The Municipal Services Committee met 04/11/2022.
They had 9 action items, none of which were particularly controversial or out of the ordinary, although a few did warrant some brief discussion.
The first three items were passed 4-0 without any discussion or questions.
- Request from All Tied up for a street occupancy permit to place tables and chairs in the College Avenue beautification strip at 324 E. College Avenue.
- Request from Hilton Appleton Paper Valley Hotel to extend their street occupancy permit for dumpsters on College Avenue (Meters CAW 301, 303 & 305) through April 30, 2022.
- Request from Hilton Appleton Paper Valley Hotel for a street occupancy permit for a construction container on the Superior Street side of 333 W. College Avenue through May 31, 2022
The next two items did garner some discussion.
- Approve Inter Governmental Agreement with Outagamie County for the CTH JJ (Lightning Drive to Cherryvale Avenue) Reconstruction Project.
- Approve Inter Governmental Agreement with Outagamie County for the CTH E & EE (CTH JJ to Applehill Boulevard) Reconstruction Project.
Director of Public Works Paula Vandehey explained that neither of these projects were in the city’s 5-year plan. Outagamie County is applying for the infrastructure bill funding and one of the ways to get points on their application is by making sure that they have an intergovernmental agreement with the local municipality that would be a part of the project.
Alderperson Chad Doran (District 15) asked to clarify that they were not in the design phase yet with either of these projects.
Director Vandehey confirmed that was the case. If they are awarded the funding then they will add design into the budget as well as future construction.
Alderperson Doran saw that they were talking about reconstructing the road and adding both bike lanes and multimodal bike paths/sidewalks. He was curious about the necessity of having both the multimodal paths as well as bike lanes when both of the proposed projects were county highways with higher traffic speeds. Unless they were installing protected bike lanes, he thought that most bicyclists would opt to ride on the path instead of in the bike lane.
Director Vandehey said thatthey were doing a couple of things with these projects. Firstly, they wanted to follow Appleton’s approved city bike lane plan. She said that bike lanes were part of the transportation network and people that people who bike will feel comfortable using the bike lane, and if not, they could use the multimodal path. Secondly, in order to get federal funding, they needed to have a multimodal path.
Alderperson Doran asked if bike lanes were required as well or if it was just the multimodal trail they needed to install to get the federal funding.
Director Vandehey answered, “Multimodal is definitely a way to get the points. The on-street bike lanes will be probably a necessity. The off-street, or side multi-modal paths is probably an option that would be worked on through the design process.”
There were no further questions and both items were approved 4-0.
The next item was “Approve designation of 9 parking stalls in the Red Ramp for the Hilton Hotel.”
Director Vandehey told the committee that these stalls have, for many years, been designated for the hotel, but she couldn’t find anywhere where that designation was codified or approved. She thought that their designation for the hotel should be clearly codified so the 9 stalls didn’t potentially grow to more stalls.
Alderperson Brad Firkus (District 3) asked how those stalls were currently utilized. Was it for employee parking or short-term loading and unloading or something else?
Director Vandehey said it was mostly employees who parked in them, but sometime vendors came in and used them also.
There were no further questions and the item was approved 4-0.
The next two items related to parking restrictions.
- Approve parking restriction change on the 400 block of W. College Avenue. Follow-up to Six-Month Trial Period.
- Approve parking restriction change on the 300/400 block of N. Division Street. Follow-Up to Six-Month Trial Period.
There was no discussion or questions about either of these items. Alderperson William Siebers (District 1) voted nay on both of them, then said that he incorrectly voted no on the first one and asked for his vote on that one to be changed to an aye. He did not indicate why he had voted no on the parking restriction change for the 300/400 block of N. Division Street.
The final action item was “Approve request from Creative Downtown Appleton Inc. to install a parklet on the west side of N. State Street at parking stalls #178 and #179 per the On-Street Parklet Policy.”
Jennifer Stephany the executive director of Downtown Appleton Inc spoke to the committee about this request. She said they would be making a couple of changes from last year.
Stateview, the coworking business on the northeast corner of College Avenue and State Street, had received some pushback from some of their members regarding the parklet which had been placed next to their building last year. As a result, Creative Downtown Appleton Inc decided to move the unit across the street directly across from the Mile of Music mural, where it was last year, and in front of the former Muncheez Pizza building that is currently vacant. [I can’t imagine why that might be.] To her knowledge there was no new tenant as of yet; however, the building did have a new owner and they were doing their best to connect with her, although they had not heard back yet. They planned to follow up with her and get her approval or any updated information.
To their knowledge, at this point the building was intended to be vacant for some time, but they would stay in touch if there were any changes on that.
The parklet itself would be the same unit they used last year. It has a framed structure that allows for drainage, an ADA ramp that runs the full length of the unit, LED lighting, and reflective tape all the way around the unit. It will have fencing and planters. The planters will be wrapped with murals and hold fresh herbs. They planned to add some carpeting to the unit to make it less slippery.
The unit didn’t experience any damage last year, and they were excited about the opportunity to bring it back this year.
Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) asked if the placement was contingent on getting the approval of the new owner of the Muncheez building.
The parklet policy stated that if an adjacent building owner disagreed with the placement of a parklet then they would have to look for a different location for the unit. Ms. Stephany said that they were happy to try to get ahold of the business owner again. They had already reached out once to her and would continue to try to make that connection. Ms. Stephany mentioned that she had found a potential tenant for the building and so needed to talk to the owner about that in addition to the parklet.
There were no further questions, and the parklet placement was approved 4-0.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=954595&GUID=A2997A22-ADF2-49EE-B7C1-BDB5AF5B0637
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