Big debate on Shopko lot proposal

STEVENS POINT — During a Nov. 10 Finance Committee meeting, a proposal for a mixed-income apartment complex on the Shopko lot generated a debate. The Commonwealth Development Corporation, based out of Middleton, presented their revised proposal to the committee, following their original Oct. proposal to the Redevelopment Authority Meeting.
Commonwealth’s Oct. proposal pitched a three-story housing building with the ground floor available for commercial use. The proposal included forty-seven apartment units, 4,500 square feet of commercial space with 3,000 of that square feet being used by UW-Stevens Point to operate a Child Learning and Care Center, and thirty parking stalls. After feedback from the Redevelopment Authority Meeting, the revised proposal has added an additional story onto the building exclusively for parking that would provide 32 covered stalls and 25 regular parking stalls, upped the apartment units from forty-seven to fifty, doubled the university’s square feet for the daycare center from 3,000 to 6,000, in addition to adding an outdoor play area for the daycare.
The Commonwealth is proposing their four-story structure as affordable housing, with a mix of lower and high-income units available.
Tyler Sheeran, managing vice president of Commonwealth Development Corporation, said, “With this project we are utilizing this concept called income averaging. This allows us to hit lower income bands but also higher income bands and you’ll see that with rent ranging from thirty percent of the area meeting income all the way up to eighty percent of the area meeting income. The intention is to appeal to as many folks as we can in the community.”
Following the presentation of the revised proposal, community and committee feedback ranged from support to strong opposition. Community feedback spoke for a desire of more business space rather than housing structures, inquiries about the cost of the daycare, and a concern for the future of downtown. Committee feedback was mostly positive and supported the need for more housing.

Dustin Buse, District 10 Alderman, spoke after the presentation, “I didn’t hear in the presentation if the space for the daycare was aligned with the affordable housing cost structure. As I understand it, UWSP runs their own daycare service.” Buse noted that UW-Stevens Point daycare currently does not have an affordable cost structure. “I don’t know if that is something that has been discussed with this being housed in an affordable housing unit. To me, those two things don’t necessarily align.”
Bob Butt, downtown business owner of Divepoint Scuba & Adventure Center, expressed frustrations with the housing proposal. “I think we’ve lost sight. This is the central business district, not the central residential district.” Butt said, “We’ve got enough housing downtown, we’ve got enough issues downtown. We need more retail space downtown.”
Butt also brought up North Side Yard, an apartment complex directly across the street from the Shopko lot. Similarly to the Commonwealth’s proposal, North Side Yard offers commercial space on the ground floor with apartment units above.
The North Side Yard’s commercial space is relatively empty; something Butt says is due to the lack of parking available. “There’s no parking. Who would rent one of those spaces in the North Side Yard on the first floor to run a business? Nobody.” Butt said. With the Commonwealth’s current proposal, there would be a total of fifty-seven parking spaces available. If every apartment unit would have a vehicle that needed to be parked, seven stalls would be available for businesses and daycare customers.
On the future of the proposed housing structure, Butt said, “Fifteen years from now, I foresee it being a slum.”
District 7 Councilwoman, Mary Kneebone, showed support for the proposal. “About eighty percent of the people in the county are asset limited, income constrained, and employed. Folks that will live in these apartments are working people that just need a break. Perhaps, if their housing is affordable they will walk down to the restaurants on Main Street and spend some money.” Kneebone said, “It offends me to say in ten years it is going be a slum. You have no idea.” Kneebone continued by stating the location of the housing unit would be ideal due to its central location for working residents.
Shaun Morrow, District 11 Councilman, also showed support. “This is serving a need we do have. We do have a housing need here, and this will fill part of that need. We get what we’re offered and we see what we are able to actually work with. There are still avenues to change things, but this is the start of the process to make sure the community is involved.”
District 1 Councilman, Marc Christianson, said, “I’m impressed with the variety of income levels—thirty percent, to the median, all the way up to eighty percent. And the variety of the types of apartments, from one bedroom, to two bedroom, and so on. There will be a real nice mix of people, there will be families, individuals, what is being proposed is a nice heterogeneous mix.”
No action was taken during the meeting, as the agenda listed the proposal as a presentation only.