Community Development Committee - Regular Meeting

Hello and welcome to the Wednesday, 10/08/2025, Community Development Committee meeting. We call this meeting to order. Let's do our 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 or God,

indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

We have a roll call of membership starting from my right. Patty Heffernan, District 8. Denise Fenton, District 6. Aya Jones, District 10.

Josh Lambery, District 1. Verad Meltzer, District 2.

Wonderful. All right. Next up, approval of the minutes from our previous meeting, item number 251,191, minutes from nineteentwenty twenty five.

Do we have a motion?

So moved.

Second. Any questions, corrections, additions? Wonderful. Let's go ahead and vote. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Nay? Any nays? Objection? Yep.

That passes five-zero. We have no public hearings or appearances so we will move on to action items. Our first item is 20 five-eleven 99, Request to remove the Third Amendment to the development agreement with Rise Apartments LLC for redevelopment located on North Oneida Street, East Harris Street, and North Appleton Street. Tax ID number 312044100 and 312053600 and 312052900 and tax increment financing district number 11. Do I have a motion?

Move to approve. Second.

We have multiple firsts and seconds. Mhmm. Alright. Is Lily Paul speaking today? Wonderful. And you are for

go ahead. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. So the Rise Apartments, this is their development agreement. Obviously, we are looking to amendment. Rise Apartments are just north of College Avenue, Washington Street, Division, I believe it is. But it was a project, so low income housing low income housing tax credits.

And then they also did some townhomes to help with just the increment on this project as well. The project was actually completed in July 2024, but we're running into an issue where the assessed value that was required was not reached. And because of that, that was not reached because of their lease up. So lease up usually is included in the assessed value calculation, so they weren't quite there yet. So we're just looking to push that back in their development agreement so they can, one, still be under contract, and then they can start getting their payments as well.

And with that, the payments are going to be adjusted a little bit so they can get their payments earlier because we understand that this is a subsidized project. So this is going to help with their pro form a, and this is included or included in their pro form a. So with that, I have a long description in here on how the payments are updated. So, typically, payments are made the year after their assessed value is hit. Since we are adjusting their assessed value to be pushed to 01/01/2026, they will still get be able to get paid in August 2026, the same year.

It's just that first payment will then be based on their assessed value from 2025.

Does that make sense? Can

you define the lease up term that you used?

Oh, yes. So lease up is, I guess, just how many people are renting the available units.

Doctor. Holman in number two.

I just wanted to add that one of the methods that the city assessor uses to set the assessed value for rental in particular is they're looking at the rents coming in. So for a LITECH project, one that might have subsidized rent, because the rents are already lower coming in, if if the lease up isn't hitting that 95% or more of capacity, I did check with the developer. They're currently at two vacancies and almost full capacity. Then the assessed value that the assessor has is lower than what you would normally think. And they're hoping that it'll be up by January 1 to Okay. The

Any other questions or comments?

Is there any concern that even with the lease up that there would be the inability to hit the value that is agreed upon in the agreement?

No concern. Okay. Wonderful. Let's go ahead and vote. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed or any abstentions? That passes five-zero. That is it for action items. We'll move on to information items 251193 Inspection Division Permit Summary Report ending 09/30/2025.

All right. So this is one I'm actually happy to report our revenues are now exceeding budget. Budgeted revenues for the entire year within inspections, let me just take a peek, for 2025 is budgeted at $1,031,000 We're currently at $906,000 and change, which I think puts us at 87% of revenues budgeted as of September. We had a couple big big commercial projects come in. So I know whenever inspection supervisor Cronin is here, he always says, don't worry.

It's very up and down depending on when those big commercial projects come in. We had a pretty significant industrial expansion at our GL Logistics in the Southwest Industrial Park that's been in the planning phase for a good year or so. They're now in their construction phase. So permits have been issued both within our department, I believe, fire too. So things are looking stable and good. Happy to report that.

Any questions? Alderperson Hartz. I might remember your number.

Thank you, Chair. I'm wondering if Director Holman would be able to give us a little bit of some feedback on how in the building section, the very first section there, it's obvious we have more receipt amount for permits, but we have a fairly significantly lower cost value. Is this because we're putting up things that are less expensive? Or what is the reason for that?

We did do a fee adjustment with last year's budget. Also, other piece is total estimated cost. Is self reported by the contractor when they put it in. Now in terms of net new construction that will be based on what the assessor values the building at.

