Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for September 6, 2023

 

Greetings District 6 Neighbors,

Although it certainly doesn’t feel like it, we’ve entered (unofficially) the fall season. I hope everyone had a nice Labor Day holiday and I wish all the students, teachers and everyone involved in education a successful school year. I think all of our area schools have started (except Lawrence University which began Welcome Week for first year students yesterday, I believe).

The Common Council had a really long “holiday” week as Labor Day followed the “fifth week” of August, where there are no committee or Common Council meetings. So, it’s back to work for us today as well.

I assume that everyone has gotten their new assessment notices and I want to remind you of a couple of things:

·       An increased assessment does not automatically mean a property tax increase. Generally, if your assessment was an increase of over 40%, you could expect an increase with the millage rate (the city, county and school district budget) staying the same. If it is less than 40%, your taxes could decrease with the same millage rate.

·       You can check your potential tax here:

https://applications.appleton.org/departments/public/taxcalc/taxcalc.htm

This is mine – my assessed value went up a bit more than 50%:

 

        

·       The spreadsheet with the residential sales information is on the website here for some

comparisons:

https://www.appleton.org/home/showpublisheddocument/25950/638291599741884435

 

Sales on my street:            

             

The houses that are around the same size as mine had sales prices pretty comparable to my assessment.

 

While I am not excited about the increase in property taxes, it is good to see that the value of our home has increased. I have heard concerns that the revaluation is hitting the lower-priced houses the hardest. I share that concern, but demand is what drives prices, and there has been higher demand for this type of home than for larger, more expensive homes in Appleton for the last few years. Supply is an issue as well – because of the cost of construction, builders are finding that they can’t make a profit building smaller, less expensive homes, so the majority of the new construction in the city is on the high end.

 

If you want to discuss your assessment, the “open book” period runs from September 5^th through September 22^nd. You can call (920) 832-5850 or email webas@appleton.org to provide evidence of the market value – recent sales, appraisals or realtor’s opinions.

 

If you want to file a formal appeal, you need to file an objection form at least 48 hours before the October 4^th Board of Review meeting.

 

Moving on to tonight’s Common Council meeting, the mayor will be presenting eight proclamations:

·       Day of Peace

·       Constitution Week

·       Diaper Need Awareness

·       Rail Safety Week

·       Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

·       Hispanic Heritage Month

·       Recovery Month

·       Senior Center Month

 

Mayor Woodford and city staff don’t just sit around thinking of things to issue proclamations about, although some special observances have a proclamation every year. Any citizen can request a proclamation, commendation or certificate of recognition from the Mayor’s Office.

https://www.appleton.org/government/mayor-s-office/proclamations-commendations-certificates-of-recognition/submit-observance

Granting the request is still at the mayor’s discretion.

 

I expect that there will be a lot of public participation tonight, as the public hearing on the rezoning and plat approval for the 4^th Addition to the Clearwater Creek Subdivision (between Edgewood/JJ and Broadway and Richmond and Meade) and the related action item are on the agenda. This would add 14 single-family homes and two outlots. There were many people at the City Plan Commission, which got a bit contentious as some believed there would be a free-range forum rather than a public hearing with specific opportunities for speaking. We have also received several emails from area residents since then. The primary concerns (other than the perception that there would never be more houses built in that particular area, which seems a bit unreasonable, given that the vast majority of residential construction is on the city’s north side) are the fact that there is only one street accessing the subdivision, the absence of a park in the immediate area, and whether or not the new lots are within a designated wetland. Questions over potential reduced property values because of fears that the new houses might be smaller than existing homes in the neighborhood seemed to have diminished when it was pointed out that the new lots are actually larger than the ones in the previous additions.

 

When a private entity owns property, the city has limitations as to the restrictions we can place on development. This has come up before regarding a large church on the north side and the many car washes that developers have proposed. If the use of the land meets city requirements for land use, we cannot deny the property owner the rezoning and plat approval. This one comes with a number of conditions including stormwater management. For this reason, even though there might be a number of opponents, I expect the item to pass.

 

The rest of the agenda is pretty straightforward – none of the items generated a great deal of discussion in committee.

 

I will note that I followed up with Project and Sustainability Manager Schrage about the Waste Heat to Power project at the water treatment plant for which the city has received over $500,000 in grant funding. The number of kilowatt hours generated is estimated to produce 504,000 kilowatt hours of electricity – enough to power 46.8 average Wisconsin homes for a year. We will also reduce our biogas emissions from 12.4 tons of CO2 per year to 0.8 tons and offset about 214 tons of CO2 emissions from the WE Energies generating plant from the reduction in usage.

 

Have a great rest of your week!