The Common Council met 09/04/2024. During the meeting they held public hearings for several items related to the proposed development of the Thrivent land on the north side of the city between Ballard and Meade Street and then voted on the associated action items.
As discussed during the 07/24/2024 City Plan Commission meeting, Thrivent’s concept master plan for the land envisions mixed-use development of office and retail buildings along Highway 41, a shopping and business corridor to the north, and then a mix of single-family, multi-family apartments, townhomes, and mixed-use commercial/residential buildings. They plan to build a new Thrivent headquarters and repurpose the old one. The development would include open spaces, parks, trails, and pathways. Of note, this plan is conceptual in nature and subject to change as Thrivent moves forward with implementing it over the space of a decade or more.
There were several preliminary items that needed to be approved before the decade-plus project could even begin to be implemented. These were an update to the city’s Comprehensive Plan Future Land Use Map, a rezoning, and the updating of a Planned Development Overlay associated with the property.
All of these items were approved unanimously by the Common Council.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
Four members of the public spoke on the proposed changes. They expressed concern about the impact the development would have on traffic in the area, particularly given that nearby areas outside of the Thrivent land were also being built out now. It was noted that traffic already gets very backed up when North High School lets out.
There was also concern about how the decrease in greenspace would impact water drainage. One resident mentioned that there had been flooding in that area because the sewer system hadn’t been designed to handle as much rain as they got, and he was worried that problem would be exacerbated when more pavement was installed and there was less greenspace to absorb rain.
Another resident was worried about how the development would impact his property and also was worried about the reduction in greenspace. He also noted that currently there was a little island of hunting space that belonged to Grand Chute in this area and wondered how that would be impacted by the proposed installation of a walking trail right next to it. He hoped that the proposed development could be less dense than currently planned.
Alderperson Patrick Hayden (District 7) is a Thrivent employee but noted both City Attorney Christopher Behrens and Thrivent’s legal council had indicated he did not have a conflict of interest since he works in IT and does not work in an area that has anything to do with the development of the site.
He expressed appreciation for the work Thrivent had done to meet with people about the plan and noted that it was going to be a multi-decade project so that there would be plenty of time to conduct studies on traffic flow and drainage. He also noted that the state required drainage studies the be conducted before the development could begin.
He asked when a traffic study was going to be conducted and was told by Community Development Director Kara Homan that one was currently underway.
Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) expressed gratitude for how transparent Thrivent had been with the community about their plans. She also expressed excitement over the fact that the concept plan included up to 2,300 new housing units.
Alderperson Nate Wolff (District 12) was also excited about the housing units and the fact that there was a variety of different types of housing units.
Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) asked if there was any way that the city could legally prevent the development from occurring. [I took this question to be an attempt to address concerns of residents who might oppose the development and not to spring from a desire of her own to block the project.]
Attorney Behrens answered, “[Y]ou’d have to articulate some basis for your opinion that the proposal isn’t acceptable and it’s not appropriate planning for that area. Given the amount of information that’s been presented in studies, that would be a challenge.”
The Council went on to vote unanimously to approve all three of the items related to the Thrivent development.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1213515&GUID=A89C854A-411F-40B9-91C0-B1AA12937328
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