Parks and Rec Commission - Regular Meeting

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I really like I like Apple and Milwaukee is just super fast. Yeah. Not that far either. Yeah. I went to so Sure. Okay, mics are on. [clears throat]

All right. Call the meeting to order of the plan commission. November 25th, 2025, 6 p.m. City Hall council chambers. Can I have a roll call, please? Burgess here. Canon here. Uh, Kubiaak here. Okay. Um, principal here and Reeds here. All right. We have Corum.

Thank you. General public comments and public appearances. I have one. Um, Dan, I'll save yours till the item. Is that okay? All right. So, we will move on to number um four, which is approval of the minutes um from September 30th, 2025. I will make a motion to approve the minutes from September 30th, 2025. I'll second that. Motion is second. All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion carries. On to number five, which is a comprehensive plan update round two elements review um for the housing mobility and economic development review. updated round one elements follow up to a public meeting and survey. Morgan, you can come up to the mic there. I'm gonna tilt it a little bit. Um, okay. Thank you guys. I will try to uh keep it as brief as possible. Um, but yeah, I did just get to call, but yeah, my name is Morgan Shapiro. I'm a planner with MSA. Um my colleague Brad who was here at the last meeting accepts with a job with the DOA which we're very happy for for so he is not at MSA any longer but um wishing him best of luck and I'm very happy to be taking over this project. Um so thankfully I think we were at kind of a good spot to do this transition. Um, so basically what I have for you today, uh, is, um, I accidentally said first set of elements in my little memo, but it's actually the second set of elements for us to kind of talk about, touch on a bit with the presentation. And then in the packet itself, um, not in my presentation, I provided, um, an inesign draft of kind of what the final visual document will look like. And I would love your comments, feedback, things you like or don't like. Each community has a little different feeling, but we try to keep it like really graphic, visually accessible, um, easily understandable by the community generally speaking. So, um, yeah, I will kind of go into our presentation now. Um, and everyone has it in front of them. So, yeah, currently

we are just right about at the middle stage of this process. Um, we had a public input meeting uh in October and it was great. I thought we got really good feedback from the community members that attended and um we were able to get a little over 100 survey responses as well which I thought was really promising and yeah [clears throat] kind of touch uh start off and touch a little bit on um what kind of public engagement uh responses we got. So I would say that there was a very mixed response for why people live in the city. Um fair proximity to work, the character of the community, being close to their family, that seemed to be the biggest um reason. And then uh retail, school, recreation opportunities were probably like considered the lowest. Um I have a table here that uh if we're all looking at the same thing, the orange table. Um, one thing I thought that was really interesting about this was asking community members to kind of rate the quality of the housing options on the market in the city. And when we asked about ownership clo cost supply and qu and quality, we got generally more positive reviews. Obviously, not entirely, but if you compare that to the rental housing cost, supply and quality, that was all uh rated quite a bit lower in uh quality. And uh kind of moving on and asking people what the most important investments are for the future. um public safety, street repair, maintenance, and economic development were at the top of the list for um additional investment. And um when we asked about housing specifically and basically gave a list of different types of ways to kind of increase density,

you'll see that small lot, single family homes were by and large the most uh supportive from the community members and definitely a lot less so on the other options that we presented, which you know, it's a small community and so we understand why people would feel that way, but um it's good to kind of show everyone what kind of options there are, you know, not just big apartment buildings, but there's other ways to kind of gradually create additional uh housing opportunities in a community. So, I would say kind of key takeaways. Um, there was definitely concerns about housing availability. The data also showed pretty low vacancy rates in the city for both rental and ownership opportunities. So that kind of tracks with what we're um seeing data wise. Uh downtown revitalization is a huge um she have a question or should talk.

Oh, it looks like Okay, sorry. I'll just keep going.

