The Community Development Committee met 07/10/2024. They took up three action items (1) a request to award the contract for updating the city’s comprehensive plan to SmithGroup for $375,000, (2) a request to award a contract to NeighborWorks Green Bay for $80,000 to provide training and program materials for the Neighborhood Leadership Academy, and (3) a request to extend the deadline on an offer for a plot in Southpoint Commerce Park.
All three items were approved unanimously by the committee.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
AWARD COMPREHENSIVE PLAN AND SUB-AREA PLANS CONTRACT TO SMITHGROUP FOR $359,000 WITH A $16,000 CONTINGENCY – This item was discussed as an information item at the City Plan Commission meeting. City staff believed the current Comprehensive Plan was outdated specifically regarding housing and land-use elements. They believed “our vision for our city just doesn’t align with what we’re hearing from the community.”
SmithGroup would update the overall plan and then also update the specific sub-areas pertaining to South Oneida Street, West Wisconsin Avenue, and Northland Avenue/Richmond Street. City staff expected that SmithGroup would identify sites in those sub-areas for redevelopment and infill development as well as possibly make recommendations about potential rezonings.
Separate from this update to the Comprehensive Plan, it was noted that Outagamie County is spearheading an effort with Appleton and Grand Chute to create a vision for West College Avenue.
The contract with SmithGroup was for $539,000 with a $16,000 contingency. Principal Planner Lindsey Smith explained that the contingency was because, “there may be situations when we’re starting the engagement that all of a sudden, we hear is a priority from the community, and we haven’t included in the scope of work. So, we may need to pivot if all of a sudden there’s this other large concern that comes out of the stakeholder engagement saying, okay, wait, we need to do a deeper dive into this issue and do some additional engagement that may be needed. And so that way it gives us those funding opportunities to pivot if we need to throughout the project.”
Even with the contingency the total amount of the contract was $375,000 which was $25,000 less than the $400,000 that the Common Council had allocated for the project out of American Recovery Plan Act funds. The city would end up repurposing the left over funds, but they had not determined in what way yet. When a project was identified and confirmed as eligible it would come back through the committee of jurisdiction and then through the Common Council for approval. The final project that the left over funds were used for might not end up being a Community Development Project. Per Community Development Director Kara Homan, they would look holistically at the city’s needs and make a recommendation on the best use of the left-over funds.
AWARD NEIGHBORHOOD LEADERSHIP ACADEMY PROGRAM CONTRACT TO NEIGHBORWORKS GREEN BAY FOR $76,250 WITH A $3,750 CONTINGENCY – The Common Council allocated $100,000 in ARPA funds to develop programing for the Neighborhood Leadership Academy. The purpose of this programming is to provider leadership development opportunities to existing leaders and help areas that don’t have a neighborhood organization but would like to have one. This program will help these neighborhood organizations increase their self-sufficiency through things such as succession planning and also increase community connections by encouraging communication across neighborhood boundaries. It would also help them pursue improvement projects and pursue funding for those projects.
Part of the consultant’s work was creating a toolkit that would still be available for use even after the NeighborWorks was no longer actively engaged in the program.
As with the contingency for the Comprehensive Plan update, the contingency for this contract was intended to be available if something unexpected came up that would demand more time of the consultants. Also, as with the Comprehensive Plan update, the unused funds remaining from the ARPA allocation will eventually be allocated to some other project to be approved by the Common Council.
Per the proposal from NeighborWorks, initial community engagement efforts will begin in late summer/early fall of 2024. In spring of 2025 they plan to take their first cohort through the academy training and help them get initial projects started. In summer and fall of 2025 they will refine the programming and curriculum for the academy and do additional community engagement work. Then in January-April of 2026 they will lead the second cohort through the training. Everything would be wrapped up and reported on by September 30, 2026.
Alderperson Vaya Jones (District 10) spoke highly of NeighborWorks, their proposal, and the fact that they were a local company. She was excited to see what they would do.
REQUEST TO APPROVE THE FIRST AMENDMENT TO THE OFFER TO PURCHASE FROM F STREET MANAGER 3, LLC RE: 14 ACRES IN SOUTHPOINT COMMERCE PARK – F Street Manager 3, LLC had entered into a purchase agreement with the city for 14 acres of land in Southpoint Commerce Park. They wanted to extend the deadline to complete that deal by one year moving it from 06/20/2024 to 06/20/2025. As part of that amendment, they agreed to an increase in the purchase price from $41,000 per acre to $43,000 per acre. Everything else in the original agreement would remain the same.
Economic Development Specialist Lily Paul told the committee that F Street had completed several other developments within Southpoint Commerce Park, had a good track record, and was great to deal with. Staff did not want to compromise the relationship the city had with F Street Management. Additionally, there were multiple other lots available in the commerce park, so this extension would not be denying development opportunities to other potential buyers.
The committee voted unanimously to approve all three items.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1201876&GUID=FEF1EBE5-7755-4662-89D8-A8DA57007321
Be the first to reply