Plan Commission - Regular Meeting

Recording in progress.

Right. Welcome to the Village of Cottage Grove Plan Commission on Wednesday, April 8th, 2026. This is a hybrid meeting occurring both virtually on Zoom with the Zoom link at the top of the agenda and in person at Village Hall. We're also um on our YouTube channel. It is 6:30, so I'll call the meeting to order. We have a quorum and the agenda was properly posted. So, we'll stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right. Public appearances is the public's opportunity to speak. Um, we'll open it up to individuals in the room and then anyone else on Zoom ask that you state your name, address, and then limit your comment to three minutes. Um, if there anyone in the room that would like to speak? Is there anyone on Zoom that would like to speak? Okay. Move on to number five. discuss and consider the minutes from the plan commission meeting on March 11th, 2026. And those minutes are linked in the agenda. Make a motion to approve as presented. Second. Alex, is the motion second by Don? Second.

Oh, sorry, Kim. You are out. Out. Seconded on this one. Um, any discussion on the meeting minutes? All those in favor? I I I

opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. Uh number six, discuss and consider a request for a zero lot line application to split a duplex parcel. Yeah. So pretty straightforward. We have these every every so often someone looking to either split or join a lot. Um in this case they are doing a split. Um the only conditions we'd recommend are uh the typical ones recording the maintenance agreement with the register of deeds and then just a note that they'll also need approval from the utility commission. Um utility was cancelled today so they'll have to come back and get that at a later date.

Any comments or questions? Just one. I looked at this map this weekend, but then I just now maybe it's the environment. I remember we had the conversation on this parcel before maybe. Was it the permit probably to build way back when or um it wouldn't have been to build it because a single family or duplex wouldn't come to us. Um maybe not then. It's possible they joined it. Now they're splitting it again. I don't recall. There are some that go back and forth. Yeah. Okay. Can you turn your mic on? Sorry. Oh,

thanks. So, they have the letter from the plumber, which is the other thing require that they have separate utilities. So, that's good, too. I'll make a motion and get back to it here. Make a motion to recommend approval of a zero lot line application to split one existing duplex parcel located at 11:25 and 1127 North Park View into two parcels with staff conditions. I'll second that. All right. Motion by Don, second by JP. Any other discussion on the lot line application? Thank you. All those in favor? I I

I opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. Um we will move on to a presentation. Um and we'd invite you.

So we have the professor. We don't have the students. Uh John Higgins, he's been here before in his role with Karpsy, but he's also uh a lecturer at UW in the department of planning and landscape architecture, and he's presenting some student work that uh was done here in the Door Creek wershed. Hey everybody, thanks for joining uh thanks for allowing me to join you this evening. I'm going to try to share my screen here if I can find the Zoom window again. See how well this works. All right. All right. Well, this is looking uh looking better. Here we go. All right. So, now you should probably be seeing things other than the Zoom window here. Yeah, people online seeing that uh slide deck by chance. behind you.

So, it is. Look at that. As Aaron mentioned, I'm Sean Higgins. I uh am here wearing a couple of hats this evening. Both uh as a employee of the Capital Area Regional Planning Commission, uh where I've been working for the past, I think, dozen or more years at this point. And as Aaron mentioned, a lecturer uh of late in the department of planning and landscape architecture. Um, and as he mentioned in the intro, I'm here to present an idea to talk to you about a concept and the uh design studio that I instructed this past fall at the UW. So, first a little bit about Karpsy. Uh, we're one of nine regional planning commissions in the state. Most planning commissions deal in one or several of these four areas. land use and planning, water quality planning, economic development and transportation planning. We focus primarily in land use planning and water quality management. Um, a lot of what we do and a lot of what I do is uh work with communities in collaborative long range planning as well as providing area communities with uh planning assistance, mapping assistance, data, things like that. The reason I bring this up is because it's sort of baked into this idea that I wanted to present to you today as represented by our our students work. Um, I'm the principal instructor for a couple of classes, but like I said, I had the honor of uh running a design workshop, design and planning workshop this past fall for Bachelor of Landscape Architecture students as well as Masters of Urban Planning students. One of the things that uh was emphasized in that course is how regional planning is conducted. Too often in site planning or in planning generally we get a little

bit myopic and we put on our blinders and we focus on the effects of what is done what is built at a site level. Um but regional planning doesn't really work that way. It crosses boundaries. It crosses jurisdictions. And quite frankly, a lot of the systems that we deal in don't give a rip where the arbitrary boundaries that we have designated exist. One of those really good examples, a classic example is water sheds, is water. Water runs downhill. Water falls the topography. It does not care where the village ends in a town begins. And so that as well as um a couple of other points were things that we emphasized in this studio course. Negotiated outcomes are a must. Um, I'm sure you're all familiar with, have dealt with things like annexation petitions, um, and been involved in or heard of controversy and butting of heads between incorporated municipalities and towns largely to do with this notion notion of an extr territorial jurisdiction, an ETJ, um, a buffer off of the current corporate limits of a community where those communities are are asked to plan for future development should they expand into those areas. Um but one of the problems with that is that those ETJs uh oops conceptually tend to overlap one another. Now yes there are provisions in statute for how you would work that out, how you would split who owns owns which area. Um, but really this is all beside the point because we're talking about systems that don't align that don't adhere adhere to those boundaries. Natural systems,