Thank you. That answered the question that I was going to ask was how is this affecting what our net new construction is going to be. Thank you.

Any other questions?

Okay. We'll move

on to our next information item, 02/1194, everybody's favorite, the 2026 Community Development Department budget. All right.

So if it's okay, I'm going to first just start with some highlights of activities that we're planning to do that I'd call out of the ordinary from our day to day, looking ahead to 2026. One of the major projects that we're currently working on and continue to play an active role in coordinating is the planning and then implementation of the Thrive In Ballard Community, otherwise known as Walden Community Walden Portfolio Park. We'll continue to process flats, land entitlements, development agreements, and continue to evaluate, the potential for a TID. In addition to Thrivent, we can we anticipate, once the comprehensive plan is updated, then we'll move into comprehensive plan implementation on the community development end that will involve a lot of work in evaluating and updating our various land use instruments from zoning code, subdivision code, and then other other policy pieces that we'll have to look at. One other big thing we're hoping to effectively sunset is the ARPA implementation.

We've partnered with the finance department in getting all of our ARPA funds allocated. Projects are currently in implementation with the spend down period needing to be spent down by 2026 per US Treasury. So we'll continue to work on and monitor that. A significant huge lift that we will be kicking off later this year, but spending probably the entirety of next year is the Tyler Munis enterprise permitting system. So it's the conversion from I series or our PS 400 system for permitting.

Getting that planning and zoning as well as working with other departments who do permitting into the new, web based user portal that, once implemented, should streamline and make working across departments and receiving payments and conducting business online both for staff and our applicants much, much better.

Real quick on that Yes. That Tyler. I remember writing that down in last year's budget. Is are is this department the last one to kind Okay. Of do So So that's

now that utility billing is in the implementation phase and enterprise asset management has launched and is currently working in the refinement post launch. Now that those are further along, IT is ready to move on to the final module. So that will keep us very busy. On the assessor's end of things, they are planning to conduct 1,600 home inspections. That is part of the annual plan for the program of work that leads up to the 2028 full revaluation that's planned.

So if you recall, we went through a full revaluation two years ago now. The next one is planned for 2028. Those are the big things. I am planning just to take it page by page, not incredibly deep, but enough to give you a flavor, especially if you're a new committee member, about what each of the budget sections do. Knowing that between now and budget Saturday, we'll have our Q and process.

I'd be happy to take any questions now. But if there are any that come up, just email me, and I will either answer them directly or work with my team to get you a thorough response. So the first business unit is fifteen ten, which is the community development administration budget. This is where we have salaries primarily for supervisors and administrative staff, not in full, but the portions of our salaries that are strictly administration. We also have our GIS payroll in here.

In terms of changes, one change we did make is one of our GIS staff members does, after evaluating our budget, do significant for various utilities within the city, in particular water, sewer, and storm water. So we moved 25% of his time there to reflect where the work's actually being spent. Otherwise, budget for this cost item remains status quo. So you'll see a tiny decrease in wages. The planning budget is $15.20.

This is where the planning staff salaries are included. The change that we're proposing in here is changes to revenues and expenditures, in particular the fee schedule for a handful of planning applications, lot lines, certified survey maps, special use permits, site plan review, minor site plan review, and zoning verification letters. We're proposing fee increases for all of those as outlined in the text on the screen primarily to reflect the amount of effort and time and expenses that goes into these, but also in some cases to just get it closer to what our peer communities are charging. Any questions on that?

Alder Wilson?

Yeah. The lot line adjustment going from 30 to 200 seems really significant. The others aren't making as big of a jump.

Dave, I know what you're going to say and it's going be better than how I would say it. So I'm going to let you field it.

Thank you, chair. So a couple of things on line adjustments. First off, we, on average, process one or two a year. Far more of these, surveying activities happen, as a certified survey map. Actually, as we've had them come in over the years, we've identified the fact that we're actually more time intensive than certified survey maps. So they were incredibly low compared to the amount of effort and lift that went into the work. And as Director Homit had mentioned, did a quick analysis of where we stack up relative to peer communities throughout the state and felt like this was very appropriate adjustment to be made.

Thank you.

Any other oh, sorry.

