By Chris Spangler
The Fort Atkinson Plan Commission has advanced a 141-unit multifamily housing development along Banker Road on the city’s northwest side.
Meeting Tuesday, the commission recommended city council approval of the preliminary certified survey map (CSM) for, as well as the rezoning of, land planned for the Trillium Multifamily Neighborhood Development.
City engineer Andy Selle noted that the CSM consists of 74.12 acres of land owned by the city. Sitting on 8.31 acres, Trillium will be the first project in developing the Neighborhood Plan approved by the commission and city council.
The CSM includes dedication of new public right-of-way for an 80-foot road, to be named Trillium Drive, along the northern edge of the parcel, as well as right-of-way for a relocated Banker Road that is proposed in the overall plan.
Selle said that the city is in negotiations with the School District of Fort Atkinson to dedicate a right-of-way along the east side of the high school, providing a connection to the proposed Trillium Drive.
The City of Fort Atkinson purchased the 75 acres along Banker Road, with Vandewalle and Associates developing a neighborhood master plan, in 2021. The area was annexed into the city that year and is included in the new Tax Incremental Financing District No. 9.
The 75 acres consist of agricultural land with areas of forested land south of Hoard Road in the city. Banker Road divides the property into east and west halves.
“As we move forward with kind of formalizing the development, the first step is to delineate the parcel,” Selle said of the Trillium lot.
He pointed out that there eventually will be a realignment of Banker Road in that area.
“Banker Road follows the same footprint and then we deviate from that into this area …,” he said. “If you recall, the long-term plan is to relocate Banker Road a little to the west of its current location.”
After unanimously approving the CSM, the Plan Commission then approved rezoning the property from SR-2 single-family residential to MRH-30 multifamily residential.
No one spoke during an earlier public hearing on the zoning map amendment.
Selle reminded the commission that the Trillium development calls for three four-story buildings with a total 141 units.
“The three buildings on one parcel are not permitted under our regular zoning. We do have a provision in our zoning code under the group development procedure that is a conditional use that allows these three buildings to occupy a single parcel,” Selle told the commission. “That will come before Plan Commission under a site plan review.”
He continued: “Instead of the name ‘site plan review,’ it will come forward under a group development conditional-use review, and that is when we will look at all the details of landscaping, layout, stormwater, road control, building appearances and things of that nature that would meet our building code standards.”
Selle estimated that the review would come before the commission in mid- to late summer.
He also mentioned that he asked the company undertaking a traffic-control study for Banker Road whether the city was lacking infrastructure to accommodate traffic for the Trillium development and was told there were no major issues of which the city needed to be aware.
“I took that as a good sign,” he said.
The city engineer said that traffic control in this area will increase with the various levels of development along Banker Road.
“So we have this development; we have another to the south; the potential for a new middle school in the area, long-term obviously; so all of these things are being taken into account in that traffic study,” he said.
On a motion by Commissioner Loren Gray, seconded by Commissioner Eric Schultz and unanimously approved, the zoning amendment advanced to the city council for three readings as an ordinance change.
Hoffman Development Group LLC and CedarPrise LLC were chosen as the master developer to build the so-named Trillium Multifamily Neighborhood Development, which will be a mixture of 51 one-bedroom, 42 two-bedroom, 28 two-bedroom/two-bath and 20 three-bedroom/two-bath units, each with a balcony.
One building will consist of 47 units: 17 one-bedroom/one-bath, 14 two-bedroom/one-bath, eight two-bedroom/two-bath and eight three-bedroom/two-bath units. The other two buildings also will have 47 units each, including 17 one-bedroom/one-bath, 14 two-bedroom/one-bath, 10 two-bedroom/two-bath and six three-bedroom/ two-bath units.
The apartments’ square footage will range from 680 to 1,150 square feet. All three buildings will have units facing a parking lot or a stormwater retention pond.
A 1.5-acre wetland area and a playground also are located on the 9.173-acre site, which borders the Fort Atkinson High School driveway on the west and Banker Road on the east.
There will be with 250 parking stalls altogether, available underground, as an at-grade tuck-under garage and on an outside lot. Those include 141 stalls in enclosed spaces and 99 outside.
The project is slated to begin this year and be completed on or before Dec. 31, 2025.
The Trillium Multifamily Neighborhood Development site is just north of where Ryan Quam has proposed building two multifamily apartment buildings at 1310-1320 Campus Drive, on land owned by Tip of The Spear LLC.
Tip of the Spear proposes to construct two four-story, 36-unit apartment buildings on the site. They would be a mix of one-bedroom, two-bedroom and two-bedroom plus loft apartments, with both underground and surface parking.
This area also was rezoned for multifamily.
Two graphics above: Both maps show placement of elements within the project known as “Banker Road,” including a certified survey map which includes the approximately 8-acre Trillium Multifamily Neighborhood Development project. The area is outlined in yellow. Contributed graphics as provided within a packet shared during the Plan Commission meeting held Tuesday.
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