economies, uh, transportation systems, things like that. Uh, one of the other points to emphasize in that studio was that collaboration now, like right now, uh, prevents conflict and regrets later on. In that image, I'm showing you the advance of development since 1970. So 30 years um sorry 20 years into the future gets Madison gets a little closer in 2010. A little closer at the same time. Um Cottage Grove, Sun Prairie, all expanding all converging or meeting in the middle there. What was formerly rural area dotted with uh as shown here environmental corridors or areas that were those lands to be developed would be required to be placed in environmental corridors for protection due to the presence of water resources or other such things. And so if we're interested in planning for those areas, um really the best time to be doing that was 30 years ago. And so the clock is ticking as communities progress further, grow, develop beyond their borders. And another reality that this studio dealt with was, well, frankly, it everyone can't have everything they want all the time. budgets are tight. Creative solutions are what we need. We need things to serve double, triple, quadruple duty uh when they're implemented. Um and that notion is is something that's baked into uh a concept like ecosystem services. So ecosystem services could be anything that we

derive from a a system, a natural system. So those uh things like crops, timber, fresh water, um it it serves a regulating purpose as well, uh soil erosion prevention, uh flood regulation, water um purification. And then it also serves cultural um function, recreational uses, um the scenic benefit, the sense of identity that we get from those landscapes. I think in Wisconsin, we all probably relate in one way or another to rolling hills, green pastures, milk cows, right? And I think in the uh the Madison area, part of the identity is that highquality crop land are those ample recreational outdoor activities that we we benefit from in this area. And so we really uh narrowed in on on looking at those multi-benefits offered by ecosystem services. Now, obviously, as I'm wearing my Karpsy hat, uh, with my interest in uh, water quality, one of those ecosystem services, one of those systems that we're looking at is is water is storm water specifically. So storm water is anything rain, melt water, things coming out of the sky, hits uh constructed or natural areas, runs downhill, ends up in streams, lakes, ponds, much of it ending up in uh the Gulf of Mexico. And I probably don't need to belabor the point about uh the impacts of unmanaged

storm water, polluted surfaces, flooding um and so on. These are things that are protected currently within uh law. We currently look for control of how much water there is, how much junk the water is is carrying with it as it runs into those channels. silt, dirt, those sorts of things. Um, how much of it is staying put, replenishing the groundwater aquifers, um, what temperature it's at, if we're interested in things like cold water fisheries, trout for example, within the western part of Dayne County. And then finally, oil and grease, things that are on asphalt or on concrete surfaces that get flushed into water bodies. And while those things are regulated, one thing that is very concerning is the future of what storms look like for us. Um, increasing rainfall frequency and severity is going to be a major problem. What this map here is illustrating is a 2-in rainfall. That is a significant rainfall. Just for frame of reference, statistically, something that happens once a year. possibly less. Um, and of late and projected into the future is this shift towards more uh greater recurrence of those really high volume um storms. If you pair this with the rate of development um and the disc the decreasing of imperous or or the uh decrease of uh pvious area where storm water can get into the ground um where

it's not causing these flooding issues or sweeping away quality soils. Um you notice that once we get to the point where we've got 75 to 100% imperous surface um in any given area, we're we're not seeing quite as much of that infiltrating into the the soils uh much less into the groundwater aquifers um or evaporating off. And so the water that's running off those sites is quite a lot. So best manage it management practices for storm water planning dictate that we take a look at multiple levels of analysis. Do planning uh at the site level to manage runoff with things like rain gardens? Do things at the neighborhood level uh like paying attention to the tree canopy there? And then at the regional level looking at things like watersheds. So through these mitigation efforts we're able to flatten that curve there. What that is showing you is a very steep peak after uh storm starts lots and lots of water that then trails off um in that blue line there. Um the pre-development conditions shown in black there obviously um a lot easier to manage. Not as much flooding potential there with with current controls. You're looking at that sort of red line that's there. So a little bit more attenuated takes place over a longer amount of time not quite as flashy not as much volume. Um but really where we want to be is that

postdevelopment with LDI which is low develop uh is um low impact development slashgi green infrastructure. So allowing um native planting and things like the storm water garden to soak up some of that that water um at a regional level. This isn't a new concept. The idea of communities sound uh surrounded and connected by uh green belts is something that's been around for over a hundred years. You might be familiar with Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Boston. All of these places have um master planned um long range uh development of in the case of Boston and I think Minneapolis what are called green necklaces. these networks of environmental corridors um following riparian paths connecting hubs things like parks other outdoor recreational areas like I said this greenway idea is over a hundred years old at this point and still kicking there's modern implementation of these sorts of practices even to this day and certainly Madison has a great example in the nine springs e-way the Louiswis nine Springs Eway um seven miles of environmental corridor um and trail system. It's connecting uh Marsh, Sedge Meadow, Prairie, Woodlands, and a number of the county and city of Madison and Fitchburg parks. It's also linked up to a lot of the bike trail systems in the area. And in fact, this is something that's been uh delineated in long range plans in the Dayne County area since the 70s. This image here was one I I as we were

cleaning out our office I found. Um so it's been on the books for quite some time. Onto the student work. So this is just one of the groups within the studio uh their work looking at the Door Creek wershed. So this showing you where it is in relationship to Cottage Grove in the upper right corner there. uh Door Creek eventually discharges into Lake Kagansza, but along the way it's connected to a number of assets like parks and some existing trails that that run throughout this area and sort of crisscross um the rural areas outside of Madison and Grove in their mapping and in the project that I'm showing you here. They were interested in finding what a workable path would look like for a trail system that connected multiple communities that was connecting these park systems, these bike and walking paths. Um part of the consideration here is um areas that are wetlands shown on the left there in the greens and areas where flooding is uh is more or less likely shown there in the the blue tones through their work which I believe I saw was was uh presented or or given to you in the packet. I'd urge you to take a look at those. One of the things they looked at was a land acquisition plan to determine where the pinch points or pain points are. Things like railroad crossings or street crossings, the sort of uh mustacquire parcels in this area. If one were

