Over 1,500 new housing units will be coming to the City of Sheboygan.
At Monday’s (March 16th) Common Council meeting, a Tax Incremental District Development Agreement with Timberwood Meadows, LLC, was approved on a 7-3 vote.
This major housing development will be located on the City’s south side on the former Poth and Gartman Farm property and will be completed over the next 20 years.
In a press release on the matter, Taylor Zeinert, the City’s Director of Planning and Development, said, “The housing unit types consist of single-family homes, duplexes, townhomes, senior living, and apartments.”
The passing of this agreement was met by substantial pushback from concerned residents and Alders after propositions to require the developers to include 20% of the units at an affordable rate were dismissed.
The loudest voice in opposition to the agreement, Alder Grazia Perrella, noted that in her time on the Council, this is the largest housing project to be passed, however, zero out of the 1,514 units will be offered at an affordable rate.
She also noted that, by their own data, 34% of the City’s population is listed as extremely low or low income, meaning that none of them will be able to afford to live in this development.
Furthermore, Alder Alanza Grawien asked both Zeinert and Devin Coyle, a representative for the developer, what percentage of Sheboygan residents would be able to afford to live in this development.
Both Zeinert and Coyle deflected and chose not to give an answer to the actual question, not once but twice, when it was posed again by Alder Parrella.
However, despite the pushback, the agreement was approved and will not offer a single unit at an affordable rate.
An item not noted in Zeinert’s press release is that the project will cost the City $72 million over the next 16 years and will come in five installments, with the first totaling $1.6 million.
Zeinert finished her statement by noting, “The next step for the project will be review and approval of the proposed housing units by the City of Sheboygan Plan Commission. A meeting date for that review has not yet been scheduled.”
