this board, and a number of policies for the library (including a smoking policy which calls out a new non-smoking requirement for the entire library block which was thoroughly covered in earlier alderman blog posts).

In information items, this board will take up discussions on the following items:

• An update on the building project
• A "brand identity" project update
• An update on the capital campaign (which, at last count, remains $300,000 short of the required goal to fund the project in its entirety alongside the city's allocated budget for the project)
• Donor signage at the new library
• A trustee training item entitled "Collection Tour of the New Library"   

Wednesday, 12/18/2024

Utilities Committee - Special Meeting -  5:45pm  I suspect that the start time of this meeting is supposed to be 6:45pm, not 5:45pm.  Regardless... this committee will be meeting before the full council to take up a couple of items which will then carry over to the full council's agenda.  They will be asked to approve a service contract for the engineering services for a surface coating (painting) project on two city water towers (to the tune of ~$140,000) and to approve a water rate study consultant.  The latter item has no further information provided in the currently published agenda... so as yet, we have no idea the consultant qualifications and/or the proposed costs of said consultancy.  We'll have to show up early for this special meeting to listen in for the specifics, I guess.   

City of Appleton Common Council - 7pm  And here we are staring down the final full council meeting of 2024! The mayor's portion of the meeting will include a ceremony for the winners of the city's Christmas parade awards and a request for the approval of a new mayoral appointment to the Community Development Block Grant Advisory Board. Then we'll get right to the heart of discussion and potential approvals (and even a denial) of the items taken up by committees last week.  Here are some highlights:

• From the Municipal Services Committee: Changes to the design for the reconstruction of Morrison Street near Erb Park.  The changes proposed are to address neighborhood safety concerns and will cost a bit more than the original plans.  However, city staff believes that there is room in the budget to cover the safety additions.
• From the Safety and Licensing Committee:  This committee was unable to approve the bartender's license for a woman with misdemeanor battery charges on her record and a probation that requires her not to possess or consume alcohol.  Therefore, her application is up for denial by the full council.  (Of note: The other contentious items on this committee's agenda -- detailed here -- were held by the committee until their next meeting in January 2025.)  
• From the Human Resources and Information Technology Committee:  The request to hire a consultant for very near and perhaps over the amount of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds amount of $45,000 available to help formulate a new mission statement for the city was approved by this committee with a no vote from your alderman.  I still believe that there are much better ways for the city to spend these ARPA funds and that a new "strategic plan" for the city is an unnecessary expense. 

There is also an interesting item of note at the end of the full council meeting agenda, calling out the potential for a closed session for private council discussions on the proposed mixed use development on the current site of the city's downtown transit center (adjacent to the library).  Of course, since it's a closed session notice, there is not much more detail and I am unable (by law) to go into further detail on what transpires during that session... unless and until there is more information publicly released at a later time.  I will share with you anything I can when I am able to... so keep an eye on this weekly blog and future blog posts for more information in that regard.  

Do you have any questions, concerns, or feedback for me regarding any of the above topics?  If so, I encourage you to reach out to me!  

You may have noticed that your alderman's email address has changed.  That's due to a new city website that just launched.  If you have not yet taken a look at it, please do.  And please share your feedback with me so that the city can continue to improve it as time goes on.  

I look forward to hearing from you and I thank you again for tuning in to another alderman blog post.  I wish you a great mid-December pre-Christmas week!