interested in creating this sort of regional greenway uh to serve both those cultural ecosystem service functions as well as the u mitigating ones, things like uh protecting soil runoff uh from entering the riparian corridors, things like um delaying storm water from from reaching those channels as well. um and their ultimate uh alignment of that path sort of shown here. I'd urge you to look at the the packet and and zoom in there to see more of the details, but um this was what they they came up with in the end. Um the ownership along this hypothetical greenway is about 138 parcels long. Uh Door Creek alone is running through about 107 of those parcels and lay land along the uh proposed trail route um to create this continuous greenway. Um about 38 of those are either uh currently they're either currently owned by the county or city of Madison or village of Cottage Grove or the towns that exist in those areas. So 32% of the total acreage in this greenway um in total and about four miles worth of that that corridor. So I won't take much more of your time but to say um that this is something that is a notion. This is an idea. This is not a plan that is necessarily going to happen without involvement uh of multiple parties. So to quote Daniel Burnham, uh make no small plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and themselves will probably not be

realized. Make big plans. Aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die. But long after we are gone, we'll be a living thing asserting itself with ever growing ints insistency. Remember that our sons, daughters, and grandsons, and granddaughters are going to do things that will stagger us. Let your watchword be order, and your beacon beauty. What I think he's trying to say is once something's recorded on a plan as a possible idea, it gets legs. It gains traction and it can go somewhere. So steps that the village can take at this point, talk with your neighbors, look at the long range plans. Are there places where those plans are in alignment, where they agree with one another? Could your plans make reference to other people's plans indicating where those assets like parks, trail systems are planned in those communities? How could those systems here within the village link up with that broader regional network of trails? and uh greenways. So, thanks for your time. I'm happy to answer any questions, but I understand if you want to get on with your night and get to the next agenda.

Yeah. Who has questions? Okay. Rock, paper, scissors.

Appreciate it, Alex. I actually got the first question for once. Um, so I really do appreciate the thoroughess of the project and what they've done. And I say this as a fellow educator in higher education. So um one of the questions I had is did the students uh who are part of this group consider the glacial drum connector trail project? um cuz that is slated to go from the existing path which now kind of goes to Bakan and then they just got approval to do the um highway uh 3990 pass that will eventually make its way this way and it does intersect with um the wershed and in particular the the river creek.

Yeah. So not all of the groups focused on this idea of a greenway. Um, but the groups that did, I think there were two or three, if I'm remembering correctly, they should have paid attention to that and considered it. But yeah, that's definitely one of the considerations. Things like the Glacial Drumland, like the Cannonball Trail, like the Badger State Trail, like the Military Ridge Trail, all of those uh networks are are things that really I was hoping that they would take a look at. You know, that that whole point about not being uh not having blinders on and just being uh focused on the site, but really considering the up and downstream effects of that system beyond the jurisdiction that you're looking at in particular.

Um okay, so I reviewed the students stuff this weekend and it was the and then your presentation gave me some additional thoughts. So, a conversation piece, which is which is really what this is a little bit. Um, one of the projects was we talked about the river and how things have shifted because of human intervention. We we've moved things around this thing. And so then I think about like some of our developments. We have a farmland and and it rains on it. You had the picture, right? It all kind of stays there. And so then we build on it and we build a retention pond basically saying, "Hey, the impervious calculation and what's on the land you got to keep. So that's a very small view of that watershed. Is there is there a conversation it wouldn't work for every parcel depends on how far you are away from the waterway but that we would look maybe at a bigger addition to that calculation and say hey we actually need to let more of it out faster because you're closer or you're not you're I mean it'd be a difficult calculation right but it's it's a way different thing to discuss because some of the intervention that we've done starves water in other areas of the of the stream the creek the river whatever but and we're actually intentionally holding water back that we could let through.

And so maybe there's a conversation piece in there. And so there was it was it was a good talk about how we've sort of I don't want to say screw things up, but change things because then I was also like, hey, this is really good where they're trying to protect it, make this corridor, I guess the second piece, random thoughts. Um, and then here's things we can do to jump start a correction. And and then I was also thinking like we'll just leave it alone for the next hundred years and it it'll auto correct maybe but we need to jump start things. So that sort of makes sense too. But any I'll and I have one more after that but if you have a thought on on that water retention pond calculation and how there's an influence there. I I am not the storm water engineer and so I I'll tread lightly and hopefully not get

as I did with my question. Yes. Fair.

My colleagues. Um there's been more ev more emphasis from what I can tell in the profession to look at those sort of soft systems, things like uh native vegetation um or areas that can be flooded periodically to to deal with that increased storm water volume due to climate change. Um and so I think that's one point there. I think emphasizing also in rural areas where uh storm water stay on requirements are are not uh being regulated. Um working with uh people that own land that work land um to invest in planted buffers, things like that at in those dam spots at the edges of fields because, you know, frankly that's an investment in their uh bottom line as well. you know, soil health being the thing that that drives productivity of and yield of of their crops. So, washing that that you know, worldclass soil uh down stream obviously not in our our best interest.

