Monday, June 23, 2014

What you may not know: Week of June 23

We've come to another committee week for the Appleton Common Council, and here are some of the items of interest on this week's agendas:

Municipal Services, Tuesday, 5:30 p.m.

A few weeks ago I mentioned a proposed resolution calling for bike lanes to be added to portions of five streets in the coming years to help enhance the connectivity of our bike infrastructure as reconstructions appear on nearby segments of street. The resolution was held at the May 27 committee meeting, but will come up again on Tuesday night. Again, a reminder of the streets that will be discussed:
  • Portions of Capitol Drive in 2014, the remainder in 2015.
  • Portions of Prospect Avenue in 2015.
  • Roemer Road in 2015.
  • N. Oneida Street in 2015.
  • Telulah Avenue in 2018.
All of these projects would require the removal of some or all on-street parking, so they're likely to stir up some debate. Tuesday night's meeting is likely the first step in a long conversation on this matter.

Finance, Wednesday, 4:30 p.m.

Our ongoing review of the city's special assessment policy continues on Wednesday when a portion of the policy dealing with new subdivisions will appear as an action item for the first time.

About a decade ago the city changed its policy regarding special assessments in new subdivisions. In subdivisions platted before 2004 the city had assessed homeowners for the installation of their streets, sidewalks and boulevard trees. In 2004 those expenses were shifted to the developer with the understanding that the costs would be built into the price of lots in new subdivisions.

Now, as part of our review of the special assessment policy, we're hearing that building those costs into the price of lots is making it difficult for Appleton's subdivisions to remain price-competitive with neighboring municipalities. We've been asked to consider going back to the old format, and we'll discuss the possibility on Wednesday. 

Looking further ahead, we're expecting to discuss the special assessment policy as it pertains to utilities at our first Finance Committee meeting in July and hoping to take up the portion dealing with street reconstruction at our second meeting of the month.

You can see agendas for all of this week's meetings and the full schedule at the city's Legistar page.

Keeping you informed on issues that may impact you around the city is one of my primary goals as an alderman. Making the council's activity as accessible as possible to as many people as are interested is part of my goal to make it easier for more people to get involved with issues that matter to them.

No comments:

Post a Comment