Heather Miller for City Council

Vote August 13, 2024 from 7am-8pm

Community forum stresses individual attention to citywide issues JANESVILLE – Childcare, food deserts and lack of affordable housing should not be lumped into a single "southside” issue, Mat Gonzalez, a resident of Janesville’s southside, told city officials Wednesday

TONIGHT! Wednesday 7/17/2024 @ 5:30pm - New Rock Co. Job Center

Tornado clean up update 7/12/2024

https://www.janesvillewi.gov/Home/Components/News/News/16617/29

Lions Beach Closed Until Further Notice | City News | Janesville, WI The City of Janesville Recreation Division takes weekly water quality samples at Lions Beach (1401 Palmer Dr.). The State Hygiene Lab in Madison tests these samples to monitor for E. coli bacteria. The beach's most recent water quality test performed the week of June 17 showed elevated bacteria leve...

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In 2013 a Scuba Diver put a statue of Jason Voorhees at the bottom of Crystal Lake in Crosby Minnesota.
Made out of only wood and bubble wrap it was placed at the bottom of the Lake as a prank for other divers to find!
🌊🏒🔪

SNOWFolks!

It is shaping up to be an interesting week at City Council! The next City Council meeting is Monday, June 10, and the agenda has several items on it that should result in good conversation for the community. There is one item in particular that will potentially affect a number of current South Side residents, as well as a number of potential new residents.

City staff is asking to sell the property at 101 Rockport Road to 101 Rockport, LLC (a Bear Real Estate Group subsidiary) for the proposed construction of affordable multi-family rental units. Doing so requires the Council to
1) declare the property surplus and 2) authorize city administrators to execute the sale of the property.

The authorized sale price would be one dollar ($1.00). The Council intends to take up this request on Monday evening, and has the option of approving, denying, or tabling (revisit once additional questions are asked and direction is given) the request.

Here’s the link to the agenda item:https://legistarweb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/pdf/2667227/Attachment.pdf

There are a few really obvious positive aspects of this project.

The city as a whole is in need of housing options at all income levels – affordable housing to market rate housing. This proposed project, based on the Council memo, would add to the housing stock locally, and focus on affordable housing.

The proposed project is multi-family housing. This adds some much-needed density to the south side area. Density is a key factor in attracting stable business to the south side of town.

The proposal, as currently written, allows the city to retain ownership of a narrow strip of land along the river for the future continuation/realignment of the trail system and public access to the river.
101 Rockport Road is, in its current form, a rather empty property. A glow-up would really benefit the 4th Ward neighborhood and could be a real feather in the Ward’s cap. The question becomes, what form should this glow-up take?

Now for the challenges. It is important to note that these are not insurmountable. But they are significant and require more time to sort out.

Isn’t this property a floodplain? YES. It is. In fact, the proposed development would be, as far as we’ve been able to research, the FIRST and ONLY multi-family residential property in Janesville built in a floodplain. This is problematic for 2 reasons.

First, commonly accepted emergency management wisdom frowns on building housing within floodplains, and for good reason. The city states, in their 2024 Parks and Open Spaces “Climate change impacts, such as more frequent and intense weather events, pose a considerable threat to the City of Janesville…The city of Janesville has invested considerable resources into emergency preparedness and resiliency in the last few years. Actions taken include the purchase of properties along the Rock River and removal of structures in the floodplain…”. Floodplains have a purpose. To allow flooding in controlled, acceptable locations that limit loss to the community. By removing or building in flood plains, the community as a whole (and the case in particular, the 4th Ward) becomes more vulnerable because the water still has to go somewhere.

Secondly, current social justice initiatives recognize that marginalized and low-income people and communities have characteristically been forced to reside in areas that are more at risk from and more affected by natural disasters like floods. Authorizing the construction of an affordable housing complex in a floodplain in Janesville is knowingly putting already vulnerable people at additional, city-authorized risk.

What do the city’s long-term plans say about developments like this? The City’s 2023 Comprehensive Plan and 2024 Parks and Open Spaces Plan specifically advise against it. Both indicate a city-wide objective to “Preserve, reclaim and restore the natural features of the area – including the Rock River, streams, drainageways, floodplains…”. Additionally, the Comprehensive Plan indicates that city policy is to “protect environmental corridors by prohibiting new buildings in wetlands, stream banks, floodplains and on slopes…”.

Are there environmental considerations here? YES. Multiple. Water quality as a result of runoff and additional trash accumulation are just the small ones. This project will change the view of the river and the available habitat and its basic functions. Is that acceptable to the community that lives there (4th Ward) and plays there (everyone else)?

Are there potential construction concerns? Yes – there are concerns here, too. Among others, multi-story buildings require good footings. Based on proximity to the river, does this property have the appropriate substrates and foundations to support a multi-level, multi-family residential facility? What about under high-river or flood conditions? Previous projects along this stretch of river (the Monterrey Lagoon project, for example) had to be modified during ex*****on because available substrates were not appropriate for the desired usages.