We've experienced that actual thing happening in village as well. The other question I sort of had was philosophies around land acquisition and that tends to have a negative. Oh, you're taking my land, right? So is there have you seen other conversations where there's an incentivized like hey you you keep your land but we kind of we want to dedicate this and in order for us to dedicate this we'll help incentivize you with tax or whatever you know we'll put your name on the wall. Um instead of actually acquiring land bring that owner as a steward to that space as opposed to land acquisition and now it's a bird you know

any thoughts on that? Yeah, programs like purchase of development rights and transfer of development rights have been used in a lot of instances successfully sort of to this to this point. So it's not acquiring land. It's allowing those land owners to realize some economic benefit from urban development by saying okay the one unit of development I could have developed here we're going to transfer that somewhere else and allow someone you know closer to say transportation networks or the edge of where that rural uh urban interface is to you know develop there. So, you know, getting a little bit of return on that. I think a lot of these areas here and what some of the maps are pointing out is that much of that land is not or would not be developable anyway. And so educating now and thinking about those areas at this point um to get ahead of to get ahead of things so that you know multiple parties are are coordinating on it to sort of piece together this larger system is I think the order of the day.

Thank you Sean. It's nice to see you in Cottage Grove.

Hi. Um so my question is I guess uh about our comprehensive plan update which we're going to start interviewing um we had an RFP for updating our comp plan. Um so the village board's going to start interviewing next month for this update. So this seems like the kind of thing we might want to you know reook at and revisit. um perhaps talk to peers as we or you know our neighbors as we um look at updating these plans. Have you seen some examples of how we might collaborate with like you know talking about land use with your neighbors is sometimes a challenging thing and

definitely I think but collaborating around something like we have this right resource that crosses boundaries um that we all value uh might be a good starting point. Um I guess incorporating that with our comprehensive plan update might be logical. Do you have any um thoughts, examples, words of wisdom, advice as we start that?

I think it's it's really something that boils down to um finding common ground or common issues. Um, I think in a lot of the towns there there's an a really earnest effort to work on preserving those farming areas that are of the highest quality soils. And um often times there's this sort of tension between develop it or keep it as farming because both of those conditions like land that's cleared like lands that's sort of flat but drains um land that will percolate water into the into the groundwater. Um, so I don't I don't know that it's a it's a this or that sort of sort of thing. I think that looking at the neighbors comprehensive plans and really trying to incorporate the good elements from from those plans, you know, where they've highlighted areas of farmland preservation or the assets that they have and sort of looking for places where you can work with those other entities. I feel like going back to my uh my slide with the two birds here, thrilling thrilling multiple birds with one scone,

which I don't recommend because I've heard that feeding flour to refined flour to birds is really not great for them. But maybe we could have that in our background if we have discussions with our our neighbors. Thank you. Thank you. Other questions? I guess one thing I've learned is that government is pretty slow. Um, so what advice do you tell your students in your class? They spend this whole semester working on a project like this. Um, but what's the expectation on feasibility and right can you expect?

I think I think planning is not for somebody who's impatient. Um, one of the first things I say is, uh, if you are loving the new bus rapid transit system in Madison, thank planners from 40 years ago because it was on the books at that point being considered as an option for, you know, managing traffic congestion and and wrership and population growth and all of those things at that point. um as as uh it's not quite as glorious as being the person that you know like Burnham that gets their stamp on something that gets built. I think the notion that we all stand on the shoulders of people that came before us, you know, we all sort of collectively give one another a running shove um you know into into the future. Well, thank you for coming tonight and presenting to us. Yeah,

appreciate it.

All right, so we're going to move on to number eight, uh, concept presentation from Linda R for 162 unit single family home development. Invite you up and you can sit or stand. Just make sure you turn the microphone on. How about that? Thanks. Hi, I'm Rick Murphy from Lenar Homes um with Reed Banucci, our land acquisition manager. And we have met with staff a few times. This we're talking about the Uphoff Farm, which is about a half mile east of Main Street on Rich Road. And we like to just have an introductory discussion about ourselves, our company, us and um you know some ideas we had um to um build a single family home community in that neighborhood. Um so we're contract purchaser on the property at this point and um just a little background on our company. Um we have been in the area and I don't know um if we have some slides um to match what I have in my hand. Erin, I think uh do you have a power uh is it a PowerPoint or a PDF?

Oh, there it is. Okay. maybe jump jump to uh slide number two for for just a second. So um we are one of the largest home builders in uh the country. Number two I think right now about 75,000 homes a year. We're publicly traded. Um and in our division we we work between Illinois um Wisconsin and northwest Indiana. So our division built about 19 and closed about 1,900 homes last year. So, we're working in about 50 something communities. Um, we have a mortgage company. Most people take our mortgages because we have a great deal. Uh, we usually buy down the mortgages. I think currently we're buying them down to like 4.9% for the first year and or uh is it 5.9 4.9 and then 5.9 for the rest of the uh traditional loan period. you know, our land development team has built last year we built about 16 miles of roadway um and um two 2500 home sites, something on that order. And and I'm not trying to impress anybody by our size, but it is uh financial stability u that comes from that. Um, I've been here eight years and we started uh when I started we were taking uh defunct communities that other builders failed on and because we're publicly traded, we remained in business. We didn't lose our properties to the banks and we were able to work with communities like yourselves and bring everything back to life and finish things where towns had lost letters of credit and everything else. and we just kind of sat down with the folks and said, "What do you need and let's figure it out?" And we did. And that's how we kind of were doing it about eight years ago. Now, um we're definitely doing kind