Yep. Sorry. um wanting to see infrastructure improvements, wanting to see better employment opportunities, and then the themes of like what people really felt strongly about as far as the community. What makes Berlin great is the character um the fact that there is a downtown there that you know has active um establishments already there. Um you know, making sure that infrastructure and accessibility is a prioritized. Um, youth and family support was a huge thing that we heard a lot about, especially um, at the actual public input meeting. We heard a lot about it, especially opportunities for daycare. And then talking to school districts about being able to create opportunities for the teachers in the district to actually live in the city was a big thing we heard. Um, and then great public spaces and events was something that we heard really was uh, key to why people love to live here. And then um opportunities to partner and collaborate between the city and other organizations like economic development organizations kind of regional ones. That was something that we heard you know very strong feelings about about pursuing. Um so kind of moving on into housing unless should I pause any thoughts on the public engagement? Um, okay. So, I will continue and we'll talk about housing. So, I have the full um the full is in the packets um that was published. I would love, you know, I know that this is a ton of information to talk about right now. So, I'm not going to walk you through every single uh potential strategy or action right now, but I would love if you all could like take a look through the list and be like, okay, like what makes sense? What

feels like it needs tweaking? And I have my email and I would love for comments by December 16th or so would be ideal um to be able to kind of keep on our internal timeline for the plan. Um but if that seems not doable, we can have a discussion, talk to Tim and Tim and I can make a plan. So um supporting a range of housing options to retain and attract city residents. That was important uh based on the conversations that we had and also making sure that you know if new housing is built that it's done carefully so that it's sustainable into the future as in you know accommodations for changes to traffic flow changes to storm water management management water that kind of thing um and being thoughtful about density residential density that's definitely something I'm looking for your feedback on today if you have any. um right now and kind of basing on our conversations about potentially adding more density in the city feels like the downtown area would kind of be the the main place where that would make sense right now. But if you had feelings about like its appropriateness or inappropriateness in specific areas, that would be really important, especially moving into the future land use map, which is the next portion of this planning process. Um and I'll move on to um develop and maintain quality housing to ensure a safe and healthy neighborhood for all city residents. So, one thing um that we notice is that a lot of the housing stock uh in the city's older and so that brings a set of challenges that you that it's good to plan for for the next 20 years um as far as maintenance, upkeep, and making sure that uh the homes are safe to live in.

Um and just some data, you can see overwhelmingly in the data that it's primarily single units. detached housing and then there's a little bit of other types of units kind of sprinkled in, but that is the predominant uh housing option in the city. And you can see that the median home value is actually slightly lower than Green Lake and Wer County, which is interesting. Um, it might be due to the general age of the housing stock, which puts it on the lower end compared to maybe other communities in Green Lake County have built more housing more recently, and that's upping the median value. Um, but, uh, that's just my speculation. Um so economic developments uh that we heard a lot of positive feedback about economic development wanting to attract retain businesses um and employment opportunities commercial industrial and then also potentially like the recreational sector. Um and one thing that we tried to focus on is okay what kind of recommendations make sense? What kind of funding is available? what kind of programming would uh allow for additional opportunities to be approached and um of course making sure that everything is financially sound. That's a huge thing especially like we hear from a lot of communities concerns about tax increment financing and there's lots of ways that um we've moved through you know especially the 2008 2009 crisis and been able to make smarter choices for communities to make sure that financial investments are sound um and that we get to see uh local businesses thrive which is awesome. um and uh prioritize the downtown area as a pedestrianfriendly and attentive center of economic activity designed to meet community needs. And what that

means is, you know, being able to go downtown to have your your kind of retail and recreational kind of needs met. And I think that there's already a lot of key pieces in place and a lot of it is a matter of, you know, businesses working together is a huge part of it and then being able to just support pedestrian oriented development on that downtown area and kind of maintaining the quality and attractiveness of it and promoting events, that sort of thing. Um, okay. And then moving on to look at the data. Um you can see that um so it's this is kind of a little cool tool that the US census has. So it shows us how many people are commuting in for work, how many are commuting out for work, and how many live and work in Berlin, which is really cool. And so you can see that um right now most of the people that live here are commuting elsewhere for work. And that kind of matches what our survey said as well. But there is a lot of people that are commuting in for work as well. It could be, you know, the two biggest employment, you know, sectors in the city right now are the school district and the Walmart. So it could be that that's where the people are people are traveling in from to work. Um but yeah, I mean this is actually, you know, it's not like surprising. is relatively common um in Wisconsin for you know this size of a community. So it's not like it is what it is. But I think being able to have people [clears throat] be able to work where they live if they want to is a great part of kind of planning for the future and being able to attract new residents. Um and I will add a little bit more on the

