[0:04] City of Stevens Point Plan Commission meeting. Recorded December 2nd, 2024.

[0:10] I

[0:14] will call the regular meeting of the City Plan Commission meeting to order.

[0:18] What do you guys want to do? Roll call.

[0:22] Mayor Weezza. Here.

[0:24] All the person e-bone. Here.

[0:25] Commissioner Artson. Here.

[0:27] Commissioner Beacom. Here.

[0:28] Commissioner Muscovac. Here.

[0:30] Commissioner Rice. Here.

[0:31] Commissioner Shuler. Here.

[0:33] Everyone is present. We will move on.

[0:35] Let me share this out first.

[0:37] first. Keep forgetting to do that.

[0:45] Come on. And item number two is the report, the meeting

[0:50] minutes from the November 4th meeting of the city planning commission. Thoughts, comments

[0:57] or a motion to accept? I move to accept. Thank you. Second. All right. Motion and a second.

[1:03] Any discussion at all? Just a little bit. You know, I read that section where we

[1:09] talked about change you know the motion and the had to do with the household

[1:15] entities and they covered it fairly well and we did that and that's part that I

[1:22] read mostly and I was good with it so thank you good good and I guess extending

[1:29] I mean I read these things and they're pretty well written and they're pretty

[1:32] good and pretty well covered so thank you for staff and I know staff

[1:36] appreciate that. So just so you know and the people watching and listening, legally the

[1:43] minutes are required to have the motion and the vote. None of the discussion items are

[1:49] required by law in any way, shape or form. And some people would say, oh, well, we record

[1:54] all the meetings anyway. So why do we take such good minutes? Well, we take, I like

[1:58] having good minutes so people 20 years from now, 30 years from now, can understand

[2:04] a little bit of what went on without having to watch through these very exciting and riveting

[2:10] edge-of-the-seat type media videos. Even if there's only five minutes span that's riveting.

[2:16] Yeah, but I think it's important that we put some of the highlights of the discussion

[2:20] so people kind of have an understanding of what was talked about. So that's why we do it,

[2:25] which goes above and beyond what we are required to do. But staff is the one

[2:30] that take care of that so yes kudos to them I support that great that we've

[2:35] shut out of meeting as long as we can we can continue fair enough all those in

[2:41] favor signify by saying aye any opposed and that is approved at number three is a

[2:46] public hearing and a request from the city of Stevens Point to adopt the

[2:49] Stevens Point historic preservation plan consistent with chapter 22.06 sub

[2:54] three sub, two sub, A. Adam?

[2:57] Thank you, Mayor.

[2:59] So I believe this is the third time this calendar year

[3:03] that the conversation about this historic preservation plan

[3:07] has been brought before you.

[3:08] Folks for feedback, a latest time

[3:13] being in October presenting the draft historic preservation

[3:17] plan before you.

[3:19] Just a quick spark notes version

[3:20] of what a historic preservation plan is.

[3:22] It's intended to be a long-range planning document akin to that of the city's comprehensive

[3:28] direct plan outlining some specific goals and objectives for targeted planning areas

[3:35] within the city of Stevens Point.

[3:37] Just a quick version of what this plan all entails, it's really broken down into three

[3:42] different sections.

[3:43] First, outlining more background information and existing conditions, so what's the city's

[3:49] existing local historic districts and landmarks, along with those on the National Register.

[3:55] Second section focusing more on the planning process, so what was all the work that was

[3:59] done over the last 16, 18 months or so to get to this point.

[4:04] And then the last section, really the meat of the document, focusing on specific goals,

[4:09] objectives, and policies for the eight topic areas as included in the memorandum

[4:14] and shown on the screen.

[4:16] So consistent with our local historic preservation ordinance, the Plan Commission would have to take action on this by way of a public hearing.

[4:24] Our Historic Preservation and Design Review Commission did hold the public hearing and recommended approval of this planning document last week, Monday.

[4:34] So staff's recommendation is to approve and I also have our Historic Preservation Chair here in person as well.

[4:41] Should there be any questions?

[4:41] questions. Great. Any questions on the report before we open the public hearing?

