Board of Zoning Appeals - Regular Meeting

You're welcome. All right. I'm going to call to order the City Plan Commission meeting for Wednesday, August 26th at 3.30 p.m. Please rise if you're able and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. All right, roll call of membership. My name is Josh Lambert. I am the vice chair of this, and will be chairing the committee today. We have a couple of virtual guests. Mayor Woodford and Alderperson Ferkus are joining us virtually. We can't see them right now, but I promise you that they're here. And with that, I'm going to pass it along to my left and let the rest of the committee introduce themselves.

Commissioner Doherty, present.

Pete Neuberger, deputy director of public works. AND LET THE RECORD SHOW THAT ALL OTHER MEMBERS OF THE COMMISSION ARE EXCUSED. ALL RIGHT. WITH THAT, WE'RE GOING TO MOVE TO THE APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM THE PREVIOUS MEETING, 26-1082 CITY PLAN MINUTES FROM AUGUST 12, 2026. CAN I GET A MOTION FOR APPROVAL? THANK YOU. MOTION BY PALM. SECOND BY PALM. NUMBER. WITH THAT, ANY CONCERNS, QUESTIONS, ADJUSTMENTS TO THE MEETING MINUTES? HEARING NONE, WE'LL VOTE FOR APPROVAL. ALL THOSE IN FAVOR PLEASE SIGNIFY BY SAYING AYE. ANY NAYS OR ABSTENTIONS? HEARING NONE, THAT IS UNANIMOUSLY APPROVED. We do not have any scheduled public hearings or appearances at this time with that said there are a couple items on the agenda that I know people might be interested in And speaking to and if that is the case when we arrive there if you want to just raise your hand Let me know we can call you forward and have an opportunity to share if there's anything that THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO HAVE. SO WITH THAT, I'M GOING TO MOVE ON TO THEIR ACTION ITEMS. 26-1083 ANNUAL REVIEW AND REQUEST TO APPROVE THE DOWNTOWN APPLETON BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT BID 2027 OPERATING PLAN. AS AN ACTION REMEMBER, CAN I GET A MOTION SO THAT WE CAN GET THE DISCUSSION ON THE TABLE? right motion in a second so I believe that it is a specialist when I was going to be well now you know why not I should just stuck with the original spelling I tried to like do the short hand district you perfect

Go ahead. Thank you so much. Before I use the annual business improvement district annual plan or operating plan, there are no changes to the boundaries from last year. However, the layout of the annual work plan has been updated to reflect the three-year strategic plan that was completed earlier this year. Jen Stefani from ADI is here, as well as a number of other members of the board. If you have any other questions for me, feel free. Otherwise, Jen is here.

