Parks And Recreation Committee Unanimously Votes To Suspend WE Energies Trail Project And Cancel Acceptance Of Grant For Project

The Parks and Recreation Committee met 09/12/2022. One of the items they took up was a request to suspend the planning and design of the WE Energies Trail – Phase One and cancel the acceptance of the Department of Transportation TAP Grant the city had been awarded for that project. This trail had been planned for to run on the south side of Appleton and would have run from Oneida Street to Lake Park Drive, but after performing geotechnical exploration it became apparent that groundwater levels were such that the cost of constructing a trail would rise from an estimated $960,000 to over three times that at $3.2 million which was prohibitively expensive. The committee voted unanimously to suspend the planning and design of the trail and cancel the city’s acceptance of the grant.

As had been brought up in previous meetings, there was a lot of opposition to the trail from the neighbors whose property the trail would be running along, and, although staff was recommending the project be suspended, a resident, Dawn, did show up and speak during the public comment portion of the meeting in order to make sure that the neighbor’s opposition to the project was on the record. She presented a petition that had been signed by over 100 people in all three of the districts the trail crossed through.

She wanted it to be on the record that there was over 90% opposition to the trail in those districts. They were particularly concerned about potential safety issues with having an unlit trail in the neighborhood, in addition to the safety concerns they already had for the area around a local park and school.

They also had privacy concerns and did not want people being able to walk past their backyards.

They were worried about the maintenance of the new trail. She felt that the city already did not have enough employees to take care of the parks it currently had, so she didn’t know how they would find enough labor to cover snow removal of grass cutting on a new trail.

Finally, they felt that the money could better be used to improve existing streets. She said Hoover Park needed a sidewalk to improve safety of children.

The committee took up the item, and Dean Gazza, Director of Parks, Recreation, and Facilities went over the memo he had submitted. He told the committee that this was the first time the City of Appleton had faced a situation where they had to decline a grant due to technical issues related to construction. He had been asked why the city didn’t know about the geotechnical issues before they held the public meeting about the project, but the reason for that was because the DNR had a very specific process which required a public meeting first before any geotechnical work was done. The city had not been allowed to go out there and start drilling prior to the public meeting. “It does create some frustration I think for our constituents in the neighborhood, and, you know, we apologize for that.” Overall, though, in spite of that frustration, he felt having the public meeting had been valuable because it provided an opportunity for residents to share their concerns, and if the geotechnical issues had not arisen, the city would have gone through and addressed those concerns.

There were, however, geotechnical issues. The report identified water levels mere inches below the surface and that was not even during the wettest part of the year. If construction of the trail had gone forward, they would have pushed that water onto the private properties on both sides which was not acceptable. The only way to overcome that would be to do a new design which would increase the cost of the project to over $3 million. They did not feel that was the best use of the city’s funds and they were recommending suspension of the project; though, if it became important down the road, and the dollar amount was justified, then it could be looked at again in the future.

He added that they would talk to the DNR to see if the grant money could be repurposed for a different project, but they were pretty sure the answer would be no because the application process was very specific and they had to meet a lot of criteria to qualify.

Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) said that the trail would have cut through a small portion of her district. One of the first concerns a constituent had raised with her was what the city was going to do with all the storm water. She appreciated the city was taking that seriously and not trying to smooth it over just to install a trail. She took issue with the statement that had been made during the public hearing portion of the meeting that 90% of the district was against the project and said that she had some other numbers; nevertheless, she noted those who lived along the trail were very concerned. She urged the members of the committee to approve the suspension of the project.

Alderperson Chad Doran (District 15) was also the alderperson of an affected district. He appreciated the work staff had put into this project and gathering the information that they had. He also appreciated the patience and understanding of the residents of his district as the city worked through this process. He had held a meeting earlier in the summer with a number of people in his district and received a lot of great feedback which he had been able to share with staff. He also felt that staff had been excellent in keeping people up-to-date on the project. He thought this was a great example of how the process should work for the community. He also urged the committee to follow the recommendation of staff and suspend the project.

Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) asked if approving the cancellation of the grant would cause problems if it turned out that the DOT ended up letting Appleton keep the money.

Director Gazza said they brought it forward a request to cancel the grant because the Council had originally needed to vote in order to accept the grant. If the DOT let them move the grant to a different project, then he would end up bringing it back to the committee and Council for acceptance to use on another project.

City Attorney Christopher Behrens also clarified that their vote would authorize Director Gazza to move forward with cancellation, but should there be another opportunity to apply those funds to a different project Director Gazza would be obligated to bring that back for another vote.

The committee went on to vote 5-0 to approve the suspension of the project and to cancel the acceptance of the grant.

View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=920201&GUID=D522770D-80C6-4519-9AED-DBB852289F51