survey on economic development. Um, we'll say that of the people that we surveyed, people are going downtown quite a bit. Most people said they come one to two times per week, which is I think a great number and that shows like a strong desire to support local downtown businesses. Um, so that is really promising and asking people what would they like to see more of, more events and programming. That was the number one answer by far. Um, and then following that would be gathering spaces and street amenities. So these are kind of concrete things that you can look towards to the future in assisting being able to kind of add uh opportunities for uh retail and attractions in the downtown area. And uh moving into the last section that we um brought you some content on that's mobility and transportation. Um, we see well integrated multimodal transportation systems as the kind of future of healthy safe transportation in a community. What that looks like for every community is different. But being able to have the option to get around safely if you are a person that doesn't own a car or if you're elderly or for some reason don't aren't able to drive like being able to feel like okay I can safely cross the street or go or my kids can safely go to school is important and then also being able to prioritize maintaining uh maintaining roads which is a comment we heard a lot is about road maintenance that was like the number one investment things. So, it's kind of like a balance between um the different uh the different needs of the community. Um yeah, so um being able to uh to do a compatible system for the future

lanes plan is important as well. So, you know, if in the future there are changes to like the layout or the grid of the city, making sure that you're kind of carefully planning transit towards the future so so that um you know it's going to be able to be maintained uh fiscally and also just like structurally speaking. Um yeah, and um we have a little transportation map, which is actually really hard to see in the print out, so I apologize for that. Hopefully in the packet is more easily accessible. But yeah, we did look at like a lot of the traffic counts um around uh around the city. And one thing I'll say that I heard a lot is feeling like the downtown has all the transportation. like people passing through are passing straight through the downtown. And so then there's like a question of safety, really busy, and being able to say, okay, like how could we potentially do um alleviate any safety concerns of, you know, having that be like the main thorough affair through through the city being like the area that's also supposed to be the most walkable. So, you know, kind of just something to contend with at this time. Um, yeah. Sorry. Hopefully I'm going at the exact right speed. [laughter] You're

good.

Okay. So, and then the next step is the future land use map, which is one of the most important parts about this plan that is really going to play a huge role in being able to implement recommendations moving into the future. So any thoughtfulness that can be provided um as we move into the process is super helpful. I was just talking with Tim a little bit. We're going to meet later on um before the end of the year about it. But um yeah, I just wanted to kind of talk to you a little bit and make sure that you all understand that the future land use map sometimes um brings up questions from the community. different than a zoning map and it has a different purpose. So, I want to make sure that we like move through that thoughtfully. Um, but it does seem like your existing one at least has their land use categories because sometimes they use zoning categories and settling use categories and that that creates confusion for the public, but we don't have that issue. So, I'm hoping to move forward and kind of successfully start to think about what makes the most sense as far as, you know, where commercial and mixed use is. And then, um, yeah, that's really the main uh that's the main talking points I have for today. I just spoke a whole bunch. Um, I would love to hear any feedback right now if you have any, but also if you want to provide it to me via email after you've had a chance to kind of more thoroughly go through everything, whatever works best for all of you. But yeah, thank you for your time. Thank you. And does anybody have any questions right now for Morgan? Um, just a reminder to highlight that December 16th deadline. um any feedback for her

to either email to her or to Tim. Yeah, whichever otherwise Thank you, Morgan. It was a lot of info, but it was Yes, it was good. Sorry. Yeah, it's always such an infoheavy process, but yeah, the more that uh the more feedbacks that are given being able to make sure that you're happy with the end product. So, anything you have for me, I will accept that. Perfect. All right. Thank you. All for now. Okay. Safe travel. Thank you. I think I think Mary has a question. Oh, yes.

