The special election to fill council vacancies in District 6 and 15 is happening tomorrow (Tuesday, September 10). The City Clerk's website has more information on polling locations and district maps to help you if needed.
Also, later this week residential property owners should expect a letter from the city about our citywide residential property re-evaluation. Property values across the city have gone up significantly since the last re-evaluation five years ago, so property owners should expect a significant increase in the assessed value of their properties. This isn't a "price increase," it's an effort to ensure that the assessed value of properties matches the actual value of properties, and it's required by state statute.
It's important to note that a large increase in property values doesn't necessarily mean a large increase in property taxes. The city's Communications Coordinator put together a graphic you might find helpful: https://www.appleton.org/Home/Components/News/News/20860/18?backlist=%2f
Even though property values are going up significantly here in Appleton, our tax levy is still limited by state statute and this year it cannot grow more than 1.35%. So, property values going up doesn't mean we're collecting significantly higher taxes.
Finally, just to put the re-evaluation into context: The Assessor's office recently supplied me with a list of 63 residential properties in the 13th District that were sold in 2018. The assessed value of those properties was 84% of their sale price, on average. Only four of them sold for less than their assessed value. This is why we re-evaluate, to try to get the assessed value of properties and their actual value as close as possible and ensure a property tax system that's as fair as it can possibly be.
In addition to those two things, it's a relatively busy committee week for the Appleton Common Council. Here are some items of note:
Finance Committee, Monday, 5:30 pm
One of the big headlines from last week's Common Council meeting related to the US Venture project as the mayor and several stakeholders in the project presented some of the first renderings and proposed potential financing schedules for the underground parking ramp necessary to make the development possible.
Like many other alderpersons, I've received a fair amount of feedback from that discussion and most, if not all of it has been related to the financial element. Our development agreement with US Venture called for both parties to work together to keep the cost of the ramp near $25 million, but the city's new projected contribution is $35 million. This number has changed significantly due to some factors outside our control (inflation, rising and unpredictable construction costs), but also due to some significant design changes and challenges during the process.
I won't comment on ongoing negotiations regarding this project, but I will say I'm disappointed with where we've found ourselves here. One of the key points of emphasis for this project has been that it has to "cash flow" to make sense for the city, meaning the gains from the project need to be able to cover the expenses without impacting the taxpayers. The current potential financing models all include both a loan (sometimes an interest-free loan) from the general fund and a shifting of funds owed to the parking utility to make this work, which does not meet my definition of "cash flow."
Tonight the Finance Committee has an information item on their agenda to allow for more questions on the information we learned last week. No official action is expected at this meeting, and no final action on this item is scheduled at this time. This is just another opportunity for council to gather information on this item to help inform future decisions.
Parks and Recreation Committee, Monday, 6:30 pm (or following the conclusion of Finance)
Significant efforts to plan for the future of parks and park programming in the city are expected to take a step forward this week as the Parks and Recreation Committee will be asked to make a recommendation on a Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan for 2019-23. The last time the city approved such a plan was in 2009.
The full text of the new plan is available via attachment #4 at this link and it's quite the document: The PDF is 285 pages long and includes an evaluation of all existing parks, proposed land acquisition for future parks and recommendations for the future. This document lays the groundwork for future councils to consider opportunities to continue to improve park and recreational offerings in our community.
Some highlights from the document:
- Appleton has about eight acres of green space for every 1000 residents. This is within the NRPA standard of 7-10 acres per 1000 residents but falls well below the regional average of 20.26 (page 51).
- A portion of District 13 falls in an area identified as lacking a park: The neighborhoods north of Wisconsin Avenue, south of Northland Avenue and between Ballard Road and Meade Street. (Page 52)
- Starting on Page 83 the document identifies short, medium and long term needs for each city park with a projected development cost. Parks with short term needs included Alicia, Derks, Ellen Kort Peace Park, Green Meadows, Highview, Hoover, Linwood, Lutz, Mead, Peabody, Providence, Schaefer, Summit, Veterans, Vulcan Heritage, Woodland, Memorial, Erb, Pierce, Telulah and Houdini Plaza. The projected cost for the short term projects is $23.3 million.
