Hi, Folks! Welcome to another Committee Meetings Week in City of Appleton government. We have a half-full week of meetings due to lack of agenda items and Tuesday’s primary election day. Here’s a rundown of what you can expect this week:
Fox Cities Transit Commission – 3pm After review and approval of the January 2023 payments, commissioners will discuss the acceptance of federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds and COVID relief funds from the federal government — that’s we taxpayers — totaling ~$3.4M. The positive thing about these funds for Valley Transit is that no local matching funds are required for the acceptance of these grant funds. The difficult thing to swallow is that these grants are taxpayer funds from the federal level and we are all now currently feeling the economic downstream effects of the excesses of ARPA federal spending.
Municipal Services Committee – 4:30pm Of interest to some District 13 neighbors, members of this committee will be asked to approve a preliminary resolution regarding the concrete pavement, driveway aprons, and sidewalk construction for Amethyst Drive (from Bluetopaz Drive to Aquamarine Drive and from Providence Avenue to Blutopaz Drive) and for Bluetopaz Drive (from Providence Avenue to Amethyst Drive). This is the first step in the city’s determining the total assessments for the project and notifying neighbors of the project. Assuming it’s approved by this committee, this project will next be referred to the Finance Committee (see below) for approval of the assessments. Property owners along these roadways should be hearing from the city regarding this paving very soon.
Another preliminary resolution (this one for some storm sewer reconstruction elsewhere in the city), the approval of a statement of scope for an outside consultant’s work on streets/sidewalks safety assessments in the city, a request for parking restrictions on John Street adjacent the Eagle Point Condominium Development, and a request for the approval of a two-year renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding for Bird scooters in the city are all also on the agenda for this committee.
Finance Committee – 5:30pm Members of this committee will be asked to approve the same ARPA and COVID federal grants and the requests to apply for further grants that transit commissioners presumably will have approved earlier in the day. They will also look to approve the assessments for the concrete paving and storm sewer construction projects also presumably earlier approved by the Municipal Services Committee.
After being held for the last two meetings of this committee, the construction bid for the reconstruction/reforestation project at Vosters Park will finally likely be approved so that that project can move forward as we neighbors of the park have discussed and the city has worked with us to revise. For more information in this regard, please see last week’s blog post.
There is one informational item on this committee’s agenda regarding the final costs for the eight-court pickleball complex at Telulah Park. The city received a generous private donation of $500,000 for this project and, all told, the project came in at a total of $614,144.96 with the city budget footing the balance of the bill.
Parks and Recreation Committee – 6:30pm There are no action items on this committee’s agenda. But in the informational items portion of the agenda, the 2022 reviews of the Recreation Division, the Grounds Division, and Reid Golf Course will be presented.
Board of Zoning Appeals – 7:30pm One of my favorite “committees,” this board is back in session after a long break.. They last met in November 2022! On their agenda are three requests for variances:
- At 516 E Pacific Street: The owner would like to build an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) (of the same size as the primary residence!) 7’6″ from the rear lot line of the property where 25′ of setback is required. There are no special features, limitations, or hardships related to this property and the proposed project. The hardship stated by the applicant is self-created. This request does not seem to meet the requirements for a variance so we shall see how board members move on this.
- At 314 S Badger Avenue: A full application documenting the variance request is not included in the meeting agenda posting but the action item says that the applicant is requesting to build a two-story accessory building where building codes for this property allow only one-story accessory buildings. This will be in interesting one to hear more about!
- At 1410 E Pershing Street: Here is another variance request for an exception to code for the building of an ADU. Like the Pacific Street request above, the request is that the ADU be built at a 6′ rear setback where 25′ is required. The owner would like to remove the existing garage and place a two-story garage/ADU in its place. Since the property remains useful and unencumbered as-is, there is no hardship (except self-created) that would necessitate a variance. So… we shall see if the zoning board members can hold fast to the hardship “rules” of variance granting on this one as well.
Tuesday, 02/21/2023
Wednesday, 02/22/2023
- City Plan Commission
- Community and Economic Development Committee
- Human Resources and Information Technology Committee
Safety and Licensing Committee – 5:30pm Committee members will be briefed on a demerit point violation at Chadwick’s Bar. They will then proceed to discussion and potential approval of a liquor license change of agent request and a temporary liquor license request. In informational items, a revision of the city’s Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) will be discussed
And with that, the week’s meetings schedule will conclude.