of an even flow kind of building. We we we very confident. We know our market, how we're going to sell homes, and we start and build homes on a regular basis, maybe three or four a month solid. by by the time the home is sold or completed, it's been sold. So, very steady flow there for the building reviewers, the inspectors and everything else. And also for our trade partners, trade partners get to, you know, the diggers get to stay and the plumbers and carpenters and that they just get to move down the block and and very efficiently. Uh it's good for our purchaser purchasers as well because uh they get to benefit from I think we get better pricing as a result of that. You know where um we come in a community like this we can tell the trade partner you're doing all the quartz countertops in the community not just five as an option. That was the other thing I was going to mention. Our homes will typically um have standard features that a lot a lot of places are upgrades. Quartz countertops, vinyl plank floorings, um 42-in cabinets, deluxe, um double bowls, glass shower enclosures in in the main bath and so in in the owner suite, so forth. Um kind of wanted to go through that a little bit. That's that's us. But more importantly, um can we jump to that? We we we sent you an email with the site plan. I get this is it right here. And we'll we'll start here to begin with. Uh we tried to come up with a plan that uh kind of goes with the terrain up there and uh a little bit of features that I think um some of the planning staff should shown an interest in seeing on our plans. uh 162 home

sites which really um is about I think 124 on the north side and you'll see up there uh we've got a park in there and we're working in some bike path or you know uh what do you call that multi-use path that that comes across the community and I I think I'll have to point it out to you from east to west and then it comes down along the west side along the existing homes there and you know kind of in recognition of the the path that you have down there just just south of this property. So eventually you know be contiguous with the u the path that's already there. So, um, and then let's maybe, um, and if you have questions on that plan, I I do have a better a better picture that we sent in, um, to Aaron there, and we can talk about it. Maybe let's jump up ahead a couple product, how we handle homes. This is just a site location map. Everybody knows where this is, right? Good. Okay, good. Okay. how we handle homes and what we call um diversity or anti- monotony. We have basically on every one of these homes we have three or four elevations and they actually all look different. Um uh and you know we may be addon change masonry change the elevation roof roof lines and everything. So we have got a couple ranches that we're we're thinking about. Now, this product is in development, so it'll probably change, but we'll be along the sim similar lines here. So, we've got a couple ranch homes ranging from 1,800 ft to about 2200 ft. Our homes are generally three to four bedrooms, uh, two and a half baths, two

or three car garages. Um, twotory homes will range from about uh 2100 2200 ft² up to about 2,900 ft². And you'll you on that 2900 you'll get into a threec car garage be included and maybe just jump uh to the next couple slides. It's really I think oh yeah I forgot to mention few communities we've been working on locally. Uh Windsor Crossing in Windsor which is not on this list. The reserves in Sun Prairie uh we built over there by Token Creek School. Highlands in Netherwood in Oregon. Meadows of Kettle Park West, just west of downtown there. Uh Cardinal Heights is actually a new one. We picked up a few home sites in Columbus um east of here. Uh Cardinal Estates uh is actually in Sock City. So that's quite a bit west. And so um what else did I have? I thought we'd built somewhere else. No, I think we got we got them all. But so we have some we've been in here pro in the neighborhood for probably at least four years I think. Uh we have some aerial shots coming up I think for just some of the neighborhoods that we did work in if you want to skip uh to the next slide.

That's the last page you have. Okay. I have a couple more pages. But anyway, it's just just some aerial shots. I think it, you know, we're not here necessarily to, you know, to come get architecture approved or anything like that. It's more about having a discussion with you about the site plan features and um get your input and feedback and, you know, collaborate a little bit. So, um, and I think maybe that's time if if you can pull up either the first site plan or the the one that we tried to email you tonight. That has not that didn't come in. Okay. Um All right. Maybe you can

go up to the previous page maybe and then we'll just zoom in the best we can. So I I think at this point um mainly I just wanted to point out the the couple of parks here which is hard for you probably to mesh with what you got on your screen but in the middle here north of that central detention uh couple of paths and we usually spend some real money in there. We would definitely work with the planning uh folks on u how that looks and what's included. Usually we we we have a nice hot lots and then we might have a different theme on the other park on the other side something a little bit different and again um take advantage of that open space. So the typical home site width uh on the north side I think was 65 foot wide and uh on the south side just I think the way the math worked out was about 55 ft. Now our typical home is is the two twocar garage home is about 40 ft wide. So that would leave about 15 ft total sideyard after that. And then u so like seven 7 and 1/2 ft on each side and then on the north you know 50ft home is a threecar garage basically and that would require a little bit bigger home site. So that's why we have some 55 foot wide home sites. So, with that, I'd like to open up any questions, comments, uh, ideas, uh, uh, you know, from the commission and, uh, staff. Um, I'm happy to answer any questions you might have and look for your, uh, input and hopefully support. Erin, do you have anything you want to add

at this point before Alex talks? No, we're mostly just here to get feedback from from you guys at this point. Go ahead, Alex. Um, what's the biggest headwind for your company in 2026? The biggest head? Biggest headwind? Yeah. Broad question. We've had a couple people come in look at this parcel and there are challenges as you said and this is something you guys step into. What's your biggest headwind?

We've seen this property before. Yeah. And I think that I I think you know initially we were you know um lift station sewer service in the area was uh you know I think at its early stages of consideration and discussion with the planning local planning and and possible development. So, I see that it's a fairly big deal and I think we're willing to to work to help make that happen and we can um come to terms on that. I think that was that was probably the biggest reason. I think we're probably a little more immune to the the minor ups and downs and market changes. is a publicly traded company. It's it seems to be really important to keep our sales momentum going for not only for the company but for our trade partners. Um that does that does help and having our own mortgage company sustained sales where a small builder probably couldn't couldn't um they'd have a lot of ups and downs with the interest rates that that you see fluctuating. I don't think that the interest rates, you know, at six six and a half%, you know, I don't think anybody really expects them to go back to where they were uh three or four years ago at 2.8 or whatever it was. We were just that's a remarkable time for rates. So, um, you know, I think really our headwinds are are getting things entitled fast enough to to keep up with home sales. And I think particularly in the around here, affordability is a problem, you know, and um it's very difficult to u to sell homes, sell and build homes under four or $500,000 is a challenge. So, I think in in uh I think one of the ones we mentioned in u Kettle Park West in

Stoton, I think we're probably we're hitting in the 400s if we if we it's very price sensitive. If we're off by a few thousand dollar just we it's very you can you can tell sales just changed drastically. It's very sensitive. So, um we're aware of that. Um, we do, like I said, we do start homes regularly and we do what it takes to sell those homes and and not not keep them on the market. There's a certain amount of dynamic pricing that happens to make that happen. And I think it's just like we just look look at it uh pragmatically from a long-term business standpoint. We also look uh you know relationships are important to us with our trade partners with our community leaders and uh staff that we work with. We want to be the guys that um they welcome us back.

