The Community and Economic Development Committee met 03/22/2023. During that meeting they received the 2022 Growth Report for the City of Appleton.
I’ve prepared a complete transcript of the discussion for download.
Economic Development Specialist Matt Rehbein briefly went through the report, touching on the highlights.
EQUALIZED VALUE
He noted that the benefit of looking at equalized value was that it was standardized by the Department of Revenue so it allowed for reasonable comparisons between communities and across the state.
The City of Appleton’s equalized value increased by 12.3% as compared to an average of 13.8% statewide. He said those numbers were reasonably close and he did not think Appleton’s number was a cause for concern.
NET NEW CONSTRUCTION
The city was mindful of its net new construction because it could only increase its tax levy by the amount of net new construction. As was noted in the report, it is difficult for the city to take actions to impact that number because, while they did everything they could to attract new businesses to the area and bring in new development, the development process was long and gradual. Additionally, because Appleton is a mature city with defined borders to our east, west, and south, it did not have as many greenfield sites to develop as a newer municipality might have. Although there were redevelopment opportunities the pool of developers with the ability and willingness to do some of the projects in the downtown area for example was smaller than the pool of developers willing to build on the outskirts of a municipality in a greenfield site.
Appleton’s Net New Construction was up 1.89% in 2022 as compared to 1.25% in 2021, which Mr. Rehbein thought was good. “I think that with the projects that we have in the queue, and the things that are underway or already approved, we’re sitting in a good position. But I do want to point out that, you know, as we compare ourselves across other communities in the Fox Cities, you know, I would not expect that to be the highest number among the municipalities.”
UNEMPLOYMENT RATES
Unemployment in Appleton continued to be very low and averaged just 2.6% in 2022. In January of 2023 it was down to 2.2%. He mentioned that people may have seen the results of this low unemployment with appointments having to be scheduled a ways out and coffee shop hours being limited due to them not being able to find more employees. “We’re certainly not an anomaly. You know, despite what we’re hearing about happening in the world of tech and large layoffs with Google and others out on the West Coast, you know, we’re still sitting in that, you know, 2% range for unemployment. So, so it’s a challenge out there.”
HOUSING
Mr. Rehbein said that there was a need for housing. They were anticipating needing around 3,000 new residential units across all types and price points over the next 10 years. On average, however, they only provided 184 per year which was well below the 300 a year that they needed to reach 3,000 in 10 years.
In 2022, they had final plat approval for 209 new single family lots. That, combined with the new muti-family developments taking place downtown would help them get to that 300 number. He noted, however, that plat approval did not necessarily signify the delivery of a new home.
He opened things up for questions.
Both Alderperson Nate Wolff (District 12) and Vaya Jones (District 10) asked about the area along W. College Avenue between Linwood Avenue and Lilas Drive. This area included the former CVS building, the former WG&R building, and the long empty lot that once housed a Shopko or K-mart.
Mr. Rehbein said that the city had created TIF district 10 in that area so that they could provide incentives to developers who pursued projects there. Regarding the empty Shopko lot specifically, the city has had conversations with the owner over the past couple of years but have not seen any projects get off the ground. “You know, we can create the framework and have the TIF available, and we can certainly promote it. But at the end of the day, it’s got to be the private market that’s going to come in and, you know, with the vision to do something there.”
When asked about the empty CVS building, he said that the property had not reduced much in value from its occupied state. He thought it was currently assessed at around $1.3 million. TIF incentives were based on the increased value that a developer brought, so the base value already being pretty high was something that would have to be overcome in order to get TIF incentives for that lot. [I honestly don’t understand TIFs very well at all, but it almost sounded like in order for the city to be able to provide incentives for the development of that property the building would have to sit unused for a number of years until it decreased in value at which point a developer could come in and be able to get incentives for bringing it back up to where it’s currently at now. But, again, I don’t understand TIFs, so maybe my impression is not actually the case.]
Alderperson Jones mentioned that there had been a few projects that had originally been slated to end in December but, due to the economy and supply chain issues, and requested extensions from the city on completion deadlines. She wondered if that would affect the net new construction measure.
The short answer was, no, it did not. Mr. Rehbein said that, by statute, assessed value of properties was determined January 1 of any given year. Extending the completion date for a project strictly had to do with the city’s development agreement with the developer. “So, our development agreement will state, ‘We anticipate completion by December 31st of 2023.’ If we push that out, the assessed value on January 1 of 2024, is still going to be whatever it is, whether we’ve amended that development agreement or not. So, value is not impacted by our development agreements. It’s what we’re bound to in terms of TIF support when we amend those dates.”
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1074137&GUID=FC9FCFBF-8D21-4805-B11B-A70D27F66056
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