The Notes: Week of November 17 - November 21, 2025

Hi again, Neighbors!  Thanks for stopping in to read a bit about this week's Full Council Week schedule of City of Appleton government meetings.  We're now returning to some sort of non-budget-time normalcy.  But there are a few more meetings than just the regular full council meeting this week. Have a look at the summary below and, as always, let me know if you have any questions, concerns, or feedback on any of these things.

Monday, 11/17/2025

Board of Zoning Appeals - 7pm  It's been a while since the last meeting of this board (in May!).  On the agenda are two housekeeping items -- electing a chairman and a vice chairman -- and one appeal for a zoning variance.  The owner of a property on North Clark Street is asking to be able to pave a portion of the front lawn of this property for parking.  Municipal code allows for a four-foot driveway extension for this purpose.  But this owner is asking for eight feet.  The property is a two-family and currently has four off-street parking spaces (as is required).  The owner wants to provide another space for convenience purposes (not having to move cars around to allow ingress and egress around other parked cars), but there is not room for that "want" without over-paving the front yard of the property.  According to the staff memo on this item "the applicant's current 'hardship' is based on the inconvenience of moving cars around.  This is common with many households and is not a legitimate hardship."  In zoning variance parlance, "hardship" is something that makes the property unusable, not something that makes it inconvenient. While we can all sympathize with the owner and the tenants of this duplex, I believe we need to uphold to municipal code here so that we don't eventually become a city full of paved front yards.  However... this board has been notoriously lenient in allowing variances without true hardship.  So we will have to see where this discussion goes on Monday night.    

Tuesday, 11/18/2025

Library Board - Cornerstone Conference Room of the Library - 5pm  Board members will look to approve the latest bill register, some small budget amendments, the proposed 2026 library closure dates and proposed 2026 library board meeting dates, the library director year-end performance review, and the report of the recent meeting minutes from the Personnel and Policy Committee of this board.  

Wednesday, 11/19/2025 

Appleton Redevelopment Authority - 8:30am  This meeting has been cancelled. 

Community Development Committee - Special Meeting - 6:30pm  This committee will review an action item before the full council meeting so that it can potentially also be approved by the council later in the evening.  Up for approval is a contract with a consultant for grant-writing assistance with city properties in need of brownfield remediation, in particular, a lot adjoining the Fox Cities PAC.  (There is an offer to purchase in place for the PAC to purchase this property from the city should the brownfield issues be mitigated.)  A contingency of the consultancy contract is that only the grant amounts awarded to the city will pay for these services.  With this contingency in place, I see no reason for this item not to be approved.  

City of Appleton Common Council - 7pm  It feels as though the full council just met.  Oh, wait.  We did!  Last week, the council approved the mayor's proposed 2026 budget with no amendments on an "off week."  Now we are back in the regular swing of things, looking to approve those items which came through the last few weeks of committee meetings.  

The mayor starts things off with... wait... there are no proclamations from the mayor on this week's agenda!  There is, however, one public hearing and one special resolution before we get to committee item approvals.  The public hearing is on the final adoption of the latest Comprehensive Plan (called "Plan Appleton").  This plan has been in the works for the last few months.  The special resolution is to change the polling place for District 15 (in Calumet County).  

Then we'll get right down to business with the following items most likely to garner additional discussion:

• From the City Plan Commission:  As was mentioned above with the call for a formal public hearing, the latest update (a full update) to the city's Comprehensive Plan is up for adoption by the council.  All community feedback for this plan has been positive and very few plan changes have been needed and/or implemented since the draft plan was presented months ago.  I have no doubt that this plan will be adopted without any objection. 
  
  
• From the Utilities Committee:  The Providence Trails drainage study plan for flood remediation is back for full council approval without any modifications from the previous iteration that came to council once before.  This item had been sent back to committee for further review of a potential additional change that could have been made which was contingent on approval of TC Energies (the owner of two parallel gas lines that run along the Apple Creek Trail behind the properties on Fallcreek Lane). 
  
  The city received confirmation this past week that TC Energies would not approve of any city use of their easement along those gas lines.  Approval from TC Energies would have been needed for the potential additional change to the city's proposed flood remediation plans.  As such, the original Alternative 3 (see below) for $330,000 is back up for full council approval.  Approval here will mean this remediation plan will be set for construction in 2026. 
  
  According to engineers' modeling, this alternative does not completely resolve flooding issues on six properties during 100-year flood projected/modeled events.  It does, however, do the most good -- including limiting or lowering flood risks for the ten properties last affected by flooding in this area -- for a moderate expense.  This plan does not preclude the city from additional remediation plans in the future.  While I am disappointed that the plan does not solve every issue for some District 13 neighbors, I do believe that this plan is the best option -- the best balance of value for the cost of the plan -- for the city at this time.  
  
  
  

And that's really the extent of it for this week.  There are a few other items on the agenda, of course.  But none will likely lead to full council discussion before approval.  Do you have any questions on anything above?  Do you have any other city-government-related questions?  If so, please reach out to me and let me know.  

I hope that you have a wonderful week ahead... the week before Thanksgiving.  (Yikes!  This autumn is flying by.)  Please join me next week for another alderman blog post.  Thank you!