Ms. Stefani, would you like to address the Commission? Come on forward. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I'm Jennifer Stefani. I'm the Executive Director with Appleton Downtown Incorporated, and we are the operating arm for the Business Improvement District. So I appreciate the opportunity to present the outline of our strategic work plan for the year and budget. The bid assessment rate remains unchanged from previous year at $2.75 per thousand of assessed value. Additionally, our assessment parameters remain consistent, maintaining the minimum assessment of $2.75 and the maximum cap of $5,500 per parcel. We continue to see encouraging growth and economic vitality across the downtown corridor. Overall, property assessment values within the district increased 1.43% over previous year, bringing the total assessed property value of the bid particular buildings and parcels at $211.3 million. This current assessment valuation allows the bid to generate $286,769 in bid assessments for 2027. When combined with the $11,467 in approved carryover funds from realized interest, our total operating budget for 2027 is $298,236. The assessment funds account for approximately 25% of the total revenue needed to execute a comprehensive downtown management and event program, with the remaining funding leveraged through sponsorship, membership, and earned program revenues from Appleton Downtown Incorporated and Creative Downtown Appleton, Inc. Here's a quick summary of how those 2027 funds will be allocated. Marketing and printing, 116,000. Economic development grants and initiatives, 76,000. Contracted services with ADI, 55,000. Maintenance and streetscape services, 40,000. And administrative support and bid audit services, 11,236. The overview of our 2027 work plan is really this collaborative work plan between the BID, ADI, and CDA, and focuses on four core strategic pillars that align with our three-year strategic plan and, of course, continue to support the Comprehensive Plan Chapter 14. Economic vitality and business support. We will actively conduct business retention visits, property owner meetings, and administer our facade and business recruitment grant programs. A targeted business recruitment campaign will seek unique retail and office tenants. And we are additionally eager to, of course, encourage additional growth along the riverfront and College North neighborhoods. LEADERSHIP AND STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS, WE WILL CONTINUE TO ATTEND MONTHLY ALIGNMENT MEETINGS WITH CITY DEPARTMENT HEADS AND WE AIM TO CALCULATE AN ANNUAL ECONOMIC IMPACT REPORT AND EVALUATE ASSESSMENT DATA AND BUSINESS NEEDS SO THAT WE CAN ACCURATELY PLAN FOR FUTURE YEARS. Additionally, we'll continue to coordinate community partner meetings for the downtown, which hopefully will help strengthen those collaborations. Placemaking and livability, we're dedicated to rapid graffiti removal, trash pickup, advocating for pedestrian safety infrastructure, and recruiting essential neighborhood amenities to support downtown residents. Additionally, we continue to seek out opportunities to improve community spaces in collaboration with the City of Appleton. Community events, arts and culture. We will deepen our event collaborations with signature programs like Milo Music. We'll expand regional visitor targeting using location analytics and continue growing public art initiatives through partnerships such as Sculpture Valley and Paint the City. THROUGH THESE STRATEGIC INVESTMENTS AND STRONG PARTNERSHIPS WITH PROPERTY OWNERS AND OF COURSE THE CITY OF APPLETON WE ARE WELL POSITIONED TO KEEP DOWNTOWN APPLETON THRIVING AS A PREMIER DESTINATION THANK YOU WE'RE HERE FOR ANY QUESTIONS THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE THANK YOU AND THANK YOU FOR ALL THE WORK THAT YOU THAT YOU AND YOUR TEAM DO ANY QUESTIONS FOR MS. STEFANI FROM THE COMMISSION ITSELF

Was there anyone from the public that is here to speak on this issue on the agenda at this time? Seeing none, we do have a motion and a second on the table. Was there any further discussion necessary or that anybody would like to bring forth regarding this action item?

Just to say thank you for your work also.

Excellent. So with that, why don't we go ahead and vote on this action item. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. You're muted, Mayor Woodford. Thank you. All right. Any nays or abstentions? Hearing none, that passes unanimously. Our next action item today is 26-1096, resolution number 11R26, Hyperscale AI Data Center Moratorium. Before we actually take a motion on this, I just wanted to confirm the best way we'd like to pursue moving forward. So I might actually defer to Director Holman first to maybe give us a little bit of an overview and maybe some recommended next steps.

Sure. So we've had some internal meetings with the city attorney's office related to the resolution. There is a section of state statutes that allows for municipalities to enact what's called a development moratorium. Those are initiated by ordinance. The maximum amount you can have a moratorium in place is a total of 18 months. However, you start with 12 months, and then if necessary, your council can take a second action to extend it by up to six months. What I would recommend the action is is that this gets referred to the planning and city attorney staff to draft that development moratorium. The ordinance would then be presented to plan commission for consideration and if recommended for approval, taken up by common council. And then if and when the moratorium is in place, that's when staff would work on zoning code revisions related to what we do or don't want to regulate around AI data centers.

Thank you. So what I'm hearing is the staff are recommending or the city is recommending a motion to refer this to the city staff to work further.

Correct.

Thank you. All right. And with that, I'm going to turn to the commission and ask for a motion.

So moved.

All right. We have a motion.

I'll second.

All right, and a second, thank you. With that, is there anybody else who would like to speak at this time with regards from the city staff? Are there any questions from the commission right now at this time for city staff?

All right, wondering if it would be appropriate to identify a target timeframe to report back to the city plan commission? Does staff have any recommendations on that?

I don't, but if the commission would like a target, we can come up with one. I think the second meeting in September would be the earliest we could be ready. Is that fair? Looking at the city attorney. So that would be September 23rd would give us three weeks, three to four weeks internally to prep. And it wouldn't be the actual zoning code amendment. It would be the ordinance. The ordinance. Yep.

