Tim Ryan tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
The Shawano Plan Commission next week will consider another proposal for development of the former Shawano Medical Center property, this one featuring a luxury apartment building and single-family condominiums.
It’s the only remaining proposal on the city’s plate after a 40-unit senior housing complex that would have occupied the north parking lot of the hospital property was shot down by the commission earlier this month amid neighborhood complaints.
That proposal, offered by Kansas City-based Northpoint Development Corp., would have erected a four-story subsidized senior housing complex with 40 apartments.
The new proposal, from Tadych Investment Partners, LLC, of Green Bay, would include a four-story 39-unit luxury apartment building and up to 25 detached single-family condominiums located along the western edge of the site adjacent to Smalley Park.
The plan commission will hold a public hearing at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall, 127 S. Sawyer St., before acting on a request for a zone change that would make way for the project.
The commission will then go into closed session to discuss financial questions that would still need to be resolved, including the purchase price of the property and the possibility of financial assistance for Tadych.
City Administrator Brian Knapp said it would have been premature to have those discussions before knowing whether the zone change would be approved.
The four-story apartment building would be further south than the Northpoint proposal, but its size could still be an issue for some neighbors.
A major objection to the Northpoint project was the four-story structure being out of step with the residential neighborhood.
“Certainly, there are some of the same elements of concern that could be applied,” Knapp said.
However, he said, Tadych is aware of those concerns and is trying to mitigate them with a “half basement” underground parking design that could make the building closer to 3 ½ stories.
That will depend on soil conditions, Knapp said.
Possibly more appealing to neighbors would be the single-family condominiums.
Neighbors at the Northpoint public hearing urged the city to restore the residential atmosphere of their neighborhood now that the hospital was gone.
“The old neighborhood isn’t coming back, but this could be similar,” Knapp said.
The project also envisions single-family units on the northwest parking lot of the property where Northpoint had proposed its apartment building.
The project, if approved, would be developed in stages, beginning with the apartment building and 15 single-family condominiums.
The second phase would be up to 10 additional single-family condominiums at the north parking lot, though timing on that phase will depend on how successful the first phase of the project is.
The former SMC campus consists of about 10 acres overlooking the Wolf River near downtown Shawano. The north parking lot consists of about 1.3 acres of that, along Bartlett Street between West Second and Third streets.
The city owns a roughly 3.5-acre parcel of the former hospital property that became home to the original Shawano Medical Center in 1931 and was leased from the city.
Shawano Medical Center purchased additional land for expansion over the years. That portion of the property is now owned by ThedaCare.