Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for September 4, 2024

 Greetings District 6 Neighbors,

I’ve been enjoying seeing all the back-to-school photos on social media as the last of our area schools get started today, and I wish all the students, teachers and staff a successful school year. Let’s all remember to be careful driving and watch for kiddos on foot and on bikes.

This is a full council week, but there is a special meeting of the Utilities Committee at 6:30 this evening. The committee needs to take up a couple of action items from the scheduled August 13th meeting, which was cancelled. (Generally, committee meetings are not scheduled on Election Day). They will be voting on the request to opt out of the PFAS settlement with Tyco and BAST as discussed in the last newsletter. Opting out would allow the city to pursue our own legal action if deemed necessary in the future.

They will also be voting on a contract for computer network upgrades at the wastewater treatment plant. The current network is outdated, complex to maintain and sometimes unreliable. For security reasons, the utilities network must be completely separate from the rest of the city network. (Donohue and Associates, Inc. - $256,324 with contingency)

There is also the item discussed earlier related to stormwater billing late charges – updating to 1% remain consistent with state statute – and updating the summer sewer credit policy to conform with the new ERP system. We don’t see a credit on our utility bills, but it has been policy since 1999 to bill sewer usage based on winter rather than summer water usage to allow for water consumption that doesn’t flow into the sewer, such as watering, filling swimming pools, etc.

The Common Council meeting will include a presentation from APD about downtown traffic noise, including a report of the number of stops and the most common violations.

I share the general frustration with the traffic noise downtown – during a recent outdoor dinner at one of our College Avenue restaurants, it was impossible to carry on a conversation for a pretty large portion of the time we were there. I’m hoping that the stepped-up enforcement will have a deterrent effect on some of the people who seem to enjoy just making life unpleasant for other people.

There are several proclamations:

• Hispanic Heritage Month
• Childhood Cancer Awareness Month
• Day of Peace
• Rail Safety Week
• Diaper Need Awareness Week

I expect that we might hear from some of the neighbors of the Thrivent property during the public hearing on the rezoning, comprehensive plan amendment and planned development overlay amendments for that property and the associated actions items that were recommended for approval by the City Plan Commission.

The action being taken here is just for the technical changes required for Thrivent to begin the development plan. While they have provided a vision of what the plan would entail, each step of the process will have to go through the approval process with the city. Thrivent owns the property, so they are free to develop it as long as they adhere to city regulations. At a time when the city’s most urgent need is housing at all levels, it’s hard for me not to be excited about a preliminary design that includes 2200 to 2300 new housing units, from single family homes on quarter-acre lots to apartments. Trivent has been pro-active in reaching out to neighbors, holding multiple information sessions and taking online input about the master plan. When concerns about traffic were raised, they pledged to undertake a traffic study. I intend to support the changes to allow this development to begin.

I don’t expect too much discussion on any of the other agenda items, except possibly the resolution from Alder Croatt to require a ¾ majority vote on any changes to the wheel tax (held at the last council meeting because several alders were excused). The resolution was recommended for approval at the Finance Committee, but Alder Firkus voted against it, so I’m not sure how this one will go. I voted for it in the Finance Committee, having no objection to holding changes to the wheel tax to the same level of majority as other votes on budget-related matters.

Back in June, the council approved changes to the structure of the Appleton (Fox Cities) Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), moving from having the board of the East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission board of commissioners serving as the policy board of the MPO to creating a separate board made of up representatives from each community. The City of Appleton would have four representatives on the policy board. Mayor Woodford proposed, and the Common Council approved, having the mayor, council president and vice president and the council-appointed representative of the City Plan Commission (me) be Appleton’s representatives. I will be attending the orientation meeting for the policy board on Thursday evening and look forward to learning more about the duties of the policy board.

Have a wonderful week enjoying this gorgeous (sort of) fall weather.

Denise