Common Council Approves Updated Municipal Code Language Regarding Driveways, Approves Next Steps In Mixed-Use Transit Center Development Project

The Common Council met 02/01/2023. As noted on the Legistar meeting details page, “Due to equipment failure, there is currently no audio/video available for this meeting.”

Per the meeting minutes, four action items were separated out for individual votes, two from the Transit Commission and two from the Municipal Services Committee. All four of them were approved unanimously by votes of 15-0, so the separating out of the items may have been done not as a result of opposition but rather as an opportunity to highlight the projects and ask for further details.

The first item taken up was 23-0068 from the Municipal Services Committee which was a request from TC Energy for a permanent street occupancy permit for gas pipeline markers along the utility easement within Maple Hills Subdivision. This had been very briefly discussed during the committee meeting. Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) had said that, while the specific subdivision was not in her district, many of her constituents had taken issue with “these big ugly things in our backyard,” and she had wondered how this would affect property owners.

Director of Public Works Danielle Block responded that this permit would not affect property owners at all. “Under the easement language, they do have the right to place markers on private or public property within their easement limits. This just gives [TC Energy] the right to memorialize that they are in our right of way and took out the proper permits.”

The second item taken up was 23-0069 which was a request to approve proposed change to Municipal Code 19-91, parking in front and side yard in residential district; parking on terraces. This was discussed and approved by the Municipal Services Committee on 01/23/2023. The changes were mostly updates to the code verbiage and the addition of some graphics to make the code more understandable. They also removed some rules that were no longer permitted under state statute.

The third and fourth items were items 23-0051 and 23-0076 from the Transit Commission. These were the request to apply and accept a grant that would be used to fund the construction of a new transit center and a request to utilize the law firm of Stafford Rosenbaum LLP as legal counsel for the Transit Center Joint Development project. Both of these items were discussed fairly extensively during the Transit Commission meeting on 01/24/2023.

As mentioned above, each of these four items were approved by votes of 15-0.

View full meeting details here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1061779&GUID=25DEE0DD-3790-4180-A203-11F220575056

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