Remarks by Nate Otto
24 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 1
- Play at 28:43
“Thank you, Council President. So who has jurisdiction over County Line Road? Is it a mix of Eau Claire and Township?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 47:24
“All right, thanks for coming up. Thank you.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:53:36
“Council Member Werthmann. Thank you, Council President.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:00:34
“Well, thank you, Council President. So, thinking that housing markets fluctuate, housing stock fluctuates, maybe it's five-year cycles, maybe ten-year cycles. The thing is, what we have here is a really large, contiguous piece of city land that is more or less natural space, green space, more or less. And once we sell off parts of it, it would be difficult to buy these parts back. So we're talking about a really long-term decision. And I understand the short-term need for additional housing stock right now, but we would be looking at long-term consequences. And for this reason, I intend to…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:18:40
“Thank you, Council President. I always welcome ongoing discussion about conservation and any topic related to the city development in particular. I don't see too much difference between a postponement and a no vote because we're not, if we vote no on the main motion, we're not saying no forever. We're saying no until circumstances change, until planning changes until say a TIF district. One year. One year? Okay, one year. So no vote means a one year postponement. Thank you. I don't see much harm in this, but also not much utility either. So I'm not sure how I'll vote.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:45:38
“Yeah, thank you, Council President Reagert. So this really, as I understand, is just the first decision point out of many. And a yes vote, please correct me if I'm wrong, but a yes vote doesn't commit us to any particular development and in a way we're kind of trusting the century code which was really well developed uh thoroughly developed so i'm inclined to vote yes to this but maybe maybe this is a commitment okay i'm just trying to keep track of who's the order of speakers here uh vice president shown”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:12:02
“Well, thank you, Council President Gregert. I would like to make an amendment to replace instances of 7 p.m. with 11 p.m. That's when paid parking ends.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:13:31
“Council Member Otto. Thank you, Council President. I'm in support of this in part because when the city hosts big events like this, the city does invest resources into making sure these events are successful, be it extra police presence, taking effort to close roads. The staff do get involved with many changes. They do a lot, actually. So I consider waiving parking fees a part of this overall investment in making these Public events successful one concern. I do have is that You know if this passes then we'd be giving just a couple of days to say hey guess what now there's Parking free parking…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 36:01
“Thank you, Council President. I agree with denial and just wanted to say that this location is in the middle of the Riverbend Redevelopment District and maybe now that we've set that up that we might have additional resources to identify and assist these types of issues in the future. I just thought that was an interesting connection.”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 39:31
“Thank you, Council President. Is there any, I guess I'm not sure who could answer this, but is there any reason waterways and parks would be prohibited from also looking at Park Ridge, the Park Ridge Drive parsonage?”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 40:28
“property uh council member otto yeah i'd like to motion that we include park ridge drive with the lawrence street and riverview drive or review with waterways before it returns to us okay is there a second um point of information i think you just move it separately don't like uh this is three four separate items so yeah these i think you just want to”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 42:32
“Thank you, Council President. Rationals, yeah, I know it's across the street from Rod and Gun Park, near a waterway area. Probably not technically within the purview of waterways and parks. But I do know that this committee would want to look it over, would want to have a buy-in into it. And I guess ultimately it's a show of good faith toward the Waterways and Parks Committee. So not the biggest issue, small parcel like you said, but I see no harm in granting them additional review of this.”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 55:49
“All right. Thank you. Thanks for your presentation.”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 1:25:26
“Thank you, Council President. I'm not sure who would answer it if it has an answer, but I know this was an initiative across the entire state. Do we know which options other cities are choosing or do we have a sense of which option other communities are choosing, A or B, if anybody knows that?”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 1:32:06
“Thank you, Council President. So this came about as a focused political effort with resources put in toward the campaign, and it is a good idea. I support putting it to referendum, just democratically that feels more, well, ethical, trustworthy. We'll put it in the hands of the public to let them decide.”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 53:33
“Thank you, Council President. So, as I understand, and to address some concerns from my constituents, this ordinance is really granting residents something new that we can do rather than telling them it's something additional that they can't do, which I think is great. I just wanna address the concern about enforcement. It sounds like it would be based on other residents reporting violations, given the nature of this, the potential environmental concerns, which I don't think are significant at all. Can you address anything more about enforcement of this new and kind of complex ordinance if we…”
City Council · Aug 10, 2026
- Play at 54:32
“All of them, really, because I do imagine enforcement would be different based on tier.”
City Council · Aug 10, 2026
- Play at 1:20:45
“yeah we did discuss all of those not just the cameron street park but if i recall we didn't pass it but i could be wrong yeah i think you guys tabled them for more information right yeah thank you um my question is about the parcel near rod and gun park is there a reason that wouldn't be brought to waterways”
City Council · Aug 10, 2026
- Play at 1:27:23
“Thank you, Council President. I know last March, I think some of the confusion with Cameron Street Park is that some of the land wasn't, I guess, technically parkland, but people were using it as a park. And I know the old Wells area is used for recreational trails. I'm wondering, and I'm pretty sure the answer is no, but just to be sure, people aren't using any of these parcels for recreational purposes, are they? Like there are no trails, there are no...”
City Council · Aug 10, 2026
- Play at 28:53
“Thank you, Council President. I, too, will be supporting this amendment, in particular because it recognizes these zones as a bigger, well, as a part of the bigger city, as a part of the city as a whole, because when other places have these redevelopment districts and there is displacement what usually happens is that the displaced people end up moving to other neighborhoods and creating a ripple effect and this helps us better prepare for any potential ripple effect and prevent it in other districts and neighborhoods within the city so I think this is fantastic and I appreciate the people…”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 55:20
“Thank you, Council President. First off, I appreciate Director Ness and staff for bringing this to our attention. I was just thinking about the cost angle last night about the cost of all these extra signs. Well, I think a single emergency call would far exceed the cost of the signage. So if this prevents that, then this is the most cost-effective thing we could do as a council and more ethically, you know, it will make our city safer for our constituents. For this reason, I think this is a great thing to pass. I look forward to voting yes.”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 1:30:37
“Thank you First off I do notice that this is pretty close to Plank Hill and my comment is I I'm thinking the East Hill Neighborhood Association might have thoughts about how close it is to Plank Hill and why that wouldn't be included. I can kind of see that just looking at the map, why it's not included, but it might be something to address for constituents. And I'm wondering why those lines kind of veer around the senior living apartments, or if they were considered to be a part of it, or if they're doing just fine along with the development immediately to the north”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 1:44:56
“To the optimistic maybe here, I mean, Lake Street is not pedestrian friendly. It takes forever to cross it. So it is a definite barrier that we'd want to consider breaking down if we want to unify these into a coherent downtown. I'm curious... Could we anticipate other mini-districts forming from the large district in the future, or do you see this as a special case?”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 2:29:00
“Thank you, Council President. So this is just a big picture thought. So earlier you mentioned prioritizing children versus adult programs for lower recovery rates, which I'm fully on board with that. I wonder if there's another axis of priority here in that some of these programs I imagine don't generate secondary fees from hotel overnight revenue, and some probably do, and I'm thinking about last weekend, Eau Claire's Festival, and maybe some of these are a net gain. I don't know. I don't know if the external fees have been generated. I can't imagine it's something you can precisely measure,…”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026