Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 26. Sunrise is 7:25 and sunset is 4:36, for 9 hours, 11 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 45.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1941, President Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms speech in the State of the Union address.
Whitewater has before her a better future, should she choose it. There are two proposals before Whitewater Common Council on Tuesday night that together will make Whitewater stronger and more secure. A link to the portion of the packet with these proposals is available here. I’ll use documents from that packet to describe each proposal. Each proposal was sensibly approved by the Whitewater Community Development Authority on votes of 5-1-1 (one of the votes in each case being an abstention).
A person, a prudent person, takes care of himself or herself adjusting to the different stages of his or her life. A household, a prudent household, takes care of its members adjusting to the different stages of their lives. So it is with a community: prudent communities take care of themselves by embracing the opportunities around them. Prudent people don’t willingly stop eating and breathing, prudent households don’t allow their members to stop eating and breathing, and prudent communities don’t stop adjusting and adapting. Those communities that stop decline and perish.
Communities that sensibly adjust and adapt thrive, for themselves and their posterity.
These proposals are an extraordinary (lit., remarkable) opportunity for Whitewater. One might say the success of these efforts is bringing to Whitewater the Extraordinary Ordinary from which successful communities elsewhere have been made stronger.
Together, the proposals are worth many millions in new investment for Whitewater.
A bit about each proposal — those who have crafted these opportunities will, certainly, address them far more thoroughly tomorrow evening and in the months ahead.
The first proposal, of Premier Real Estate Management, is an offer to purchase a 10.96 acre parcel of vacant land (Tax Parcel No. /A4444200001) owned by the City located on East Main Court to develop a 60-unit multi-family housing project on the property. The City of Whitewater would receive $317,840.00 for the sale of the now-vacant land. It’s a good price for land now unused.
The proposal has the support of the Whitewater Police Department, the Whitewater Fire Department, and the Whitewater Public Works Department for low call-volume or limited demand on city services. See Reports of Respective City Departments for Proposal @ Parcel /A4444200001.
The proposed construction presents with a design and features suitable for market-rate residences.
The developer has a record of success for market-rate residences in other Wisconsin communities. By design and location, these two-bedroom, two-bathroom units with private entrances and garages are obviously crafted for professionals and families looking for market-rate residences.
In the second proposal, the Neumann-Hoffmann project, Neumann Companies proposes a significant residential project at a portion of Tax Parcel WUP 00324 lying north of the Hwy. 12 Bypass and a portion of Tax Parcel WUP 00325 lying north of the Hwy. 12 Bypass and east of Indian Mound Parkway on about 67 acres.
This area is now vacant, but would bring to the community about 150 single-family homes
60 multi-family apartments. This is the larger of the two projects and quite impressive.
The city’s agenda packet shows the proposal has the support of the Whitewater Police Department and the Whitewater Public Works Department for low call-volume or limited demand on city services. See Reports of Respective City Departments for Neumann-Hoffmann.
This spot has been waiting for a project like this. Everyone gains from this proposal: those many who buy homes, a smaller number who rent apartments, and an entire community that gains more families with children for our schools, more employment, more shoppers our merchants, and more members for our clubs & associations.
In projects like these, with much-improved tax incremental financing (more about that and other points tomorrow), Whitewater fortifies and strengthens herself for the decade ahead.
Rain or shine, so to speak, our community will be stronger for these new additions.
Both proposals deserve the support of the Whitewater Common Council.
Whitewater has waited a long time for these vacant lots to get filled. It wasn’t getting done before. Would be crazy to let the moment go to waste.
These are the two best proposals in the last 20 years or so. There’s a lot to like about them to make the city attractive to more investment. We have empty storefronts to fill as just one example. We are lucky that we have attracted so much interest after years of empty land. Now’s the chance.
These two projects seem like great chances to help Whitewater grow. The subdivision is a clear win, with single-family homes and apartments that will bring in new families and more business for the community. The other project might get some criticism since it’s only apartments, but it’s in a good spot near the industrial park and similar housing. It’s also a smart way to use land that otherwise backs up to railroad tracks.
The council’s job should be to help things move forward, not slow them down. The government should be the grease in the wheel, not the squeak.
Yes, very much so. Opportunity has come to us — we should embrace it.