Tim Ryan, tryan@shawanoleader.com
The Shawano Plan Commission on Wednesday recommended approval of an agreement for the city to acquire a portion of the former Lincoln School property adjacent to Main Street.
Commonwealth Development Corp., of Fond du Lac, plans to construct 16 apartments in the former school building, plus an additional eight cottage units on the north side of the property.
However, Commonwealth has decided it does not need the 9,251-square-foot lot that borders Main Street and is fronted by a fenced-in playground area.
Under the agreement, the parcel would be transferred to the city. In exchange, the city would do some curb cutting, sidewalk replacement, driveway access and other right-of-way work on the property at an estimated cost of $12,000.
Those expenses would be covered by the Main Street TIF (Tax Incremental Financing) District.
The agreement still needs the approval of the Shawano Common Council, which will take it up at its meeting Wednesday.
“We would expect to make it available for development,” City Administrator Brian Knapp said, “either immediately, or wait until it can be combined with other properties nearby. But at least we would maintain control at this point and could make it available should it ever become attractive to someone.”
Knapp said there are a number of possibilities for the property in the meantime, including making it available to nearby property owners for their use on a lease basis.
It could also be made available for public use.
“We could mow it, maintain it, put a picnic table there if the council thought that was appropriate,” Knapp said.
However, Knapp said he would not recommend designating it as park space.
“We have so few lots available on Main Street for development,” he said. “This would be an opportunity to make a lot available for another business downtown. If those homes nearby ever became available — went up for sale — perhaps it could be combined with those homes for a larger lot if that was what was needed.”
Zoning on the lot was changed to multi-family residential when it was part of Commonwealth’s original plan. It would need to be changed to downtown business district zoning, Knapp said.