Why haven’t I heard about this project? Transparency has been a problem, too. This project came to light about a week ago on a Planning Commission agenda for their June 3, 2024 meeting. At the council level, this was released about 5 days ago – again, not nearly enough time to ask our 4th ward neighbors about their thoughts on it. On the other hand, 101 Rockport Road LLC (the Bear Real Estate Group’s subsidiary that would assume ownership of this property) was formed at the end of May, prior to the public announcement of this project.

All this seems like relevant information to provide to the Council. Why don’t they know this? Neither the City Council nor the Planning Commission memos included detailed information about the status of the property as a floodplain in the main body of the memo. For the Council, it was in the fine print (the maps at the end). For the Planning Commission, it wasn’t there at all. There is also no information about the incurred costs of acquisition/remediation/maintenance of this property since 2003 compared to the $1 proposed selling price, or the possible environmental costs/effects of declaring this property surplus and selling to a private developer. Also consider that this project was included as a consent agenda item – meaning that unless a councilmember asked for it to be discussed, it would have been approved without community discussion as a part of the consent agenda. Is this accidental or intentional? You decide….

Don’t take SNOW’s word for anything there. Read the plans, contact your councilmembers, and ask questions. Residential developments are a long-term commitment for the community, and it is important to do them right or real people suffer. You can reach the entire city council at [email protected]. You can also attend the meeting on Monday night at 6:00pm in the Council chambers.


Resources:

2023 Comprehensive Plan - Volume 2’s Land Use, Natural Resources, and Housing/Neighborhood Development chapters are worth a look.

2024 Parks and Open Spaces Plan

Fourth Ward Neighborhood Revitalization Plan

Planning Commission Agenda June 3, 2024

As always, share with your family, friends and colleagues!

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Southside NOW! (SNOW) Janesville

We connect individual citizens, local businesses, and community partners to advocate for South side development and improve quality of life for local residents and businesses.

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Easy way to help!

This Sunday 8-11:30am! Come for coffee, treats, and know 100% of our proceeds go to this benefit ❤️

Community partnerships!

Hoping we are not trying to keep up with the neighbors… 🙄

Evansville's new aquatic center to open Friday EVANSVILLE — The city of Evansville is marking the grand opening of its new Evansville Aquatic Center and upgrades at Larson Acres Park on Friday.

Did you know the Club teaches workforce readiness skills to our teen members? Job readiness isn’t just having specific skills, it also means having a set of skills that are transferable to any career in any industry. The last decade saw part-time employment among adolescents decline. Teens are not getting the experience they need, and as a result, are becoming unmarketable in today’s workforce.

Our Club helps teens work on soft and hard skills and learn what employers are looking for. We take them on field trips to local employers and help them prepare for the workforce. Thank you to Blain's Farm & Fleet for being a Be Great Sponsor and supporting our teens so that they can succeed in the future.

Reunion on the Rock! Get ready to have a blast at "Reunion on the Rock!" where we'll be reuniting with old friends and making new ones on September 9, 2023!

Dillon & Grube LLC When you have legal troubles, it’s not whether you get knocked down — it’s whether you get up.

We have another Lions Beach update! Janesville Parks & Recreation staff has removed the old wooden shade structures, and today is pouring concrete bases for the three new steel, umbrella-like shade structures (similar to the others already installed at the beach). The new umbrellas will be ready to use very soon!

These structures are the final stage of our Lions Beach Improvement Campaign our club undertook for our 100th anniversary. The centerpiece of our $150,000 campaign was a new picnic pavilion, which was completed this spring and dedicated in May.

Thanks to all of our community partners and those who donated to our capital campaign, and a special thank-you goes out to the Hendricks Family Foundation and the Janesville Generations Fund, whose generous grant awards helped push us past our fundraising goal!

📷: Lion Steve Huth

Stay away from this stuff!! It will hurt you, bad! This is Poison Hemlock and it looks pretty from afar,but just a little bit of this will kill you and your animals. It's also found in almost every state in America.

Symptoms can appear within 30 mins of touching it and if ingested , can attack your nervous system just as fast.

Not every white flower is poisonous and there are many flowers out there that look like this that are ok to be around.

So,how do you know if this is Hemlock? Look at the stem (pic in comment section) for purple dots/streaks

I've seen it in fields, property lines and also near drainage ditches.

Link to the Rock County Nutritional study.

Tonight 5/17/2023 at U-Rock campus; Janesville’s south side. Follow the signs.

Beef-a-Roo franchiser announces plans for Janesville restaurant - Janesville News Report A Beef-a-Roo franchiser this week announced its plans to open three new locations in Wisconsin, including Janesville, Beloit and Monroe.

A grocery store on Janesville's southside? Here's how it could happen - Janesville News Report Janesville can look to Madison for a blueprint to not only bring in a new grocery store, but to spur new housing and economic development.