Scott Williams, swilliams@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Scott Williams The two buildings shown at Heritage Park were listed by the city as blighted, but county officials have raised objections and received assurances that no repairs are required.
Shawano County has joined other property owners voicing concern about seeing their properties listed as blighted in a city of Shawano redevelopment plan.
The county raised objections after receiving notification that the city had cited part of the Shawano County Historical Society complex in county-owned Heritage Park.
City officials have responded with assurances that they have no plans to require any improvements or enforce any new standards on the historical society properties.
Historical society board president Michael Eidahl said he was surprised by the city’s blight designation, noting that the organization’s properties are, by definition, historic structures.
“They’re going to look old,” Eidahl said. “We’re trying to maintain some history there.”
The nonprofit historical society, located at 524 N. Franklin St., is included among 391 properties listed in the city’s new redevelopment plan to combat deteriorated or neglected properties, largely in the city’s downtown area.
Acting through its Redevelopment Authority, the city plans to create a special redevelopment district to direct resources at fixing up certain targeted properties — or possibly condemning them.
City Administrator Brian Knapp said the historical society’s properties are not targeted for any sort of crackdown.
“They’re not a priority at all,” he said. “We appreciate the historic nature of those buildings.”
In drawing the proposed redevelopment district, the city was required under state law to demonstrate that at least 50 percent of the properties are blighted in one way or another. State law sets that threshold before allowing a city to create a district harnessing tax revenue for focused repair efforts.
Noting that the definition of blight can include such minor issues as vacant land or peeling paint, Knapp said the historical society’s properties were included because they are under-utilized by state law standards.
“It meets the statutory definition of blight,” he said. “Therefore, we called it blighted.”
Other affected property owners were similarly alarmed last month when the city sent letters notifying them that they were included in the proposed redevelopment district. About half of the 391 properties are categorized as blighted, but officials have said only 32 are targeted as clean-up priorities.
The historical society properties identified as blighted include an industrial structure that is several decades old and another that was built at Heritage Park as a storage facility for the society.
The county’s corporation counsel, Tony Kordus, responded with a June 24 letter to the city expressing concern about the blight designation.
“The properties are not blighted,” Kordus wrote, “but are properly used and well maintained by the historical society.”
If the city changes its approach on the redevelopment district to require any improvements at Heritage Park, the letter added, the county would consider that “an improper burdening of publicly owned and publicly utilized property.”
The historical society is open to the public at Heritage Park to showcase a variety of historic structures and teach visitors about the community’s heritage.
Eidahl acknowledged that some of the group’s buildings could stand a fresh coat of paint and other upkeep. The nonprofit organization uses a planned maintenance program to care for its properties as funding allows, he said.
He voiced confidence that the properties would meet the city’s standards.
“Hopefully they will be taken care of and they will not look so bad,” he said. “I’m sure they’ll pass the test.”