[4:50] All right.

[4:51] I will declare the public hearing open. Anyone wishing to offer a testimony, please step

[4:55] to the lectern.

[5:08] Sam Lang, 1547 Strong's Ave. Also the district

[5:13] panel there. I was just going to say this is something that I really enjoyed to read

[5:18] through. This has got some great information in it and some great recommendations and goals.

[5:22] So just to everybody that's been a part of getting this put together. Thank you very much

[5:27] I look forward to getting some of the recommendations that are in this implemented and

[5:32] Again, thanks again. This is a really great document

[5:35] It has a lot of information in there that I found to be very exciting about what we could be doing with our historic districts and

[5:44] Appreciate it guys

[5:46] Public hearing is still open

[5:51] public hearing remains open and for the third final time the public hearing is

[5:57] open seeing

[6:00] no one else wishing to speak I will declare the public hearing

[6:03] closed bring it back to the commissioners first of all I want to

[6:06] commend staff and all of those who provided input on this plan it wasn't

[6:12] an easy process I think we've got a good product in the end so Commissioner

[6:16] Shuler I'd like to recommend approval of the plan subject to a final read

[6:22] through to clear up all several typos, transpositions.

[6:27] We don't do typos.

[6:29] Not in the version that gets the council, hopefully, yes.

[6:32] Yes, sir.

[6:33] We have a second?

[6:35] Seconded by Beacom.

[6:36] Discussion.

[6:37] Yes, sir.

[6:38] I also wanted to say congratulations

[6:41] on a great process and a great document.

[6:44] I love the content.

[6:45] I love the layout.

[6:47] And I love the telling of the process that you went through.

[6:51] I just think it's really a feather in the cap and a really great thing for the city

[6:56] So thank you so much for bringing this

[6:59] Thank you. Any other comments? Yes, sir. Yeah, I'd like to

[7:03] Agree with Jeff there on that and you know the opening statement saying that we could have hired a consultant to do

[7:10] We decided to do it in-house. I think they did a great job

[7:13] And I'm good with the city doing things that I can do as a consultant

[7:19] I'm good with hiring consultants to do things that do better, but we're saving a taxpayer's money.

[7:25] Great. Any other comments? Yes? I just I would like to thank all the people that responded to the survey.

[7:34] Is that reaches even a broader audience than often city meetings or information, public information meetings.

[7:45] And again, kudos to staff. It's really an outstanding piece of work.

[7:51] It certainly does, it is. And then once this is approved by council, this will go up on our website as well so people can see it.

[7:58] It's available now, of course, through the agendas, but the final draft, SANS typos and grammatical errors will be up after council approval.

[8:08] Alright, anything else?

[8:11] Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

[8:13] Hi.

[8:14] Hi.

[8:15] Can you pose?

[8:16] And that is approved.

[8:18] Item number four is our annual, why are we doing this item?

[8:24] That's the adoption of the Housing Affordability Report for Permit Year 2023.

[8:29] Director?

[8:32] Yeah.

[8:33] I guess to put it generally, this is one of those items that does need to be ticked

[8:38] off as a requirement.

[8:39] It does have some value.

[8:41] it does offer some interesting data. However, it doesn't hold a lot of weight. So happy

[8:48] to answer any questions. I know Adam primarily went through this, so he'd be happy to answer

[8:53] any detailed questions, but otherwise would be looking for an approval.

[8:58] And really this is just ticking a box. We have to do it in order to get grants and

[9:03] things like that, something we do have to do every year.

[9:08] So, yes, sir?

[9:11] I think it's useful.

[9:12] I think it's interesting.

[9:13] I think there's a lot of information here

[9:15] that can get used as a reference.

[9:18] And it may be a TDM, but I think it's good to go through.

[9:26] And maybe offer up an opportunity for discussions

[9:29] on related matters.

[9:31] Sure.

[9:32] Is that a motion?