Thank you, chair. May I direct to director Holland? I'm not opposed to increased fees, but I see some of these things as ways that we get in the way of increased development in the city. Do you see this as somewhere in a safe zone where we're still going to encourage development but we're sort of recouping costs a little better than we have been? Or mean, should we be nervous that this is precluding some developers from using Appleton as their place to develop properties?

Given these proposed fee schedule changes, I do not. In the grand scheme of things, say for instance, a CSM increasing from 150 to $2.50, that's 50 extra dollars in what could be tied to a multimillion dollar project. I do not foresee these particular fee schedules precluding development from happen. I know we also got inquiry from many other communities throughout the state who are also looking at adjusting their fees just to cover their costs. We are very careful to keep our fees to not to exceed the cost of delivery.

We're just trying to provide the services. In talking to builders, they would much rather have timely and responsive planning and timely and responsive inspection services so that they're not slowed down. That costs them more money than us having lower fees but having a poor quality of process or service.

Thank you. That's helpful.

ROBINSON: Marketing and business services. This is business unit fifteen thirty. This is primarily salaries and fringes, percentages of my time, Lily's, and Dave's. One change we put in here is in prior years, we had always paid for our annual contribution to Appleton Downtown Inc. Within two different cost centers within this budget.

We thought it would be much more clear and simple to just consolidate it to the other contracts and obligations line item and clearly spell out $15,000 for ADI that's the only change here within the new and redevelopment projects again this is one that in most years is primarily staff time this is the number that we use if we need to accept grants grants or if a developer is fronting money for us to hire consultants. The new and redevelopment project cost center is one that we use. So when we do see either miscellaneous state aids, that's typically a grant coming in. So in 2023, we had a WEDC community development investment grant come in and if you ever see it other contract other grant payments or other contracts those are professional services that we might be procuring Fifteen fifty is the city assessor's business unit. Similar to the planning, we're proposing fee increases in new single family and two family.

This is called property records fee, property records maintenance fee, commercial projects, garages and accessory structures, as well as single family two family additions, and then for alterations and renovations, changes from garages and accessory structures, and then commercial projects. On average, it's about a 30% increase. Again, this was a fee that we first introduced two years ago. We had never charged a fee for this, but in looking at our peers, almost all were already charging a fee. So we started low, and now we're working our way up to a point that we believe is closely related to what it costs to process these.

Where where does that fall with other municipalities?

I would say I'm not sure what Nina is proposing for this year. I know when we first established our fee schedule, wanted to be on the lower end, which is where Nina typically sits. We are significantly lower than the city of Oshkosh, which has very high assessor record fees. So I would say we're still low to middle. Okay then we get to Business Unit 17036 which is the inspections section of the budget and this is where most of our inspection expenses are with the exception of administrative staff time in here again it's very similar to the reasoning for the planning and assessor fee changes but we are proposing fee increases to building permits for building permit component of one and two family homes, which have not been increased recently.

Board of building inspection application fees shifting from 50 to 200 to reflect the significant amount of staff time that goes into processing that. Increasing the minimum building permit fee from 50 to 75, plumbing and sewer permit fees, electrical permit fees, and HVAC minimum fees going from 50 to 75 or an increase of $25, all else within this budget, with the exception of budgeting for increased revenue, on the magnitude of vote, an additional $110,000 and then corresponding labor increases due to staff raises and health insurance lift. Any questions on that? All right then we get into grants so if you have your book in front of you it's pink if not the first number is 2,100 a little bit of high level discussion of grants. The grant section is primarily grant pass throughs from either the Department of Administration, which is a state agency, or various programs of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Two thousand one hundred is our primary community development block grant cost center, otherwise known as CDBG. This is the main keeper of the CDBG budget. But if you'll see on page one hundred sixty five and one sixty seven, we do have two city specific budgets that are funded by CDBG that I'll get into more detail on. You'll see in here a very similar kind of approach in how we're intending to allocate CDBG. We've got the CDBG administration expenses, the maximum amount that we can fund the community resource navigator from CDBG, holding steady our fair housing services, an additional 40,000 for Appleton Housing Authority, and then a placeholder amount of 165,000 for city programs and projects.

So that's where prior to going to the nonprofit solicitation, if there is eligible city projects, we evaluate those first. In each year's budget, we place hold what we think it might be, but we'll bring those actual allocations to this committee later this year. And then currently a placeholder of award to sub recipients of $107,000 which is actually compared to what we had anticipated in the 2025 budget, up a little bit in terms of our estimates. The biggest driver of what's changing that is the housing rehab program. Last year, we had to put, I believe, dollars 200,000 to replenish that fund because repayments of prior loans had slowed down after after interest rates went up.

