The Community Development Committee met 06/25/2025. Most of the meeting was taken up with the 2024 Tourism Impact Report, but they did also vote on one action item which was a request to remove two parcels located near OO and Highway 441 from the Northeast Business Park and remove all business park-related deed restrictions and covenants. This was done in order to allow commercial, rather than industrial development of the parcels.
The committee voted 4-0 to recommend the request be approved.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
The two parcels in question are located along OO just west of Highway 441. The owner also owns additional land adjacent to these parcels some of which was recently annexed into the city from Grand Chute. The location of all of these parcels near Northland and Highway 441 provides high visibility and easy access, so the owner wants to develop it all for commercial use rather than industrial.
The City Plan Commission approved a request to rezone all of the parcels to C-2 Commercial District; however, regardless of the rezoning, the two parcels before the Community Development Committee were still part of the Northeast Business Park and subject to the deeds and restrictions of the industrial park which were all industrial-based so not conducive to development of commercial properties. As a result, the developer wanted to release the parcels from the business park and associated deeds and covenants.
City Economic Development Specialist Lily Paul told the committee that the deed restrictions for the industrial park had been created by the city and provided stricter standards regarding things like appearances, setbacks, and noise than the city’s regular zoning code. But, even when released from those restrictions, the developer would still need to abide by the city’s overall zoning code.
Ms. Paul also noted that there was justification for removing these properties from the business park. There was already a lot near the corner of OO/Conkey/Winslow, directly next to the properties under consideration, that was zoned commercial and was not part of the industrial park. The city could use that as justification for removing these other parcels and creating a new commercial corridor in that area.
The committee voted 4-0 to recommend the item be approved.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1303936&GUID=627D2663-4BAC-4CC9-9740-2F584642BAE8
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