You can tell. I She's catching the Yeah, she have a couple questions. Okay, now I can hear. Yes. um of her on their housing data for one. Okay. Okay. Um on the data he shows 39 mobile home units. Where do we have those?

So that is pulled straight from the ACS. And I will say that um in the smaller the community, it can be hard because sometimes there's a larger margin of error on the data. So, it might not be exactly 32, but um if you feel like that data is inaccurate, I could talk to Tim about potentially seeing it. There's another way that we can do those calculations, but sometimes the ATS is the best we have. So, um that kind of is probably why you're feeling like, oh, that's not exactly what I do this. Does that make sense?

I don't know. Yeah, there's a little bit of a glance with the YouTube, but yeah, we there are some that still even after that was repealed exist on the community. They're here and there non-conforming properties.

Second question has to do with the uh when she talks about the u safety of downtown. uh has I'm questioning whether there was any discussion with the department of highways if they're going to be redoing 91 through town if any discussions have been made about that.

There were some discussions at the public or at was it a public one Jesse the DOT or was that just the elected officials? I think it was at the elected officials meeting. Um the DOT did go over possible options and pedestrian safety was one of the big highlights that we did touch on. So there are plans um or at least some highlights we've discussed. Um but yes it has been discussed Mary did she catch any of that? Did he catch that?

Maybe we lost her. Okay. Well she only had two questions. So those were the two that Okay. Well, yeah, please. So we did, yes, the pedestrian safety one was a huge one at the DOT meeting. So yeah, good. We have talked um in length about that and coming up with some solutions. So good. Yeah, I definitely advocate for you all advocating for yourselves with the team because sometimes that's what it takes. Sure. [laughter] Okay, great. Thank you. Yes, I did. Okay. [laughter] This is [snorts] fun.

Okay. So, we'll move on to number six, which is Right. Nobody else had any questions? We can close that one up. Okay. Number six is the public hearing. Um the reszone request for Johnson Street parcel number 20600833-0. Legal description efforts additional lots one 22 and 23 block 143. I will open the public hearing. Does anybody wish to speak for um the reszone request? Does anybody wish to speak for Anybody wish to speak for? Anybody wish to speak against? Anybody wish to speak against the request? Anybody wishing to speak against? Is there anybody here that would like to make a comment? If not, I will close the public hearing. Tim. Um, the recommendation is to recommend to common council to approve the reszone request for the Johnson Street M2 Manufacturing District to R2 residential district parcel 206-00833-0.

We've already talked about this obviously. Does anybody have any questions for Tim or Tim, do you have anything else to add? Yeah, I can just again hoping to not be redundant here, but this is one that uh where the future land use maple, the policy documents, the plan, everything is very favorable towards what they're proposing here. It's infill development that's already served by utilities. They're in discussions with Brian with the water sewer to arrange how that can work and it should be a good sort of place to fill in what's a bit of a missing tooth in the neighbor in the neighborhood there. [clears throat] [snorts] I'll make a motion to um send a common council to approve the resoning request for the Johnson Street from M2 to R2.

I'll second motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. On to number eight, which is minor subdivision CSM request for Johnson Street properties. Uh Johnson Street recommendation authorizes staff to endorse the approval of the proposed minor subdivision CSM of 206-00833-0 as presented. Did we have Carol's vote on that last one? Or she didn't hear. Did you hear her say hi? Oh, [clears throat] make sure that she's

good. Thank you. This will be a fun name. Okay, go ahead. Okay, so this is actually and coincidentally it's the same property. Um, and this is not to be overlyed here, but the factors that made it eligible for reszoning also apply to it being subdivided this way. that these are, I believe, standard lots that they'd be creating and are will be served by utilities and developed. Anybody have any questions for Tim? I didn't say hi. [clears throat] Thank you.

I guess I just had a quick question. Um, did you get a copy of the survey map for the Yep, we have it all on there. Yep.

This might actually take another day though because I just saw at the bottom that there's a from the city treasures to look at something. I can sign what I can sign. But uh downstairs I'll make a motion to authorize staff to endorse the approval of the proposed minor subdivision as presented. I'll second motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Was she an ass?