Repayments Repayments have been coming in at a more healthy rate than they had in years prior, so we're only needing $65,000 of the new CDBG funds to go into the rehab program. Currently, are estimating that next year's CDBG award will be $576,000 We typically don't find out what that number is until March the funding amongst to more communities. Business the Unit 2,140 is our and HPP grant. This is one where it is passed through from the DOA. Did I get that right, Dave?

Yes. Yes. And I believe, Dave, this is the one where they are changing DOA is changing the program expenditure categories. Right now, we've got in here what we think the breakdown will be for the ESG and the HPP. I don't want to get into the weeds, but just be aware that Olivia, our community development specialist, has been working with all of these agencies proactively to help them understand some of the different allocations of how we can what percentage of the money can be spent on one thing versus another thing.

And that's why this year, under the HPP, you'll see Pillars receiving that because under the new breakdown, they're the only one who is able to provide, what is now required. Business unit 2,150, this is our continuum of care. This is a HUD funded program that we are used for various homeless services. We've got city salaries as well as pass through to Advocat Pillars and Salvation Army. New this year is previously there used to be two or three COC grants that are now being bundled into one.

Correct, Dave?

It was excuse me was three and now bundled into two

homeowner rehab loan programs so this is the one where I'd previously discussed it during the CDBG overall overview, but this is our housing coordinators program targeting low to moderate income homeowners throughout the city that need home repairs. So every year, we do one and more often than not two solicitations for projects where folks can apply. We deem them eligible and they have a viable project, then Laura, our housing coordinator, will work with them to hire those contractors contractors and pay for the services and then put a lien on their property with no payment back to that homeowner until they sell the home or refinance it. Neighborhood program this is a program where we oftentimes fund it with CDBG and general fund we have enough CDBG from our current allocations that we're not proposing to put any funds in next year's CDBG allocation. However, we are continuing to propose a steady 3,000 of general fund.

Those are funds that we can use for neighborhoods that are not low to moderate income designated neighborhoods so that we make sure that all neighborhoods regardless of income status have access to city assistance within that program that is grants any questions on grants all right tax incremental financing district TID three. TID three is a distressed TID that, for all intents and purposes, has no direct activity from our department. What's really happening between now and when the TID is anticipated to close in 2029 is the TID's increment is really going back to paying back advances and loans that have been made either to the general fund or parking utility. In years past when I fielded Q and A questions through the budget process, this is something that I work very heavily with director Ohman and then director of public works to get those questions answered for you. So if there are any specific ones on to District 3 that you have today, I'd be happy to jot them down and get those answers from Jerry.

Tid 6 is a tid that is closed. There is nothing budgeted. It's just our standard practice that until the prior year's expenditures drop off to nothing that you continue to see this in the budget. TID District 7, this is the Valley Fair to district, so the district that spans from about 441 along Memorial Drive, almost up to Calumet Street, primarily driven to fund the redevelopment of the Valley Fair Mall, which has a couple sites left still that could benefit from this to district, in particular where the old movie theater used to be, that area between QuikTrip and Pick N Save. We have no major changes in this budget, but we continue to have those steady other contracts and obligations most notably the annual pay go incentive for the developer who redeveloped the Pick And Save and then that commercial structure to the East Tax Increment District 8, Business Unit 4110, this is the TID District that is in and around the river.

Again, no major changes proposed in this district primarily what is occurring within this district is those annual pay go incentive payments for River Heath and then Eagle Flats projects so you'll see a handful of different under other contracts obligations those are just the annual payments that the developer then uses to service the debt we continue to keep environmental assessment consulting in there we have been using it to assist the parks department this year for some environmental investigations they're doing for, federal permitting around some trails that they maintain. So it has come in handy to help, not just our department, but other departments do the good work of the city. Tax Increment District Number 9, this is Business Unit 4120. This is the district in and around Appian. Currently, this is one of our more quieter districts.

The only developer funded incentive currently that's rolling through on an annual basis is the Union Square Apartments. That is the apartments and townhome complex complex just northwest of the railroad tracks. I do believe initially this district was created to benefit in Kapsis. Did I get that right, Dave? That initially was planning to develop on the parking lots just north of Apfion.

