The Common Council is meeting 08/04/2021 at 7PM.
Typically, the mayor will present some recently signed proclamations, but he has no proclamations for this meeting. He will however be presenting certificates of recognition for the Boegenschutz Family and the Emergency Operations Center. He’ll also be recognizing the poems selected for the 2021 Sidewalk Poetry Program and review the allocation process of American Recovery Plan Act Funds.
One never knows exactly which items will be pulled out of the agenda for an individual vote, but there are a few things that seem to be of note.
First off, are the, now connected, issues of the the allocation of the excess general fund balance and the transportation utility study.
Alderpersons Brad Firkus (District 3) and Chad Doran (District 15) introduced a resolution during the 07/07/2021 Common Council meeting requesting that the mayor include funding for a transportation utility feasibility study in the 2022 executive budget. Less than a week after that, the mayor made his initial recommendations regarding allocating the excess general fund balance the city had. Due to the short amount of timing between those two events, funding for a transportation utility study was not included in the recommended allocations and the Finance Committee declined to amend the allocation recommendations to include it. During the next Common Council meeting it ended up getting referred back to the Finance Committee for a second look and this time they amended the allocation recommendations to make room for a transportation utility study. This was not without disagreement because they took some of that money from an allocation initially meant to keep the city from having to borrow money for an enhanced cross walk. I would be highly surprised if this item wasn’t pulled for discussion and a separate vote.
Resolution 9-R-21 calling for funding a transportation utility study was also referred to the Finance Committee which voted to amend it to call for a study to be commissioned (a change from the original language which had called for the mayor to fund it in the 2022 executive budget), and the committee then approved the amended resolution. The resolution has felt a little more rushed than some of the other resolutions that have been brought forward. (The city brand study, for example, was first introduced last year and spent many months being researched; and the resolution regarding political yard signs on city owned property also was held for a couple months so that the Attorney’s Office could research the legal issues surrounding it.) I would expect the Council to engage in some kind of discussion regarding it before voting on it.
Another item I expect to be separated out for an individual vote is the item regarding pole buildings. City staff originally came forward and recommended that pole buildings be completely banned on residential properties in Appleton. The Municipal Services Committee voted to approve that recommendation, but Alderperson Joe Prohaska (District 14) disagreed. The item ended up getting referred back to the committee for a second look. City staff revised their recommendation to ban them completely and instead recommended they be limited to no more than 200 sq. feet which is smaller than a typical 1 car garage. The committee, however, decided to amend it to remove any ban or restrictions specific to pole buildings and allow them to continue to be erected on residential properties with out any restrictions beyond what is already in the code regarding any accessory building. For some perspective I asked Public Works Director Paula Vandehey how many pole buildings they had issued permits for over the last two years; apparently, they issued two permits. City staff received a few complaints for each of those buildings.
Another item that I would expect to be separated out is the rezoning request for an undeveloped parcel on Coolidge Court. Although the rezoning would, in some respects, be a minor change from what the property is currently zoned as, some of the residents in the neighborhood are opposed to the change. Neither the residents nor the developer attended the last Common Council meeting. Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) who is the alderperson for the district where the property is located said that the residents told her they had concerns that they had not been able to get answered by the developer but had decided at the last minute they were not going to attend the Council meeting and plead their case because they had been told that the Council usually does what the Plan Commission recommends and they didn’t fee that anything they say would matter to the Council. Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) made a motion to table the item until the Council meeting on 08/04 in the hopes that that would give the residents more opportunity to get their questions answered as well as a second chance for them to come speak. The Council approved that motion, so now will be taking that item up again at this upcoming meeting.
Those are my best guesses on what items are the most notable, but, ultimately, we’ll just have to tune in to find out what happens.
View full meeting details here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=873331&GUID=05E94B95-E8A1-4761-82D5-5668A4FB8932&Options=info|&Search=
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