Tim Ryan tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
Despite neighborhood opposition to plans for a temporary placement facility for released felons in Shawano, city officials say there is nothing they can do to stop the facility from moving in.
The Shawano Plan Commission Wednesday heard from concerned residents who would be neighbors to the proposed six-bed facility at 118 S. Union St.
The state Department of Corrections is in the final stages of formalizing an agreement with Milwaukee-based Matt Talbot Recovery Services to operate the facility, which would house recently released offenders, including convicted sex offenders.
A DOC spokesperson last week said the contract had not yet been signed, but a formal announcement was expected within the next two weeks.
Some residents at Wednesday’s meeting were upset they had not been notified about the facility, but plan commission member Jeanne Cronce said in an interview after the meeting that most commission members heard about the facility the same way the public did.
“The plan commission found out about it through the newspaper. There was no prior knowledge,” she said.
Cronce said City Administrator Brian Knapp explained that the city didn’t need to notify the public because the facility is a state project, not the city’s.
“It’s really out of the city’s hands, which is unfortunate,” Cronce said.
Cronce said the residents had presented the commission with a petition against the facility signed by about 80 citizens, not all of whom reside in the neighborhood. The petition had been posted on Facebook, she said.
Cronce said the concerns raised by neighbors about their children’s safety and the impact on area property values were reasonable.
“Wherever it would go, nobody wants that next to their house,” she said.
Knapp said in an interview that not only does the facility not need city approval, city officials couldn’t stop it if they wanted to.
“I don’t believe there is any legal way to say ‘no,’” he said.
Knapp said the facility does not require any special permitting or conditional use permit and is an allowable use under the city’s zoning code, which conforms with state statutes for such facilities.
The facility is also not within 2,000 feet of any other community-based residential facility, which would otherwise have required the city’s approval.
The city does have an ordinance restricting where sex offenders can live within the city limits.
The ordinance prohibits convicted sex offenders from living within 1,500 feet of any facility where children are likely to congregate, including any facility used for or that supports a school for children, licensed day care center, library, park, recreational trail, playground or place of worship.
While the Union Street location would seem to be in conflict with that because of a nearby park, library and the Shawano Recreation Center, there are exceptions in the city’s ordinance for Department of Corrections facilities.
According to the ordinance, the exception kicks in if the convicted sex offender “has been placed in a temporary living center by the Department of Corrections under electronic monitoring and said person meets with the Sexual Predator Ordinance Committee as requested.”
Knapp said that language also conforms with state statutes.