However, the city was actually able to better accommodate in Kapsis in our South Point Commerce Park. Park. So we still continue to keep an eye on opportunities. We know there's a few surface lots within this district that are being prepared for potential redevelopments. Our hope is they can get those moving in the next couple of years so that they can still benefit from the life that's left in this TID.

And hopefully, we see some housing in mixed use along the eastern end of the Wisconsin F Corridor. TID District District 10, this is West College. Like the last one, just make sure I'm looking at the right one. This is the former Kmart site. This is one that, again, had been created to support a development that really did not come into fruition.

This is one we're definitely keeping an eye on. We're hoping that we can now that the a new Avenue West College Ave corridor vision plan is done, we can start to get some interest in this corridor. While we still have life left in the TID, it does go through 2040. So we've got about fifteen years left, which is a decent amount to make a project go. But to date, this has been a sleepy TID.

We are getting to a point where we're having positive increment. And the hope is is that in some point in the future, we'll have enough increment where if we need to do some deeper dive site specific planning or visioning or environmental investigations that will have funds available to budget and the other contracts and obligations. We're not quite to that point yet. So we

On the sorry. On the narration on objectives, it says that CVS is still unoccupied. Does that need to be updated?

Because it's occupied. That's a good catch. Yeah. So there is now the wholesale operation that is located in a former CVS location at the Northwest Corner Of College in Linwood.

And they cleaned up the outside, which looks very

nice. Yeah. We would be happy to clean it up either with this budget or take note for '27, and we can talk offline as to what your booking process. Yep. Alright tid eleven is our busy tid this is a redevelopment on the Eastern Side Of College Avenue we fund business enhancement grants out of these funds.

And we also have a substantial number of annual incentive payments we make to developers to service the debt they took on to took this to finance their projects. So we have Gabriel Lofts, Zilke Flats, Urbain, that's phase one behind City Center, Rise Apartments, the one that we had the development agreement amendment on, and a handful of others. We anticipate in future years you'll start to see the 222 Building and hopefully the transit center project on here but aside from just the carrying forward of those development agreements, it is pretty similar to how last year's budget was structured.

On page two zero four, it looks like there's a lot of rough errors. Does that need to be cleaned up?

Oh, expenses comprised of the remnants that are

Well, also capital expenditures are also off.

Let me just see where that's pulling from. I'm just seeing if that's, like, a recurring thing. Tid 13, I know, has capital expenditures. So let's see. That one's good.

I believe it should be zero, but let me just Yeah. So if you look at 2023, that's where you had the 2.475 related to streets and sidewalks. So that was when we reconstructed the handful of streets in and around downtown. And then moving forward, sixty eight zero nine zero one and sixty eight zero nine zero two for 2026, it should be zero, but we will converse with director Oman to make sure that that gets rectified in her spreadsheet and then if needed amended before the council stops it or before we get to budget Saturday I should say good catch Alright. TID 12 is the Western Side Of College Avenue.

This is one that, again, similar to TID 11, but a smaller number of the annual, development payments to service their debt, placeholder a for consulting services for any, development issues or opportunities that might arise. And, at present, we are intending to continue to fund the business enhancement grants with carryover funds between '25 and '26. Last one is TID 13. This one is Southpointe. If you recall, we recently completed infrastructure of the final phase, so roads, sewer, water, utilities, telecom.

And now Lily and our team are actively marketing and getting ready to sell not just lots in the latest expansion, but the remaining lots in the initial phases of Southpointe. So you'll see in here increased budget for property taxes now that new projects are coming online. That will help us service the new debt we've taken on we also have a placeholder of sale of city property reflecting is it 10 or 12 acres 14 acres so the 600 approximately 14 acres. Portion of salaries go in here to account for staff time spent here. And then we also have a little bit in here so that we can if a third party broker brings us a deal, we can pay them commissions so they're motivated to bring us clients that they may have.

DPW also does have consulting to pay for some design work that's needed for future concrete construction. So right now, we've got temp asphalt in the latest phase. That's it. Any questions or comments or comments?

Thank you so much for that. We appreciate all the information. Looks like the last thing on our list is adjournment. Do I have a motion?

Vote to adjourn. Second. All All those

in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. We are adjourned. Thank you.