So I don't know if that's too long or too short of an answer for you, but that's that's what I see. My biggest challenge here is just trying to keep up with what we're doing. Like I said, we sold we're working in 50s something communities up uh between here in southeast Wisconsin, Konosha County and Racine County. We're probably we've got um probably 6 810 communities in progress right now. Various stages of planning and development. If and if you haven't heard it already, you'll you'll hear the words traffic study.

Yeah. So, have you how how can you help expedite or um get those numbers so that we can have good conversations with our community around

traffic? Uh traffic studies, nothing we're we're not used to. So, we've been doing this a long time. I've been I've been in the business over 30 years and and uh it's just one of the things we're used to. So, uh, that being said, um, the traffic studies, you know, I look at it and, you know, I look at look at it here. I don't expect anything strange to come out of a traffic study, but it definitely is is a community planners, you need to be you need to be armed with the information when people call because, you know, when you hear people come and object, they they might object to traffic or drainage or this or that. you know, um, and we want to make sure that we can reassure them. I mean, we will, you know, definitely support the village engineering or the engineering consultant and make sure we have and I'm I'm sure it's probably an item in your in your subdivision ordinance probably. So, none of that surprises us.

You mentioned that you have a lot of projects going on. What would you anticipate the pace of development to be in in this project specifically?

Good question. And I maybe defer to Reed here, but but really this is 63. I think out of the box, you know, my initial assumptions would be um probably three to five a month, maybe. So, we're talking six. This this is probably two to three year turnaround from the first building permit. Land development wise, you're probably talking six months to get your first phase down on the ground, something like that. So, that's very typical. Market conditions might change that.

I' say that pace is a lot more rapid than I think we normally see in Cottage Grove. Yeah, I understand. On a regular Yeah. Yeah, I understand.

Yeah. Um, but this the it's kind of more of an average. The startups tends to be a little a lot slower because it's it's you know the first people in it's it's not as pretty as it's going to take a little while to get the parks done and get the home started. So um typically what we might do is you know if you get a spring start you get models started by you know in the fall and then it's the start is not as fast as it I making it sound you know it it takes a little while but you know um definitely you know I would expect at least probably three a month you know up and up and down a little bit but not a lot

and I think to piggy back off obviously traffic study but the neighborhood study and um or neighborhood meetings will happen and all incorporated in our development process but that's down the line. Yeah. And I think, you know, one of the nice features of the plan, and I think this I don't know if this came as a result of discussion with staff and recommendations, and we kind of got a little bit of a um greenway in there with a little path that I think, you know, will help I think really helps um with that issue, you know.

Yeah, I appreciate the buffer between existing neighborhoods and new neighborhood. Um it'd be interesting to get, you know, neighborhood feedback, too, on what that of what they feel that bike path, if that's something that they're um enthusiastic about or not, they put that on the list. Well, we we we just thought it would be nice. We don't need to do it, but we thought it would be nice because you've got, you know, 300. The question is where does where does the bike path go to? Cuz the glac trail is further south to the right here down. Isn't there one down across here? They're all like an old railroad right away or something. Is that what that is? There's wet land, I think. Right. And it would align with It's not that far

parcel for the lift station so the village could extend it station site if we choose to do that and then could route back through the neighborhood and down to Glacial Drum One. I guess that's something I'd like to see feedback on note further down the line. Heidi, go ahead.

Yeah, kind of building off that. um you know in with the required neighborhood meeting you know if they want to see a burm between the properties and the bike path or you know I think something like that might be worth conversation. I do like that then that creates an additional buffer between the new built houses and the existing homes. So to have that greenway with a bike path, but then how to yeah, just to I think that transition piece will be important to the neighborhood that's there. So I I like the the way it started. So just their feedback on that. And then on the pace and timings, something that's been brought up in the past as you may have heard about, um, another connection out and I see that you have the streets built to the property line to the north. Um, so depending on how the village could help facilitate that, um, is would you be willing like what's your plan for the phasing? Where would you start? would you be um you know consider building so we can make another connection out like starting there or did you have a vision of where this development kind of needs to start its build out?

Um good question. I you know I suspect um that that this that road that does eventually wind up to the north could be part of the first phase. Um, and I don't I don't expect a lot of phasing here. I mean, maybe two phases logically. Um, a lot of times it follows utility constraints, those kind of things. But, um, you know, a lot of that, of course, um, would depend on the neighbors interested in developing, you know, but I I don't think we would be the ones holding anything up.

Okay, great. Thank you. Um, the other question I had was about your own mortgage company. Do you take then like bids on a house that's listed or the first person that offers what you're asking and qualifies is the person that gets the contract?

