The Community and Economic Development Committee met 01/12/2022. It was a brief meeting, less than 10 minutes long, with one action item and one information item.
The action item was a request to approve the phase 2 development agreement with Merge, LLC for the project they are working on in Tax Increment Financing District No. 11 by the library.
Community Economic Development Director Karen Harkness explained that phase 2 of the project was for the southeast corner of West Washington and North Appleton Street which was where the city’s old Blue parking ramp had been located. That parking ramp had been torn down in 2019 and the site had been vacant since then.
The proposal was for a 5-story mixed-use, residential unit with about 17,300 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor. This was phase 2 of the project. Phase 1 had been approved by the city on 09/09/2021 and was on the site of the old Conway or Washington Hotel.
Phase 1 was scheduled to start in the spring, and phase 2 would not begin until phase 1 was nearing completion.
Based on the analysis of the current value of the property, projected value of the property, and review of proposed expenses, TIF District 11 would invest the lesser of 18% or $2,160,000 of the tax increment value as of January 1, 2025. It was estimated that this project’s tax incremental value would be about $12 million, so staff was recommending approval of this development agreement.
Alderperson Matt Reed (District 8 ) asked if there were any potential tenants showing interest in leasing the commercial space or if that was further down the road.
Director Harkness said there was already interest in that space.
Alderperson Reed was glad to hear that since that was the cornerstone of new development in the area.
Alderperson Maiyoua Thao (District 7) asked if some of the apartments would be public housing or low-income housing units.
Director Harkness responded that they would not. They would all be market rate; however, Merge Urban Development does development heavily in studio apartments which are less costly and targets a specific niche. They would still be market rate though.
There were no other comments or questions and the development agreement was approved 5-0.
They then moved on to the information item which was the annual update to the Housing Affordability Report and the Housing Fee Report
City Planner David Cress gave some background on that. The two reports had been prepared to comply with state statute requirements. The initial versions of the reports were first approved by Common Council back in in December of 2019. Since then, by law, the city is required to do an annual update to each report.
When they first prepared the initial reports, the city worked in conjunction with 11 other municipalities in the greater Fox Cities area and as well as with the East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission. The reports before the committee that day represented 2020 data. They collected this data from various city departments and plugged them into the previous template of the reports. Some of the highlights of the data were captured in the staff memo that had been submitted to the committee.
He called particular attention to the table that was in the middle of the page which included a comparison of some key data points from 2018, 2019, and 2020. The 2020 column had the highest numbers all around which was a really positive sign.
They had 28 plats and Certified Survey Maps (CSMs) approved in 2020 which was a bit of an increase from the previous two years. He thought that increase was specifically because of an increase in approved subdivision plats. They usually have 5 or fewer CSMs whereas the subdivision plats can include a substantial number of lots.
In 2020, 86 residential building permits were approved which was quite an increase from previous years. They also saw an increase in dwelling units being improved. He said 94 of those units were related to the three downtown housing projects that had been approved, Crescent Lofts, Block 800, and the project at 320 E. College Avenue.
Given the uptick in permits and plats, there was also an increase in the amount of fees collected. The number of recently approved plats, especially those on the north side of the city, meant that the city had a higher number of vacant parcels than in previous years, but those were built upon in 2021, and that data would be reflected in next year’s report.
Director Harkness [possibly as a way of touching back on Alderperson Thao’s question regarding low-income housing] added that of the 180 new dwelling units approved in 2020, 60 were for low-income housing. The Crescent Lofts project had been a WHEDA tax credit project so 1/3rd of their units were low-income.
Alderperson Reed said it was nice to see Appleton was trending in a better direction overall and getting some of its housing needs taken care of.
None of the other committee members had any questions or comments, and the meet adjourned.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=910319&GUID=04CA9E53-E5EA-489C-A77E-5B5C75822AF7
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