Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for January 30, 2023

Greetings District 6 Neighbors, 

I guess we can have sunshine and bitter cold or eternal clouds and more bearable temperatures. I’m voting for the sunshine right now, although I was not happy to venture out this morning. 

We’re in a council week following an abbreviated committee schedule last week. Interestingly, it was an information item from the Municipal Services Committee that has folks buzzing. This will not appear on a Common Council agenda until later in the spring when the funding would be allocated. More on that in a bit. 

The Safety and Licensing Committee with be having a special meeting before the council meeting to consider a couple of requests from the Fire Department – one to apply for a grant from FEMA to purchase cardiac monitors and to purchase a “Red Wave Threat ID Spectrometer” ($72,190.50). This equipment is used to identify unknow chemicals in the event of a spill or some type of sabotage. The equipment requested has been shown to identity over 22,000 powders and liquids and over 5000 gases and vapors. The committee will also review the usual license applications. 

After a few council meetings that were relatively light on mayoral proclamations, Mayor Woodford is presenting five this week: 

• Burn Awareness Week 
• Transit Equity Day  
• Black History Month  
• Career & Technical Education Month  
• Gun Violence Survivor Week 

 

There are public hearings scheduled for changes to the municipal code related to subdivisions and for the street vacation of portions of Appleton Street, Pacific Street, and Oneida Street – small portions of land no longer used for the public right of way will revert to the adjacent property owners. The municipal code changes clarify some wording and align the municipal code with state statutes. The main change is to increase the acreage or fee in lieu of land dedication when a new subdivision is developed. This acreage (or funding) is used to expand parks and trails as the city grows. Per the state statute, the fee or land dedication will now be the responsibility of the landowner rather than the developer. However, it is quite likely that it was already built in to the price of subdivided lots. Council will also vote on the accompanying action items. 

 

One of the items that might be separated for individual discussion and votes are the proposal by Valley Transit to seek a RAISE (Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity) for 80% of the cost of the new downtown Appleton Valley Transit Center and Joint Development mixed use housing development. 

 

 The city would be responsible for 20% of the funding. 

 

The other item I expect to be separated is the proposal to award $1 million of the $3 million in ARPA funds budgeted for affordable housing to RISE Apartments, LLC. for the project at Harris St. and N. Oneida St. in the College North neighborhood. This project would provide 43 units available to households earning 60% or less of the Area Median Income for Appleton. Inflation has increased the cost of building anything, as we know from having to go through the work to scale down the design of the Appleton Public Library. Rents for affordable housing projects are controlled based on the funding, so they can’t be increased to recoup the extra building costs. This seems to be a good way to allocate funds already budgeted to a project that already has approval and most of its funding. The Post-Crescent had a pretty good article on the proposal: https://www.postcrescent.com/story/news/local/2023/01/27/appleton-considers-awarding-1-million-to-affordable-housing-project/69836074007/ 

There was some pushback at committee, so I would expect to hear some of the same arguments at the council meeting. 

 

Now, to the item that will not appear on the agenda, but that has generated the highest number of Facebook comments I have ever seen on a Post-Crescent article (well over 1000 the last time I looked). In complete violation of the wise rule “never, ever read the comments,” I actually read most of them. It was clear that a pretty high number of commenters did not read the article, and that a fair number of them did not live in Appleton or ever drive on College Avenue. A few comments related to places where Appleton does not have jurisdiction, such as I-41 and the part of College Avenue running through Grand Chute. However, many of the posters make valid points and I have also heard thoughts from a few of you already. 

 

The proposal would restripe (no reconstruction) College Avenue from Drew St. to State St. to make one lane in each direction with a dedicated center turn lane and bike lanes between the traffic lane and the existing metered parking: 

 

The goals as stated in the presentation: 

• Improve Safety, Access and Mobility for all road users at a low cost.  
• Reduce the number of vehicle conflicts;  
• Reduce the number of conflicts between motor vehicles and other road users;  
• Decrease the number of vehicle travel lanes for pedestrians to cross.¹  
• Reduce aggressive speeding and vehicle speed differentials that lead to crashes.  
• Provide the opportunity to install bicycle lanes, while maintaining the current on-street parking.  
• Increase and enhance business activity by reducing traffic speeds. ² 
• Create a more livable and pleasant neighborhood, boost property value and the local economy.³ 
• Overall traffic growth and further development may prompt the use of the entire Downtown Network, fitting with the City’s Mobility Study 

 

1 : Wisconsin Department of Transportation  

2: FHWA Proven Safety Countermeasures  

3: AARP Livability Fact Sheet 

 

The metered parking would stay the same. I personally think it might be easier to parallel park since you would be maneuvering into the bike lake rather than a lane of auto traffic. The bike lanes would also take bike and scooter traffic off of the sidewalks – they are prohibited now, but it has been my experience that they use the sidewalk anyway. The Traffic Department estimates that the changes could add 30 seconds to the morning transit time and as much as two minutes to the afternoon transit time. I am attaching the full presentation and a link to a video from the Iowa Department of Transportation that will hopefully give some insight into this type of lane conversion. I have reached out to the fire chief and will be meeting with Police Chief Olson in a couple of weeks to find out if they have any concerns about the effect on emergency vehicle traffic. 

 

http://cityofappleton.legistar.com/gateway.aspx?M=F&ID=3bb37ef3-5033-49a1-82e8-65405c193d2a.pdf 

 

https://iowadot.gov/traffic/4-to-3-lane-conversion/3-lane-roads?fbclid=IwAR2bmGTpRn-xLnvohvNx1QHOaql-t8dMCKOLG8fZfeDzj5Fu72eDYSArMug 

 

Please let me know what thoughts you have. There will be public outreach next month and the expectation that a council vote will be held in April, with work beginning in late spring and being completed this summer. 

 

 

Stay warm!