Yeah, we work real hard to qualify people and there everybody's free to go, you know, shop with their own mortgage company and everything else. So, we just happen to offer a very good deal which so I think 90 or 95% of people take one. I have one uh and I I use them just such a good deal. Um but uh as far as home sales go, it's uh you know, come in and you know, timing is everything, I think. And um you know, there's promotions out there all the time. And um you know, um like I said, we are um very interested in g getting people in into homes that they love. So

yeah, it's it's it's uh I it's it's probably more fun than buying a car. Well, you know, hearing the something in the 400,000s, which you know, sounds, you know, if you have a different frame of reference, like that sounds like a lot, but currently it is a lot in the current state. if we can get something in the 400,000s. I think yeah, I don't I'd have to defer, you know, I think Reed Reed has run the numbers. So So basically what we're doing the sheets that were missing on your your thing was is it looks like we're projecting low fives here. I wish we could do lower, but um yeah, I mean with infrastructure costs, land cost,

yeah, the land land development, I think, um you know, we talk about affordability, that's one of the really the the hardest drivers because we have and and I respect the you know, I think the quality of land development is way up here from what it was 20, 30 years ago. But when you have um it's almost like when you figure out your costs for land development for per home site, it almost is directly related to how many like lineal feet of street frontage you have, how wide the roads are. Um one of particular costs that we see that's that's that really drives it up is utilities down the middle of the street. You have to take it fill it with stone and that's you know um it adds up. So the it's funny because I think since probably since I started the the developed home site cost has gone up at least which I mean I since not since I started way back but in the last seven or eight years has gone up at least 50%. So, it's it's a lot. Um, you know, things like what's going on now with tariffs and uncertainties, that doesn't help, you know, so material costs. We get these calls, well, you know, pipe prices are going up because of oil and what have you. So, um, we're always interested in working with communities and their engineers to to, um, value engineer, you know, um, because that's all gets passed on to the consumer, you know, our home buyer, you know, and we'd rather not. We'd rather give them as good a deal as we could and just keep selling homes and, you know, so thank you.

Yeah, I really appreciate that. Thank you. Yes, sir.

So, um I don't think I think you got a nice plan here. I don't think anyone objects to that. Your push back's going to be the traffic on on Taylor Street. The I don't know back in the 2000s a similar really nice plan came came through and it got held up because of uh not having a a road through to Highway B. And then last month, um, we had a, uh, we had a talk about the school district, um, combining two schools right up the end, um, of Taylor Street and Main Street, the Cottage Grove School, which is going to add some more traffic, um, at at peak time. So, the big push back here is all going to be with the traffic going on to Taylor Street without an outlet to BB. But I think no one is really gonna I I I think you got a nice plan. So the actual the fact of the development and the houses and all that. I think you've done a really nice job, but your your push back's going to be traffic.

I understand that's very common. That's that is why we do it. Um and I think we do need to arm your uh consulting engineer or I don't know if you I you have a consultant, right? Uh with that information. Um, and I I mean I kind of like noticed that that you said you're you're combining schools that because enrollment is down from before. We see that a lot. We're seeing a lot of enrollment down significantly from what it was 15 or 20 years ago. And uh in a way that helps you know a lot of times you know back 20 years ago people were worried about keeping up because you I mean the the amount of home sites and homes that were getting built in the early 2000s was was crazy. It was really unsustainable. And you know schools all built up for it and then here we are believe it or not you know they're down. Some of these school districts are down in some schools 40 or 50% from what they were, right? I don't know what I mean. Do you know what what they were seeing over there?

The elementary schools are about 50% capacity. So that's where they're coming right now. So that's so the big that's not bad. You know, the big intersection. So the Taylor and um Wheelbridge and intersection is the only um way to your subdivision. Yeah, I understand. So, it would be we do have the school district that's going to be performing a um traffic impact analysis at the intersection in the next couple a month or so. Um and it would be nice to be able to integrate their findings with

any if if this were to move forward um with you know your traffic findings so that we can make the mo most informed decisions on not only the intersection but I think traffic calming along Taylor would be important too. We have obviously a lot of pedestrian bike traffic as well as cars that maybe are going a little too fast right now and so adding more traffic. Yeah. Can I ask how wide Taylor is right now? Do you Does anybody know? No, I know what you're talking about. Well, it narrows, right, when you get past Heather Drive there and it turns it was it's more

sometimes when these roads get too big, you know, that's what why you start seating the speeders, you know, because it feels like you can go fast. And so I think that's something that the village is going to, you know, hopefully we're going to look at in in order to make, you know, improvements to this area.

Yeah. I I mean, when you're talking about traffic calming, I you know, I start to think about recommending actually narrower streets. It slows people down. you get bigger, you know, uh terraces and those kind of things. So, it's it feels I mean I used to live in a town I think uh uh streets and it was an old you know downtown area like a old old school um 24 ft wide. People stopped waited for the guy and nobody got mad and it really slowed it down and it was all fine. not on your collectors of course, but that's that's that's kind of, you know, a big change from what was going on in the early 2000s when all the communities were zoning. We want bigger home sites. We want 85 ft, 12,000 square foot home sites and nobody can afford it anymore. We would much rather dedicate the open spaces to community areas and parks and those kind of things where people feel instead of getting on their lawn mower and and then driving around, putting in a garage, closing the door and going inside, they, you know, hang out in in their neighborhood, you know, and riding their bikes downtown and go get ice cream or something.

Uh, this question is more directed towards Aaron. Um so one of the things as part of the comprehensive plan that we are doing is um really looking at our housing chapter. Um so our housing chapter so we we have a committee that's been looking at it and one of the things that was brought up during that was lot size the width uh because our current ordinance I'm was trying to look it up and I lost it on my computer so I apologize for that. Um, but I'm almost positive our lot widths without a PUB would not accommodate the proposed WS. Surprise.

