Subdivision, business park plans have officials working overtime

Potential simultaneous development of a residential subdivision and a business park in Fredonia have taken incremental steps forward in recent weeks, but neither has yet been approved and many details remain to be worked out, including the location of the business park.

Village Finance Committee Chairman Richard Abegglen said on Tuesday night that most communities wonder whether to expand the residential base to draw businesses, or vice versa, comparing it to a chicken-or-the-egg situation.

“We have a chicken AND the egg situation,” he said.

The Village Board voted to hire Ehlers Inc. as its financial adviser to help guide it through the Hillcrest Builders residential project planned for the village’s north side.

Village trustees also have authorized hiring Waukesha-based Pinnacle Engineering Group to help with the business park development and Terracon as an engineering consultant on the first phase of environment site assessment work.

Board discussions on both projects have been largely held in closed session. Officials have cited exceptions to the state open-meetings law to conduct negotiations, though they are not required to meet in closed session to do so.

Trustees took several actions in open session last month, including referring a letter of intent to purchase real estate to the village attorney for review.

Trustees also approved paying Newmark Knight Frank $25,000 as the second installment for acting as the village’s representative in researching and negotiating the purchase of land for a future business park.

Ehlers has also been hired to look into creating a tax incremental financing district (TID) for the business park. The district would temporarily diverts property tax revenue from a parcel to fund infrastructure improvements such as streets and sewers.

Board members also authorized a wetlands delineation study for the prospective property.

Village officials have said likely locations for a business park would be north or south of the village or east of Highway 57.

Trustees also are in the midst of negotiating a developer’s agreement with Hillcrest Builders. Issues to be resolved include how much money the village will advance to the 100-home project for infrastructure and other needs, rather than forming a TID.

The money would be paid back by Hillcrest as homes are sold.

Meanwhile, the Northern Ozaukee School District is negotiating a land swap with Hillcrest. The School Board on Monday tabled the proposed agreement, saying it wants to further discuss some of its details. 

Preliminary details of the arrangement with the school district were shared during a village Finance Committee meeting last month.

In that meeting, Hillcrest owner Oyvind Solvang said the tentative agreement with the school district calls for him to swap a half acre bordering the northeast corner of the district’s athletic fields for about two acres of school land at the northwest corner of the district campus. 

Hillcrest would also make a $25,000 payment to the school district, he said.

The deal would require Hillcrest to reduce the number of lots by three, but it also would reduce the amount of street being constructed by as many as 400 feet, offsetting the lost revenue for Hillcrest, Solvang said. 

A map included in Monday’s School Board meeting packet confirmed the land swap portion of the deal, but the payment has not been confirmed.

After a closed session Tuesday night to discuss the projects, Finance Committee members discussed the complexity of the current negotiations and said they hope to streamline the process for the future.

“We need a process,” Joshua Haas said. “We should come up with something to help boards in the future. I feel we’re behind on this and trying to play catch-up.”

Other committee members said dealing with two major projects at the same time was a first for village government.

“We used to just build one house and three decks a year for many years,” Village President Don Dohrwardt said.