So would the mover and the seconder be willing to amend their motion to include the timeline that was just highlighted there? So amended. Very good. I WANT TO GIVE THE OPPORTUNITY FOR THE PUBLIC IF YOU HAVE ANY THOUGHTS OR WOULD LIKE TO SHARE ANY FEELINGS WITH REGARDS TO THE HYPERSCALE AI DATA CENTER MORATORIUM. IS THERE ANYBODY HERE THAT WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK ON THIS ISSUE TODAY? SEEING NONE, IS THERE ANY FURTHER CONVERSATION FROM THE COMMISSION? All right, well then, the motion is to refer this to city staff with the timeline stated previously. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed or abstentions? Hearing none, that resolution passes unanimously. WITH THAT, WE'RE GOING TO MOVE ON TO OUR INFORMATION ITEM, 26-1084, PROPOSED DRAFT TEXT AMENDMENTS TO CHAPTER 23 ZONING ORDINANCE AND CHAPTER 11 MANUFACTURED AND MOBILE HOME AND MANUFACTURED AND MOBILE HOME COMMUNITIES OF THE MUNICIPAL CODE RELATING TO SECTION 23-2, 23-3, 23-37, 23-40, Introduction and General Proficience, Sections 23-22, Words and Terms Defined, Section 23-50, Dimensional Exceptions and Modifications, Sections 23-51, Zoning and Design Requirements, and Section 11-4, Placement of Manufactured or Mobile Homes Outside Licensed Community Prohibited, Exceptions, Section 23-55, Accessory Dwelling Units, Attached and Detached, and Section 23-56, Junior Accessory Dwelling Units, JADU, Section 23-66, Special Use Permits and Special Regulations, Article 5, Residential Districts, Article 6, Commercial Districts, Article 7, Industrial Districts, Section 23-172, Off Street Parking and Loading Standards, and Article 14 signs. Who would like to speak on that? All right.

Good job. Thank you. Chair, sorry to interrupt. I wanted to let you finish and I'll just say for the record that that is not the reason I'm not attending in person. But I did enjoy it and appreciated that you were the one reading it. Just on the previous item, I want to clarify. I believe you said that the resolution passed unanimously. I just want to be clear that the... the action passed unanimously, which was to refer the item to staff for further work. So I just, I want to make sure that that was clear for anybody listening, that the resolution has been referred to staff and that was the unanimous action taken on the previous item.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate that. Let the record show. All right. And then with that, go ahead. Number four.

Four. You should be good. Thank you very much. With that being said, we'll just refer to the text amendments as the 2026 bundled text amendments that we're presenting to the Planning Commission. We'll just shorten it up a little bit. So this really gives staff an opportunity to present those proposed changes, to hear feedback from the Commission, from the public, and also seek direction from the Planning Commission as to whether or not we can proceed with scheduling a public hearing at a future Planning Commission meeting. So really we kind of broke this up into like three primary objectives. Number one being there are several residential housing and land use actions adopted through the comprehensive plan, Plan Appleton, that was adopted last year. So it's really primarily focused on housing amendments in our zoning code. So what we're looking to do, and I'll just provide kind of a brief summary going through this a little bit here with aligning our development standards, which are primarily the minimum lot, size, lot width setbacks for one- and two-story two-family dwellings to align those with single-family standards in our R2 and R3 district. Also establish a maximum front yard setback in residential districts that would help support infill development opportunities. Also expand housing attached single-family with a common wall by right in our residential zoning classifications of R1A, R1B, R1C, as well as allowing residential care complexes, single-family, two-family, multi-family residential dwellings on the same lot with a permitted use in our PI public institutional district. Also allow mixed-use development that integrates first-floor residential with non-residential uses in commercial districts that would permit like a live work scenario. Or you could do a combination of how you want to stagger your floors with residential and combine those without having the restriction to just allow residential above commercial. So this allows some flexibility. As market dictates or as a developer feels they can market that project and so we're proposing some changes in that regard Secondly we'd like to simplify our residential design standards and edu standards Adding the principal building front yard averaging setbacks for corner lots those tend to be left out of the equation when we're looking at averaging closer to a parcel line and front yard primarily. Corner lots are always generally exempt and they have the most restrictive because you're dealing with two front yard setbacks rather than one. Also removing the minimum floor area within roof pitch requirements for dwelling units. ALSO SIMPLIFYING THE ACCESSORY DWELLING UNIT STANDARDS BY REDUCING THE YARD SETBACKS FOR DETACHED ADUs. ALSO, WE WANT TO SIMPLIFY THE AREA CALCULATION TO ALIGN. IT'S JUST MORE OF A CUMBERSOME PROCESS, SO WE'RE LOOKING TO Propose so that does not exceed the size of the principal dwelling Just much easier to facilitate conversation with an applicant rather than going through an extensive equation because we now have to look at all the accessory Components on all the property and kind of tally those up to come up with how large can I build an edu? So this would help simplify that process Finally, we want to improve the readability and remove duplication of standards and also align with our Wisconsin state statutes where appropriate. So this includes we're transitioning the zoning districts into a matrix format for a little easier to read. Also removing duplication of building code standards where possible and updating and expanding residential definition terms along with other terms where appropriate. So with that being said, if there's any staff available for questions, We can open up for further discussion. We can also have the ability to present this on the screen and kind of get into some more dialogue.