I think that's what she said. actually um motion.

There you go. Can we not do this again?

Number nine, um number nine, discussion and recommendation of preliminary discussion of River Street discontinuence uh vacation for students Wisconsin statute 66.103. 103 recommendation is to discuss street vacation process and motion to recommend that the common council initiate the process for vacation of the highlighted portion of River Street under Wisconsin statute 66.103 by drafting and introducing a preliminary resolution to commence the statutory process for discontinuence of the described right away. All right, I'll try to cover how this would go in practice unless Should I No, go for it.

Talk about this first. Do what? Oh, yeah. Um, Dan, do you want to speak? [clears throat] Dan, hop up 235 South Wisconsin Street, Brooklyn. So, I own the property on the corner of Wisconsin Street and Urban Street in question and I had previously uh provided a bunch of maps. Did do you all have access to those? Yep.

Okay. So, there's portions of Wisconsin Street and River Street that have been vacated in the past. Um, but there's a portion of River Street that is actually um just not being utilized as as a street and it and it's listed as unimproved and um for deciding what the potential future improvements are. Nice to know that street was abandoned or you you were going to make improvements, make a street and put in water storage so forth. I think economically and feasibly it would make sense to abandon it and that's I guess what what my thoughts were in regards to that.

Thank you. Yep. The only one and what is he the only one that Yeah. Um, you guys should also have a packet um from American Industrial Sales um [laughter] basically an objection um to this proposal.

Um it also was not I just want to clarify it was not a hearing. Correct. Yeah, this is just a preliminary discussion, but I did pro I did mail out to uh the adjoining property owners just to make sure they were aware that this was our primary discussion that and I probably detailed the process including that there'd be hearings and meetings on this. This is not by any means where we're making a final decision,

right? So really, we're just looking to send this to common council for discussion and to initiate the process and then it would come back to us. Um and that's when the hearing I believe that

would be scheduled. Yeah, I believe we have more of a discussion that uh you know once they you know give that sort of clearance to bring forth probably I prematurely put in this packet but uh wanted to give people the opportunity to review and try to understand the process because it's taken me probably the better part of the last year when we first had a different [snorts] proposal of this type of sort for a different street to uh get a decent enough handle on this process. It's um I think we also have some more um research to do. Yeah,

especially based on some of the stuff that came forward or some of the questions that um AIS has brought forward. I think I think it' be too soon. Yeah, I don't think that anything's ready to be sent to common council at this point. So Tim, if you want to do at least have some answers to some of these questions. I I don't know if anybody else Paul, are you okay with that? I don't think there's any decision we can make right now.

Yeah. Um well, they stated here that they demand a phase one. I mean, that needs to be discussed too because I I've done a lot of EPA work and that's not easy to do. So, so I think that we um Tim, maybe you can do a little bit more homework on this one before this one um comes back to us. Okay. Does that sound fair, everybody? Yeah. I don't think we're anywhere near ready to make any kind of a decision. Especially just receive.

Yeah. And as I think that having the commission have some time to review, obviously I've given you way too much information to digest in probably the amount of time you've been given thus far. So yeah, that I'd say will allow us to get this process rolling. Sure. When we get to go through all the due diligence.

Okay. So right now there's no discussion to or any more discussion I would say until we have some more information. All right. Moving on to number 10 then is discussion of ordinance amendment text amendment of language for section 2-509 forum. Uh the recommendation is to schedule a public hearing to discuss the amendment for 2-509 on the special meeting date of January 6, 2026. And this is basically just to go over um dropping it from half the total the allowed number.

