By Kim McDarison
The Fort Atkinson City Council approved Tuesday the first reading of a proposed zoning map amendment affecting property on High Street.
The property, 1309 High St., is the former site of a Kmart store operated today by U-Haul. The property owner is looking to redevelop the site, Fort Atkinson City Zoning Administrator Brian Juarez said.
According to Juarez, the adjustment — changing the property from its current zoning of Urban Mixed Use to Planned Unit Development — is required to accommodate the various uses that are being proposed for the property.
The adjustment process will also include approval of changes made to the site’s general development plan and the specific implementation plan, Juarez wrote in a memo to council.
Juarez noted that the city’s Future Land Use Map, established as part of the city’s 2019 Comprehensive Plan, identified the U-Haul property as appropriate for planned mixed use. Such areas are intended to be vibrant urban places that function as community focal and gathering spots, he wrote.
The city’s Comprehensive Plan further identified the property for such mixed uses as commercial and residential buildings, including townhouses and condominiums.
“The proposed redevelopment of this site as a U-Haul storage facility does not align with these advisory development concepts,” Juarez wrote in his memo.
Describing the need for rezoning, Juarez said: “The planned unit development overlay creates a situation whereby the city can offer some additional flexibilities through rezoning.
“In exchange for that, the city has the ability to oversee this development process; they (U-Haul) do a little bit extra to make the area nicer, the neighborhood nicer, and work with the city in development to get an overall better product, and, at the same time, the city is able to give them some additional flexibilities in the zoning.”
Juarez said the process would work well for all concerned to bring about “a good development overall.”
Describing next steps, he said: “If this goes through the three readings (required to make changes to ordinances and language that amends them) and was approved, then basically from there we would begin the final steps towards finalizing our implementation plan in new development. We would get the chance to have a say in everything from green space, to signage, to the aesthetics of the development.”
Juarez noted that the city’s Planning Commission had reviewed the zoning change request and recommended its approval to council.
Answering questions from council about whether a detailed redevelopment plan had been shared by U-Haul with the city, Juarez said: “We’ve got quite a bit that we’ve looked at at the Planning Commission level and at the staff level. So we have a very good idea of what they’re offering and we’ve made a fair amount of demands on them as well to try to make this a really nice development.
“As we get to the general Implementation plans and the specific implementation plan process, we’ll have the ability to fine tune that and have more input.”
He added: “We all have ideas about what we think the highest and best use of that property would be in the long haul, whether or not we think that the storage is it or not, it is what we have currently available to us and it would make use of the property, so I think that this is certainly the best option for the city to pursue in quality development with that type of a use.”
“If for some reason this development does not move forward, the zoning is specific to this plan from U-Haul. So a different business could not take over the plan from U-Haul and move forward. They would have to apply for their own planned unit development zoning, and their own general development plan, and their own specific implementation plan,” City Manager Rebecca LeMire said.
“In addition to that, the planning commission is going to be the one having approval when it comes to the final implementation plans, so we will be seeing this process … there is the potential that if the city was not satisfied with something that was going on, we could simply say ‘no’ at that point,” Juarez said.
He didn’t anticipate that happening, he said, adding: “The plans that we’ve seen so far, and again we have not finalized all of it yet, but the plans that we’ve discussed, the modifications that they’ve offered so far, are definitely much improved over what has been there for quite some time.”
Councilman Bruce Johnson described the area as an entranceway into the city.
Council President Mason Becker said the area was one that has been discussed for several years, and while there were previously some different ideas for the property, he thought the usage by U-Haul fit with the surrounding businesses.
This property, 1309 High St., is the former site of a Kmart store operated today by U-Haul. Zoning changes are undergoing an approval process by the city to allow the redevelopment by U-Haul of the site. Kim McDarison photo.
A conceptual drawing of a proposed development at the U-Haul site on High Street.
Advisory development concepts for North High Street are shown above as developed by the city within its Future Land Use Map as part of the 2019 Comprehensive Plan. The area was intended for a mix of commercial and residential buildings. A new use, as proposed by U-Haul, does not align with this plan, Zoning Administrator Brian Juarez noted recently.
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