The Common Council is meeting 09/20/2023 at 7PM.
If I had to guess, I would say it has the potential to be one of the longer Council meetings of this year as there are a number of items that garnered discussion during the committee meetings.
The proposed rezoning of land near the Clearwater Creek subdivision and the addition of it as phase four of the subdivision has prompted pushback from the existing Clearwater Creek residents. At the 09/06/2023 Common Council meeting these items were referred back to the City Plan Commission for additional discussion. The commission ended up voting unanimously to approve both items, but I would not be surprised if some of the residents came and spoke against it during the public portion of the Council meeting on 09/20/2023.
The Council will also be voting on two resolutions.
Resolution 10-R-23 would, if passed, require the full $1,926,000 of additional shared revenue from the state “to be used only to offset borrowing for public works and utility infrastructure (water distribution and sewer systems) and/or public safety projects” and for Mayor Woodford to provide the Common Council with documentation detailing the proposed use of the new state aid. These goals are partially aligned and partially at odds with how Mayor Woodford indicated he would recommend the funds be used. At the Common Council meeting on 09/06/2023 Mayor Woodford indicated he wanted to use half of that money for “physical projects related to infrastructure needs for the city” and the remaining half to fund public safety, technology equipment, and compensation and benefits needs.” The Finance Committee voted 3-2 to deny the resolution, and a majority of the committee seemed to view the resolution as being unnecessary.
Resolution 6-R-23 is the resolution pertaining to bird safe glass. As initially written, it would have required the city to create an ordinance implementing a bird safe glass requirement for buildings over 10,000 square feet with windows of a certain size. It proffered an ordinance from the City of Madison as a template for the Appleton ordinance, even though the Madison ordinance is currently the subject of legal challenge. It also required Appleton to identify all public buildings with existing glass panes that posed a danger to birds and then retrofit them with bird-strike abatement measures. The Community and Economic Development Committee amended the resolution extensively, removing the requirement to create a bird safe glass ordinance in Appleton and giving the city leeway in how quickly it retrofitted city-owned windows.
Resolution 9-R-23 is focused on promoting mental health awareness and, if passed as written, would commit the city of Appleton to promoting mental health awareness, reducing the stigma around mental illness, supporting increased access to mental health services, and encouraging the expansion of mental health services. The Board of Health voted to approve the resolution; however, no video of the meeting has been posted, so I was not able to provide a recap of the meeting.
Finally, the City Clerk fee schedule updates for 2024 resulted in some discussion at the Safety and Licensing Committee. Although it was recommended for approval, Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) voted against it and expressed concern about the $150 increase to the Class A Liquor License fee.
View full meeting details here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1114839&GUID=50924CCD-719A-41E8-982A-51D0EA4112F5
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