That was exciting. I do not know why that was happening, but when I tried to click share, it did start doing the... I'll try one more time. OKAY. PERFECT. SO AS YOU'RE PULLING THAT UP, IT SOUNDS LIKE STREAMLINING AND EFFICIENCY WITH THE HOPE OF CREATING MORE OPTIONS OR BEING ABLE TO RESPOND MORE TO THE MARKET AND WHAT THE MARKET IS LOOKING FOR AS WE CONTINUE TO PROGRESS WITH DEVELOPMENT HERE IN THE CITY OF APPLETON.

ALSO JUST TO REMOVE SOME OF THOSE BARRIERS IN OUR ORDINANCE DEALING WITH RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT. SO THAT'S REALLY THE PRIMARY FOCUS A LOT OF THE STANDARDS THAT WE HAVE IN OUR CORE CODE MIGHT HAVE BEEN CARRIED OVER FROM THE 90s TO EARLY 2000s. AND AS WE ADOPTED THE CONVERSATION PLAN, THERE'S A LOT OF SEVERAL GOALS AND OBJECTIVES IN THERE AND ACTIONS. SO WE'RE ALIGNING THOSE ACTIONS WITH THESE AMENDMENTS IN OUR STAFF REPORT. WE HAVE COMMENTARY THAT EXPLAINS WHAT PARTICULAR ACTIONS WE ARE ALIGNING WITH THE SPECIFIC PROVISION FOR AMENDMENT. SO I THINK THAT CAPTURES A GREATER SUMMARY THAN WHAT I HAD PROVIDED. SO IF THE COMMISSION WANTS TO GO THROUGH SOME OF THE ORDINANCE, WE CAN CERTAINLY DO THAT. So it's kind of up to you how you want to proceed forward. Also, there might be some public interest comments, and we're welcome to entertain in what they have to say as well.

Perfect. Well, from that, I'm going to defer to the Commission first and see what questions, if there are specific areas or things that you'd like the staff to review with us.

