Tim Ryan, tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
A city committee last week recommended resurrecting Shawano’s defunct Redevelopment Authority to address vacant and blighted properties in the city with options that could include the use of eminent domain.
The Shawano Industrial and Commercial Development Committee voted unanimously Thursday to support recreating the RDA after hearing the results of a feasibility study presented by Madison-based planning consultant Vierbicher.
The Common Council last month approved $1,900 for Vierbicher to do the feasibility study, and another $13,900 for Vierbicher to outline a redevelopment area and strategy for moving forward if the study found sufficient reason to reinstate the RDA.
Once the council approves recreating the RDA and appoints new members, the RDA will adopt a redevelopment plan that would have to go to a public hearing.
City Administrator Brian Knapp said there are a number of vacant properties that developers are interested in, “but the owners are sitting on it.”
He named the former Ponderosa Steak House at 1247 E. Green Bay St. as an example.
“It’s going to waste and falling apart,” Knapp said.
A number of long-vacant properties in the city are owned by the Samanta Roy Institute of Science and Technology (SIST) and its subsidiaries.
“It just seems like there’s a need to compel owners to do something, and it’s not just the most obvious entity,” he said, in an apparent reference to SIST. “There are other situations where property is just sitting vacant and they’re deteriorating.”
Mayor Lorna Marquardt said tackling the vacant properties problem would not be an easy task, even with the powers afforded to a RDA.
“We all know some of the issues we’ve had with some of the vacant buildings and all the legal battles that we’ve gone through, and we’ll continue to be faced with that,” she said. “It isn’t going to be an easy thing, or a quick thing, but I think there could be some light at the end of the tunnel.”
Gary Becker, an economic development consultant with Vierbacher, said the possibility of having to fend off a lawsuit is one of the down sides of going the RDA route.
“The city’s likely to be the winner, but … you can get tied up in court,” he said. “In general, courts are very favorable to local governments in those situations.”
There is no limit to the size of an area that the RDA could target for redevelopment, as long as at least 50 percent of the parcels in that area are considered blighted.
Becker said the eminent domain process would be the next step if the RDA cannot negotiate a voluntary sale of the property, and usually takes two to three months, starting with a declaration of public necessity.
“You have to make a declaration that there’s a reason that you’re using eminent domain,” he said. “A finding of blight documenting public health and safety and other issues that are the reason for it being declared blighted.”
The owner would be notified of the proceedings and would be asked to get an appraisal of the property while the city would get an appraisal of its own.
A sale price would then be negotiated.
“It’s not usual that the city and the property owner don’t come to an agreement on that price. Then it would go to a condemnation court,” Becker said. “But it doesn’t stop the acquisition process. The city could still take control of the property even though the price has not been agreed upon. The settlement of the price issue may take quite a bit longer than it takes for the RDA to gain control of the property.”
The city would then be able to open the property up for bidding and request proposals from developers.
The city disbanded its Redevelopment Authority a number of years ago after the board decided there was little to be done to force action on blighted, vacant buildings.
Knapp said that conclusion might have been the result of a misunderstanding of the law.
Knapp said there was a Supreme Court ruling that limited government use of eminent domain. Subsequent court cases have clarified that ruling to show that the limitations were mainly on the taking of residential property and don’t apply to commercial properties, Knapp said.