Appleton Redevelopment Authority Receives Update On 222 N Oneida Street Property – Environmental Investigation Is Almost Completed Paving Way For Purchase By Valley Transit

The Appleton Redevelopment Authority met 05/08/2024. One of the information items they received was an update on the vacant lot at 222 N. Oneida Street just north of Valley Transit.

I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:

Director of Community Development Kara Homan told the committee that the environmental investigation of the site that has been ongoing will soon be completed. The environmental testing had been completed and the testing wells have been removed. In mid-April all of the paperwork needed to close the site had been submitted to the DNR.

ARA member Jim Van Dyke asked if closure of the environmental investigation would give the city carte blanche to develop the site as they wished, or would more investigation be required if the city wanted to do a residential development rather than a commercial development there.

Director Homan said she would have to talk to the city’s consultant on the site, but she believed that the site was close to the point where it could be developed. [I took this to mean, “developed without restrictions.”]

ARA member Todd Brokl asked if completion of the environmental testing meant that the requirements in Valley Transit’s offer to purchase had been met.

Director Homan didn’t really give a clear answer and merely stated, “I believe there was a section in the offer to purchase related to the environmental investigation.”

Unrelated to the environmental testing, Director Homan also reported that the site at 222 N Oneida Street had been opened up as a staging site for Boldt as it worked on the library and the Meade Inc which was rebuilding an underground electrical vault for WE Energies. Both of the agreements with those companies had been do in consultation with the City Attorney’s Office and included provisions that protected the ARA and gave the ARA the ability to terminate the agreements on short notice if necessary. She said that both Ron McDonald, the General Manager of Valley Transit, and Dean Gazza, Appleton’s Director of Parks, Recreation, and Facilities, were supportive of the agreements.

Those agreements had been issued administratively so the ARA did not need to take any action on them.

View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1182539&GUID=BC6AD851-EF73-4BFA-ABAA-D71B1E45A504