[9:32] No

[9:35] Mr. Schuler I

[9:38] Wanted to pass along a comment. I passed along to Jared and Adam that

[9:44] We all realize this for kind of what it needs to be and it would be

[9:50] Really nice if we could somehow utilize this

[9:53] Effort in the future to get stuff that we could really really use on an ongoing basis because it presents an opportunity for a

[10:00] really great trend line information on several topics that seem to be important and I'm glad

[10:09] it's done because I know that it is a time sink for something that is one size fits all

[10:19] and it could be way more useful but so be it that they want this.

[10:25] With that I guess I will move to accept approve.

[10:28] Thank you.

[10:28] Whatever the proper.

[10:30] It's interesting you bring it up about useful information because Commissioner Beacom had

[10:35] some interesting ideas regarding housing affordability and some potential future things.

[10:41] Do you want to mention that, Mike?

[10:42] Yeah.

[10:42] It falls under this?

[10:43] I mean, to me, data is the key piece, and so, you know, there's a lot of numbers

[10:48] in here.

[10:48] People quote the Alice report all the time, they quote numbers in here, and data on

[10:54] its surface is just data.

[10:56] So it's not to say that anything in here is inaccurate, but I use the analogy all the time

[11:00] I can give you a hundred words on why Jordan Love will have a great game Thursday against the Lions and I'll use statistics

[11:06] And it'll be relevant and it'll be current and it will be compelling

[11:10] And I'll give you a hundred words on why you struggle against the Lions and I'll use statistics

[11:14] And they'll be relevant and it'll be compelling and you'll please feel struggle

[11:17] So statistics alone

[11:20] Don't mean anything. It's it's what's inside the statistics for example

[11:23] You have 52% of households for rent that are above 30%.

[11:28] I've talked to folks at United Way, and I've asked this question here.

[11:32] Do you have students in that data?

[11:34] United Way would say, if they live off campus, yes.

[11:37] I would say that that's problematic.

[11:39] Why? It's not that students don't count,

[11:41] but for the history of colleges and universities,

[11:44] 99% of students are going to be over 30%.

[11:47] We know that, so that skews the data.

[11:49] The other thing we don't know in this data is,

[11:51] What about choice?

[11:54] I think we look at this and we want to believe that the numbers that are over that 30% are single parents working two jobs struggling to get by.

[12:05] You know, you probably have people in there with a combined household income of $90,000 that are spending $3,000 on housing and that puts them into the data.

[12:14] But that's a matter of choice.

[12:15] And so finding out more about what exists in this data and then allowing us to drill down to who we want to help and

[12:22] That grayscale level. I think would be helpful. Okay, so

[12:27] The thought was putting a survey together

[12:30] and having commissioners

[12:32] Formulate the questions of that survey since we we can't talk about it this month because it's not really technically on the agenda

[12:37] But the affordability report is I'd like to add an agenda item for next month to discuss a survey

[12:44] regarding housing affordability. And I'd ask the commissioners to start thinking

[12:49] about questions that you'd want to see on that. What data would you find useful in

[12:53] the housing affordability genre of reporting? So think about it over

[12:59] Christmas when you've got nothing better to do than sit and think about work, and

[13:04] we'll have it on the agenda for next month. So we have a motion to accept

[13:07] the report and it's been seconded. Any further discussion there? I guess

[13:13] Just another comment, you know, we have a little discussion about housing here and on

[13:18] the planning commission and how to do it and generally I think we've been trying to acknowledge

[13:24] it, trying to do something, do a variety of things and low income and single family and

[13:31] multi-family and so I don't know if this is a place to discuss it but I do think,

[13:38] you know oftentimes we talk about it on specific instances you know does this

[13:45] apply or not but I it may be worthwhile to have a more general

[13:49] conversation are we doing well are we not doing well and this may be or your

[13:55] motion may be an opportunity to do that yeah that might be something we could

[13:59] talk about next month for the survey questions and how we're gonna use that

[14:03] data. Yes, Commissioner Schuler. To piggyback with Pete, the housing element of the Adopted

[14:11] Comprehensive Plan contains a lot of, well, information that was gathered at a certain

[14:17] point in time, but the whole point of the information was to be able to draw, identify

[14:22] issues and draw conclusions and your goals, objectives and policies are geared toward

[14:27] addressing those things. And it seems to me that taking a look at that chapter

[14:31] itself and trying to incorporate the information from the housing task force, the information

[14:37] from the household density discussion and this that we're talking about now, and the potential

[14:46] for soliciting additional information.