So I can't even say it properly. Current ordinance as you can see in here. I did a the tracking changes so you can see what the old is versus the new. I mean, the language will be open to if the city attorney has recommendation for a different way to put this, but essentially just making this uniform with the rest of our boards and commissions that are at least as far as I know generally they have plus one. And when I looked at other plan commissions throughout the state, even their handbook suggests that that's the best sort of practice for you to adopt in your ordinance. So, we're just

And does our ordinance, I don't know, Jesse, we ever looked at this. Does our organ state half plus one of the total number of seats or the the vacant seats or So a quorum is is um half plus one of total seats whether or not they're old or not. However, your plan commission is even more demanding, right? Correct, Tim? I mean we have Yeah. stands. Yeah. And you require five

to hold the meeting. So normally you would need four. So he's bringing forward to you an amendment to be in more conformity with most communities. Not that you have to be, but um that would allow you to have four of your members constitute a forum rather than having to have five for for commission. I think it also makes sense to have it cohesive with the rest of the committees. [clears throat] Agreed. And a selfish plug that if you have a desire to be on the plan commission, please reach out to our mayor. [laughter] Like if you had a couple people that wanted to come forward. Yes.

Yes. Thank you. Um so do we need a motion to do the to schedule hearing? I'll make a motion to schedule a public hearing to discuss the amendment for 2-509 on a special meeting date of January 166 or 2026. I'll second that motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Okay, I would assume she's not going to oppose this one.

Are you there, Mary? Maybe she was That one that was passed. Okay, moving on. Prelimin number 11, which is a preliminary discussion of a zoning code update. Yes, I am. [laughter]

Thank you. text amendment of language for section 82-716 C application recommendation is to schedule a public hearing to discuss the amendment for exclusively 82-716C on a special meeting date to January 6. So, I did two things here. You'll probably notice that, but first foremost, the one that I actually recommendation for is just to change the fee that's in the ordinance to a uniform with the rest of our fees that just say, "Look at the fee schedule for this. This will allow the city I mean, it just makes it much easier for staff to update it consistently with the rest of the other fees. And there are other reasons that I've talked with building inspector at length about that again that it just helps to make it uniform with what other communities do in that way. So that's the first thing. The second also was just looking at this section possibly in some point in the future, but not necessar not at all immediately looking into solar being incorporated because there are some communities that have done that with.

Okay. Anybody want to make a motion? I'll make a motion to schedule a public hearing to discuss the amendment for exclusively 82-716C on special meeting days of January 6, 2026. I'll second that motion and second. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries.

We'll get Mary's in a few seconds. Um, preliminary discussion of a zoning code update, discussion of amendment of section 82-363 and the area regulations for historic downtown business properties.

Okay. So um as some people are still present here that brought forth and this was something that's been an issue for a while because it was actually in our old 2003 comprehensive plan for recommendation to look at the setbacks in downtown. So now we are looking at the setbacks in downtown. It's known I'd say especially for people who have properties in downtown that there are many non-performing properties in that business district. So uh creating creating the policy to uh have zero line setback for the uh side and rear is not only consistent with I have four examples here but there are more. It seems again to be fairly what what would I say be just a good way to make it so that uh if people wanted to develop or do anything with their lots subdividing or combining it will make the process somewhat streamlined in a way that a lot of they would in other communities. questions.

You don't see any uh issues with this? No, this I mean we already actually have sort of a version of this covered in our special exceptions, but uh this would just make more things that are currently special exceptions that have a more lengthy process uh I'd say yeah expedited which and I mean it would allow the special exceptions to be reserved for more unusual cases which would be I still say if they're have a certain amount of millennial space against the residential district or if there which would essentially mean that anything that's in downtown would be able to develop and not have concern if there is a casualty event or something on the property.

Okay. So, do you need any action on this one right now? Oh, sorry. This I should have had the same as the last two and have this going for a hearing at the uh January 6 as well. So, this one would also be a hearing. I'll make a motion uh to schedule a public hearing to discuss the amendment of section 82-363 area regulations for historic downtown business opportunities at the January 6, 2026 meeting. I'll second that. Motion and a second. All in favor say I.

Any opposed? All right, motion passes. Uh number 13, old business. Does anybody have any old business they wish to discuss? Any new business be used to request items of new business be put on a future agenda? Number 15. The next meeting date is January 6, 2026. I'll take uh number 16. I'll make a motion to adjurnn. I'll second that. Motion a second. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Meeting adjourned at 6:44 p.m. Thank you everybody.