5565. Now, I say that saying that that's something we have identified as part of the the chapter, but our current ordinance, I believe, does not allow it without a PUB. Yeah, I'm going to have to double check off the top of my head. The SR4 district I think is wider. We also have an SR6 that we haven't used yet, but I think that allows slightly narrower, but probably not all the way down to 55. Actually, I just got it. Uh, so SR6 offers minimum width of 70 ft.

Yeah, I understand. So that's why you're seeing so many PUD proposals. Um it is I mean um couple thousand feet a foot roadway at least. So um that's an affordability issue. That's a livability I and I think it's it's it's it was a school of thought 20 years ago and I get it. And when you don't see anybody coming in on that zoning, it's it's it's telling you something's not And it's hard because what do you what do you really say you know what is the right answer? I think you know I think what what what you need need to consider is just the pro proportionality you know I you know between the homes and the lot size homesite sizes those kind of things. So I think we I do think we have one of the best planners around. I mean, there's a lot of good ones, no, no doubt. But, um, we think about that. We don't come in here and try to grid it up. We could, I mean, we could pack in another 20 or 30 home sites in here easy, you know, but we're not we're not going to come in here and propose that because we want a community that people, they just drive in or drive by and go, I want to live here. That's what we want. You know, easy sale, the best sales tool that we have. It just it looks nice and I want to live here. So that's why you come in and you you you you're on ridge and you look either side, you've got some green right there, you know, and you you on the north what the nearest home is two or 30 hundred feet away. I don't know about my math, but it's it's not right there.

So we don't have summarize it. So our ordinances do not allow for this smaller lot size at this moment. Yes. Um, but again, I want to restate this is something the housing committee has identified. We've talked about in planning commission before. Um, but it's just one of those things that I want to be transparent flag that if you were to go through and dig in our ordinances, you see it. However, it's a point of conversation for us.

Yeah, we would probably want to have that discussion that that about a PUD. I I think because exactly for that reason. So part of the scope of the comp plan for the consultants is to do basically like an audit of our current ordinance to see what kind of changes they would suggest to kind of update it and bring it into into line with what the future land use plan will be. So

I mean we want to come in here and bring you something you want you want to see too, you know, um not just like I said jam it in like that. And I think we're we're doing pretty good here. So I hope I hope you think that. But I look at this as, you know, a fairly collaborative process within within reason. Obviously, we have to operate the business and we can only, you know, handle so much load, you know, but you know, there's a lift station uh that uh we'll have to work out with everybody and and figure out how that goes. I think there's some uh fairly productive talks that have already taken place on that and we'll need to continue that. Right, Erin?

Yeah. Um you when the last developer took their swing at this, we developed the lift station plans to pretty pretty far along. So, they're basically ready to go whenever there's a development that's ready to use it. Excellent. So I you know I think I came I didn't come in here before you but I we were out here talking to uh Mr. Ala probably three years ago. It wasn't ripe yet. So um it's good that you've you're working on it planning.

Any other questions or comments feedback? Guess just with being a national company, can you speak to how you would utilize locals for subcontracting or grading?

Yeah, I can't. Makes a lot, you know, makes a lot of sense for, you know, locals to be working here because I don't think anybody wants to drive two and a half hours to work. So, um yeah. Um it's definitely um there's going to be a boost. Yeah, for sure. And uh you know if you have referrals we're we're happy to happy to um get them with our on our biders list cuz I mean if you think about a trucking and everything it just this unless you have to do it you know locally it just it's just but it's all it's all you know market conditions what do you need to do is if somebody's available I think one of the challenges we've had is some some companies we try to like hey you can grow with us you want to grow and uh there some I'm fine the way I am okay you know so but uh yeah I'd love to uh I just wanted to see you know how you felt about it you know I appreciate your inputs and you know um if you feel like we can we can manage this together I guess that then leads into the next steps. You do concept plan for the whole village board and then

take that and or I guess what's the maybe

we've been wanting the concepts to go to the board as well these days. Um so that would be the next step. There would have to be a neighborhood plan before any kind of formal or neighborhood meeting before any kind of formal submitt comes in. Um platting is a two-step process, preliminary plat, final plat. If it goes through as a PUD, that's also a two-step process that can happen uh potentially at the same time. And the zoning is kind of wrapped up in that PUD process. So, um, would we have to do a comprehensive plan amendment as well as part of this because it's probably a PUD? Um, I assume we probably are

and we'd have to look at how it's exactly. Yeah. Okay. That's not for here obviously. So, thank you for listening and in your inputs and everything else and you know any parting words. No, I think I'm would be enthusiastic to see next steps. Okay. I think we're already talking about a village board meeting date at this point, right? Yeah. I think probably one of the May meetings. Yeah. So, wish me luck. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate your time tonight. Thank you for coming. All right. Thank you. Good night. Thank you.

All right. We are on number nine, future agenda items. Um just throw this out here now. Um suggestion to move the July meeting to the f not July 8th. Hoping that the commission would entertain moving it to the following week. Please. That's on the agenda for next meeting. Yeah. Oh, good. Um, any other um

I have a humbling question. One of my issues is I'm not good with names. And so of the three presentations, we listed two of the people's names. If staff could put who's presenting because I forget their names on the agendas on the agendas or in the presentation packet because I forget his name. Rick and Reed. Thank that's all right. Thanks. Okay. No, thanks for that feedback. Erin, anything?

Um, nothing certain. I mean, the sports facility will be back with their site plan at some point, not necessarily next month. I'm not sure what their schedule is. Um, that's probably the biggest one that's that's out there. Otherwise, number 10, everybody. Motion to adjurnn. Second. Motion and second. Non-debatable. All those in favor? I I thank you.