Village says yes to development-friendly zoning change

The Fredonia Village Board last week unanimously approved, with one abstention, a new zoning tool that could be used to facilitate a development proposed for the village’s north side.

Trustees voted 6-0 to approve planned unit development, or PUD, overlay zoning that enables the village to treat multi-use developments as a unit and allow variations that otherwise would not be allowed by the underlying zoning code.

While a number of village officials have pondered the zoning tool for some time, especially as it might apply to downtown redevelopment, its more immediate effect would be on the proposed Hillcrest Realty project at the north end of North Milwaukee Street and Deer Meadows Road.

Hillcrest has proposed a 100-unit development that would be divided roughly in half, with traditional one-third-acre, single-family homes on 85-foot-wide lots on both sides of North Milwaukee Street and a less conventional development with smaller homes on 65-foot-wide lots and duplex condominiums at the north end of Deer Meadow Drive, which would be extended east past the Ozaukee High School athletic fields.

Neighboring residents showed up in force before the village Plan Commission on Monday, March 2, with nearly two dozen people objecting to the smaller lots.

If used, the PUD zoning would allow the smaller lots and the condominiums, even though the general zoning for the area does not allow condominiums and requires 85-foot-wide lots. That had some residents charging village officials with “changing the rules.”

Hillcrest owner Oyvind Solvang said the 20 single-family homes on the smaller lots would be about 1,500 square feet, which would be consistent with the underlying zoning. 

Solvang said the smaller lot sizes are essential to keeping the home prices affordable and attractive to empty nesters and small families who would want to live near the Northern Ozaukee School District campus.

Home prices there would start at around $260,000, while the homes on larger lots would start at about $330,000, he said.

The Village Board last week approved the certified survey maps for five of the traditional lots that had already been platted. None of the rest of the project has been approved yet. 

A developer’s agreement will have to be signed before construction can start on the five lots.

Trustee Dan Gehrke, who works for Hillcrest Realty, recused himself from the discussion and vote on the PUD.

Solvang is expected to present more detailed plans to the Plan Commission in April.