Or if we could just quickly put up maybe a zoning district just to kind of show what that format looks like and maybe kind of show what the new look looks like. We don't have a comparison of what the existing code is. It would just kind of create maybe a 100-page document rather than 83. So right now in our current code, this is the R1B single-family district. We do have this columns here are currently in the code that have residential uses, public institutional, and non-residential uses. So that's not changing. As you can tell in the underlying category, we're proposing dwelling single family attached as a permitted use by right. In the special uses, there's no specific changes to the use standards. So those will all remain the same. you get into this next section this is where in our code we currently have like an outline format so we just placed this dealing with accessory uses temporary uses parking loading landscaping and site plan review into the matrix so that they're kind of grouped together based on topic this reference note was just added from the perspective of cross-referencing in our code. Just because you're administering this specific section, there are other sections in the code that do or may apply to a specific project. So I thought we would call this out as more of a reference note so those don't get lost in reviewing a permit or having a conversation with a citizen or a developer. So this is where the matrix really comes into play with our development standards, having our standard minimum lot area lot width, front yard minimum or the maximum front yard, side yard, rear yard. We had adopted the shoreland regulations last year. So we just want to make a cross-reference to that specific section. Current code does not have that now. And also, we have lot coverage and maximum standards. In the next block, we have supplemental modifications. Here we are moving some parts of the code around to minimize our turning pages or doing the cross-referencing, particularly about maximum building height. So we integrated, which would be under the public institutional. That's where you'll find it. And here, this just makes the cross-reference to the zero lot line. If someone were to propose a single family detached, or excuse me, single family attached dwelling, there's a cross-reference to Chapter 2366, and that gives you guidance on what needs to happen with that process to create that common wall. And that's through a certified survey mapping process. So there could be a land division, and you have separate ownership of your respective parcel. So the standards that are in there are really being just carried over in the current configuration into that specific section. So we just moved everything out of there rather than having it integrated into the specific section of the code just to minimize the district standards and just have a cross-reference. In this section, we have the public institutional and non-residential uses. So we have the matrix again. And here's what I had spoke about earlier was really lots for educational and governmental facilities and places of worship. In a specific section under 2350, we just moved that into the district standards because we do have a maximum height. However, there is an exception that go higher than 35 feet. And it's 85 with some increase in setbacks based on how high the structure is, based on every foot you have a setback standard that you may have to adhere to rather than the minimums above. So it just kind of reduces some of that cross-referencing where you're just not going to lose sight of that exception rule.

So just so that I... SO THIS IS USED BY STAFF INTERNALLY AS YOU'RE WORKING THROUGH THIS, WORKING WITH A DEVELOPER? IS THIS SOMETHING THAT THE DEVELOPERS WOULD HAVE ACCESS TO WHEN WE BE LOOKING AT AS THEY'RE THINKING ABOUT THEIR PLANNING AND THAT SORT OF THING AS WELL?

YES, THIS IS A PUBLIC RECORD, SO THIS IS IN OUR MUNICIPAL CODE, SO IT'S USED BY Anybody that wants to access municipal code, whether it's a developer, a citizen, realtors, builders, staff. So we use this as our zoning code regulations to work through development projects. And these were the standards where they are aligning with that specific zoning classification.

Excellent. MY UNDERSTANDING IS THIS IS AN INFORMATION ITEM, THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THE COMMISSION TO ASK QUESTIONS, MAYBE PROVIDE ANY FEEDBACK IF THERE IS ANY FEEDBACK WITH REGARDS TO SOME OF THE CHANGES YOU'RE PROPOSING SO THAT WE'LL BE ABLE TO HAVE AT THE FUTURE DATE A POSTED OPPORTUNITY FOR THE PUBLIC TO PROVIDE ANY FEEDBACK AT THAT TIME AS WELL, IF THAT'S CORRECT. Wonderful well we are here today, and there are some public here So if there's anybody here that would like to speak on this or provide any sort of feedback that they have There's certainly an opportunity to do so for you today. Is there anybody here that would like to speak on the the various codes that we are discussing All right hearing none let's move it to commission is there questions or other items that caught your eye and ANYTHING THAT YOU HAVE FROM THE COMMISSION TO? ALL RIGHT. HEARING NONE, I WANT TO THANK YOU ALL FOR ALL THE WORK THAT YOU'RE DOING ON UPDATING THAT AND TRYING TO MAKE IT MORE USER FRIENDLY FOR OUR CITY AND ANY OF THOSE WHO ARE LOOKING TO HELP DEVELOP HERE. SO THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR WORK AND WE LOOK FORWARD TO REVIEWING THE FINAL PRODUCT IN THE FUTURE. Sounds good. Thank you very much. Thank you. With that, that's the final of our information items today. So we're going to move on to item eight on the agenda. Move to adjourn.

Second.

All right. All those in favor of adjourning, please signify by saying aye. Aye. All right. Any nays or abstentions? All right. Thank you all for being here, and have a great rest of your day.