[14:48] It would be a great exercise and it wouldn't take a ton of time to do, but that would

[14:55] be a place where that discussion would be really well served.

[14:57] Okay

[15:00] Because I think people would appreciate if the comp plan chapter were up to date with the current thinking.

[15:04] And you can certainly update a comp plan any piece at any time. It's not an entire document as we've learned from the neighborhood plans that are coming through.

[15:14] That's a great idea. So maybe after we formulate the survey, get the results, we can incorporate that and have a housing summit that would focus just on housing and offer a more open discussion.

[15:26] Yeah. Yeah, I don't know that we'd have a public hearing, but again, we get pretty good turnout when we have housing discussions and what to do.

[15:35] And, you know, if we're looking at a guiding document, I don't know if a public hearing is a way to do that or a public presentation.

[15:45] But I do know that housing is a topic that comes up a lot and this is a part of it.

[15:50] And, you know, maybe we can get some discussions on how private we want to keep single family

[15:58] housing and how important it is multi-family.

[16:02] Good.

[16:03] All right.

[16:04] Any other questions on the housing affordability report?

[16:08] Then hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

[16:11] Aye.

[16:12] Any opposed?

[16:14] And that is approved.

[16:15] So item number five is a request to enter into a donation waiver agreement with the

[16:19] Wisconsin Department of Transportation for curb ramp replacement along Highway, State

[16:23] Highway 66 and U.S. Highway 10 East.

[16:26] To sum it up a little bit easier, the DOT is going to go through the corridor of Highway

[16:31] 10 and 66 and make sure that we are better utilizing our ABA requirements and putting

[16:40] in curb ramps at all the curbs.

[16:42] they need permission from us to use city property and do work on city property.

[16:48] So all this is doing is just granting that permission.

[16:50] I think this is a great thing for the city and the DOT is doing the work.

[16:54] So I, in addition to Director Bedouin, would recommend approval.

[16:59] And the point of this, sorry, I heard an inhale.

[17:02] You can go first.

[17:03] You excelled first.

[17:06] Something about that there normally would be a fee paid or?

[17:11] We still have the option of charging a fee.

[17:14] I wouldn't because this benefits the city and the citizens.

[17:18] Anytime there's a right-of-way access or use, we could do something like that.

[17:23] But isn't the agenda item to actually waive that donation?

[17:26] To waive that, yes.

[17:28] That's right.

[17:29] Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I didn't understand the question.

[17:31] Double check it.

[17:31] Yes.

[17:33] So yes, that's what my inhale was about.

[17:35] Is this a cost to the city at all, but this is DOT's spending?

[17:39] The only cost is our time.

[17:41] Right. Go ahead.

[17:43] So I need a motion.

[17:45] No approval.

[17:46] Thank you.

[17:47] Second.

[17:47] Great.

[17:48] Any discussion?

[17:51] Hearing and seeing none.

[17:52] All those in favor signify by saying aye.

[17:54] Aye.

[17:55] Any opposed?

[17:56] And that's approved.

[17:57] Sorry.

[17:58] I'm sorry.

[17:58] I'm slower here.

[18:00] Item number six is actually postponed.

[18:05] That was a request to enter into an easement agreement with Wisconsin Public Service.

[18:09] we had I had asked the director to find out some information regarding what the

[18:14] easements is actually required for because they traditionally keep their work

[18:18] within the city right-of-way and this is outside the right-of-way but we didn't

[18:24] get a good answer in time so we're just going to postpone action on this until

[18:28] next month so we'll move right into item number seven which is the July

[18:33] through September 2024 monthly reports director yeah I guess pretty self

[18:40] explanatory reports for constructions evaluations violations July August and

[18:46] September happy to take any questions if there are any so I'm sure the

[18:51] commissioners are used to seeing these reports we got a little behind with the

[18:57] transition.

[19:00] Okay, if not, I would ask for a motion to accept the reports in place of

[19:06] my file. Make a motion. Move by Beacom. Second by Shuler. Discussion?