Community and Economic Development Committee, Wednesday, 4:30 pm
The first step in our annual Community Development Block Grant process will come this week as the committee is expected to make a recommendation on the first proposals for a portion of our projected $577,214 in available funding. Block grant funding is available through the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and is available to city departments and other organizations who can meet a very strict and specific set of criteria to provide services and improvements to our communities.
The first step in the process for the committee is to review allocations for city programs. This year those are as follows:
- $77,694 for the Housing Rehabilitation Loan Program
- $75,000 for the Appleton Housing Authority
- $72,051.56 for the Appleton Police Department's "Summer of Service" program
- $50,504 for the city's administrative costs and providion of HUD required Fair Housing Services.
The APD item is a relatively new addition to this list and will allow for the further expansion of a program that has been very successful in our community. Per the staff memo on this topic, "the Summer of Service initiative seeks to engage youth in
meaningful, team-based community service projects in order to instill positive attitudes towards education
and empower youth to acquire valuable life skills. By teaching teens to work on teams, develop a work
ethic, and improve their engagement with others, Summer of Service provides students at risk of not
graduating high school an opportunity to stay on track or get back on track to graduating high school."
Assuming this item is approved by committee and council, the next step will be to review applications from outside organizations for the balance of the available funding. Those recommendations should appear before committee sometime in November.
Safety and Licensing, Wednesday, 5:30 pm
Over the last month the Safety and Licensing Committee has had a pair of opportunities to learn and ask questions about a recent development regarding Outagamie County's longstanding warning sirens. Earlier this year the County Board voted to turn maintenance of those facilities over to their 21 municipalities, giving them the option to begin caring for the sirens themselves or lose this important safety measure.
This has created a variety of concerns from public safety personnel across the region and caused multiple local municipalities to ask the county to reconsider this action and consider funding the maintenance of these sirens out of revenue from their new sales tax increase. A resolution recently passed in the City of Kaukauna and last week I introduced a resolution that closely mirrors it in Appleton.
The full text of the resolution reads as follows:
Whereas in early 2018 Outagamie County approached municipalities in the county to discuss transferring maintenance, ownership and replacement of outdoor warning systems as of January 1, 2020; and
Whereas Outagamie County has adopted County Board Resolution 21-2018-2019 outlining the position of turning over these essential emergency management functions to local municipalities and the county has asked each municipality to identify the future of each local outdoor warning system; and
Whereas while there is no single medium of communication that can reach all residents at all times, outdoor warning sirens have historically been a cost effective warning system and could easily be coupled with other means of communication to create a more robust and effective system; and
Whereas emerging technologies and weather radios are great supplemental tools, but the sirens remain a vital component for some of our city's most vulnerable residents; and
Whereas communities throughout the Midwest continue to rely on and invest in sirens as one tool enabling public agencies to notify large segments of the public during times of inclement weather, including larger metro areas like Dane County, Wisconsin and Nashville, Tennessee; and
Whereas the costs to operate, maintain and acquire sirens, when averaged over the life cycle of a siren, is less than $2000 per warning siren annually; and
Whereas the decision to have 21 municipalities in Outagamie County individually determine if they should utilize a countywide system is an ineffective and inefficient policy that could have severe ramifications for all county residents and visitors to our communities,
Therefore be it resolved that the City of Appleton requests Outagamie County utilize a portion of the County's new one-half percent sales tax to fund, operate and maintain the Outdoor Warning System for the safety of our residents and visitors.
Given our conversations on this topic during previous meetings, I expect the committee to approve this measure and send it to the Common Council on September 18.
Keeping you informed on issues that may impact you around the city is one of my primary goals as an alderman. Good governance happens in the open, and I remain committed to raising awareness on the issues coming before us.
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