By Ryan Whisner
The City of Fort Atkinson extended its borders beyond the State Highway 26 bypass Tuesday with approval of an annexation of 34.21 acres along the southwest corner of the bypass at its intersection with U.S Highway 12.
Fort Atkinson City Council member Mason Becker noted that the issue of annexing property beyond the bypass has loomed large during his entire tenure on the council.
“I think it’s really vital to the longterm financial viability of the city that we get this done,” he said.
The council unanimously approved the annexation, which had been approved by the State Department of Administration and appeared to not be controversial as it had received no public input.
To ensure the city continues to grow smartly, Fort HealthCare had been working with city planners for the past year on the annexation proposal.
About six years ago, Fort HealthCare had acquired the parcel for a possible future campus. However, officials have said that it now is impractical to rebuild the hospital, as the price tag would be around $250 million.
Instead, they are focusing again on expanding the current campus, which — with portions dating back to 1949, and additions built in 1959, 1969 and 2004 — measures approximately 300,000 square feet. Steps toward continued expansion were also advanced during the meeting Tuesday.
Per the annexation request, the property will be zoned RH or rural holding, which acts a holding zone to preserve productive agricultural lands that are not yet ready to be developed with city utilities.
“This is a temporary zoning district for this exact type of situation where you don’t know what may develop there,” Fort Atkinson City Engineer Andy Selle said. “In a future scenario where someone purchases the property and decides on developing it, they would come before the Plan Commission and city council to both rezone it and submit a site plan for approval and then we’d know what it’s going to be when it grows up.”
The Fort Atkinson Comprehensive Land Use Plan shows the area as appropriate for planned mixed-use and environmental corridors in the future. Roads were included as part of the official mapping process earlier in 2022.
Currently, the city has water and sewer mains that extend up to the Highway 26 bypass, but nothing that would currently reach the parcel. In addition to agreements with the town of Koshkonong and a desire to ensure growth had reached the bypass before extending beyond it, the cost of extending utilities has been a delay in expansion.
The anticipation is that future meetings of both the Plan Commission and city council will include discussions about developing a tax incremental financing district (TID) in that area to assist in utility expansion and potential future development.
A healthy community
Also Tuesday, continuing the ongoing development and growth of Fort HealthCare at its current campus, the city council unanimously advanced the rezoning of four properties the health institution owns to the north of Fort Memorial Hospital through its first reading.
Fort HealthCare is seeking to rezone properties at 603, 609 and 615 North Fourth St. and 403 McMillen Ave from single-family residential to institutional for expansion of employee parking at Fort Memorial Hospital.
“There has always been this challenge of having a parking problem in that area,” said James Nelson, senior vice president of finance and strategic development. “We exist in a residential area so in order for us to grow within the boundaries that we have, we have to acquire residences.”
To accommodate any growth, Fort HealthCare has been communicating with neighboring residents for nearly 20 years and slowly acquiring properties around the perimeter of the hospital campus.
The proposed parking lot development would be what he described as the third wave of Fort HealthCare removing homes to expand the hospital campus. The last wave occurred in 2004 for construction of the tower addition on the north side of the building that now serves as the main entrance and emergency room site.
An area north of the hospital including the four properties in question and neighbors to the north, have long been designated as likely future expansion for the hospital in the city’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan.
Nelson noted that since the inception of the Comprehensive Plan, Fort HealthCare has been actively participating planning process. Even prior to the initial plan development in 2008/2009, he said Fort HealthCare had identified the block to the north as the likely option for future growth for the institution. He noted that growth in that direction pushes the hospital campus closer to the remaining medical buildings in the area.
“It just made sense from a strategic standpoint,” Nelson said.
Nelson said the block to the north has approximately 12 properties and Fort HealthCare currently owns seven of them, in addition to a few others along the overall perimeter of the hospital campus.
Five neighbors of the four properties spoke during a public hearing on the zoning change at the Plan Commission meeting on June 28. Issues raised related to light pollution, noise pollution, drainage in the area, privacy concerns and just general questions of what this potential hospital expansion would look like. As a result of the feedback during the public hearing, Fort Healthcare sent a letter to residents within the area on June 30 to help address some of the questions and ensure the intention of including their input on the plan.
Among the questions raised was whether Fort HealthCare will seek to have Fourth Street vacated between the emergency room parking lot and the planned employee parking. On Tuesday, Nelson noted that portion of the plan has yet to be determined.
“We need to fully understand what that process will look like, and we really want to work with the neighbors to see how that would impact them before we pursue that,” he said.
As the parking plan is developed to conform with city requirements, Nelson said Fort HealthCare will invite neighbors in to critique the plan and get comfortable with it.
“We’re hoping meet as many of your needs as possible,” he said.
For the currently proposed parking development, he said the plan is to relocate the homes if possible. Previous reports indicate that three of the home were being given to the Homeless Coalition of Fort Atkinson, which will move them to a different site.
At this point, Nelson said the goal is to relocate the homes this fall and have the parking lot be usable in some form by winter, to avoid having to bus employees the two or three blocks as is currently happening.
A site plan is anticipated to be presented to the Fort Atkinson Plan Commission at a meeting in late August. To be permitted, the new parking lot would have to follow the city’s zoning ordinance, which does require things like drainage, lighting, landscape offerings to be addressed.
File photo/Kim McDarison.
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