[19:14] Hearing and

[19:14] seeing none. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? And that is

[19:21] approved. Item number eight is the last directors report of 2024. Director?

[19:25] Director. Thank you very much, Mayor. Development updates. I guess I've outlined a couple as

[19:31] kind of run through in case there's any questions by any of the commissioners, but update on

[19:36] the bid, Forest Creek subdivision, TID-14. I guess that's maybe a notable one. We do

[19:42] have a few administrative corrections that we need to make per the DOR. Nothing substantial.

[19:47] Just, again, administrative corrections that would take minimal effort. We do need

[19:52] need to have a joint board of review

[19:54] to approve one additional item

[19:57] or a change to an existing item,

[19:59] so pretty minimal.

[20:01] Shopco site, Opera House, City Hall,

[20:05] the Oaks on Maria Drive,

[20:07] and some airport development that we're looking into.

[20:10] So that's it for general development.

[20:14] Happy to take any questions if there are any.

[20:16] Otherwise, just as a note,

[20:18] I will be out of the office

[20:19] that's the seventh through the 14th of December

[20:24] for a pre-planned vacation.

[20:25] Okay.

[20:27] Commissioner Schuler.

[20:28] I'm just wondering if there's any way

[20:29] to maybe expand or clarify the status of the opera house.

[20:35] I guess I wasn't part of that.

[20:36] I'll summarize that pretty quick.

[20:37] Okay.

[20:38] You're dealing with a 100 plus year old building.

[20:41] Every time you pull a board off,

[20:42] you find two new problems.

[20:45] Labor has been problematic.

[20:47] It's just taking a lot longer

[20:49] than anticipated, but I can tell you that it's also taking longer because they are doing

[20:53] the restoration and keeping the historic value intact, and that in and of itself takes more

[21:00] time than normally it would.

[21:02] So they've extended the developers agreement, it was set to be done, I think the most recent

[21:08] version was December 1st.

[21:11] They're moving along, there's always progress, it's just not as fast as some of us would

[21:15] like.

[21:16] But I gotta tell you, I'm in contact with the owner

[21:19] and I'm really looking forward to this thing being finished.

[21:23] It's gonna be spectacular.

[21:24] That's excellent.

[21:25] I just, the phrase that got my interest

[21:28] was solidify on submit state approved plans to the city.

[21:32] So based on the things they're finding

[21:34] and their need to kind of regroup

[21:35] and also figure out the people they have

[21:37] the time they can take,

[21:39] they need to get all those ducks in a row

[21:41] to get the plans to state approved by state.

[21:43] Right.

[21:44] Yeah, so being a commercial business and correct me if I'm out of line here being a commercial enterprise

[21:49] The plans have to get approved by the state. There are certain ones that we can do in-house, but they're relatively minor

[21:55] So then those plans have to get reviewed by the state. There's usually a significant waiting period there

[22:01] And then once they're approved by the state they come back to our approval a final approval

[22:07] Here's hoping their ducks can stay in a row. Yes

[22:11] I like to add in that it really ties in with the historic preservation plan and your kind

[22:19] of leading edge and kind of following through on what you're proposing, saying we're not

[22:24] just throwing this out there, we're following it and yeah there are annoyances but it's

[22:29] part of the process and dealing with it.

[22:32] And I feel compelled to remind everybody that that property was this far from getting

[22:37] torn down completely.

[22:39] It is only through a happenstance, really, that we found that support wall and realized

[22:46] that we didn't need to take down the entire structure because of the severe disrepair.

[22:51] I mean, ceiling trusses were cracked and not supporting anything, the roof was literally

[22:54] gaming in.

[22:57] So anything is better than the loss, but the fact that we found a developer willing

[23:02] to take that project on and return it to its original historic facade is pretty

[23:10] remarkable.

[23:12] All right I think that's it. Any other questions for the director?

[23:18] Then our agenda is exhausted. I want to wish everybody a happy holidays and we

[23:23] are adjourned at 6 23.

[23:31] A video of this meeting is available for viewing on the

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