WESTON, WI (WSAU) — It was a packed house at the Weston Municipal Center for a public hearing regarding a proposed development.
A public hearing was held on Monday night by the Village of Weston’s Plan Commission for the rezoning of a 4.57-acre parcel of land on the east side of 7110 Callon Ave. The parcel is owned by Larry Burns, who has contracted with S.C. Swiderski to develop the property.
S.C. Swiderski has proposed to build a 36-unit single level apartment complex on the property. Swiderski’s Business Development Manager Jacqui Miller describes what the current plan is for the apartments.
“On the front, you would have the garage and then your separate entryways. So everybody has their own entryway. These units are about 1,000 to 1,300 square feet all on one level. So the end units of the building will be 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. And then the middle units are all 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms.
“And then we have patios on the backside. So it’s really a floorplan that we think a lot of people are excited about.”
The parcel for these planned developments is currently zoned as a single-family residential area. Miller says Swiderski would need the parcel to be rezoned to a multi-family residential area for the company to begin more detailed work on the development outside of basic designs.
But residents from the Fieldcrest subdivision next to the parcel are opposed to the parcel being rezoned. Over a dozen residents of that area submitted a comment to voice their disapproval of the planned apartment complex. The most popular concerns were an increase in traffic, safety, and having home values potentially decrease.
Miller says that Swiderski is hearing the concerns of residents. She says the company will look for ways to modify their proposal to address those concerns like safety and increased traffic.
“They’ll have to go on the same road that the neighbors are talking about. We’ll have people getting on the school bus on the same side their talking about. So those are concerns with us as well. And it seems like the plan commission and the staff here are willing to look at other ways to make the development safe.”
Miller says one option the company is considering to address concerns is to have a different point of entry for the complex. The new point of entry would be on a parcel to the west that the company also has under contract.
“So we went to rezoning with just the contract we had in place. Which would only allow access from one place. But now we have another piece of property under contract, so if we can have an alternative entryway, that might alleviate a lot of concern.”
After the public hearing closed, the plan commission discussed the rezoning for several minutes. The plan commission did decide to defer the decision on the rezoning until their next meeting in September. The commission deferred so they had time to look at ways to address the residents concerns with Swiderski.
Miller says if the rezoning is approved at the next plan commission meeting, Swiderski will move forward with investing in detailed engineered site plans.
