Wausaukee ordinance allows EV chargers in village

WAUSAUKEE – The Village of Wausaukee will now allow electric-vehicle chargers, and commercial properties with EV charging permits can count an EV charging space toward minimum parking requirements, according to an amended village ordinance the Village Board passed Oct. 21.

Wausaukee Village Administrator Sara Pullen said an attorney specializing in municipal code law recommended the village board update their ordinances to make way for EV charging. To date, the village doesn’t have any EV chargers, she said.

A separate ordinance amending the zoning code includes definitions of EV charging and EV charging stations. EVs include battery-powered electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.

Level one chargers are slower than Level two medium chargers, and both are intended for residential use. Level one chargers operate on 15-20 amp breakers on a 120 volt circuit, while level two chargers operate on a 240-volt AC charger.

An EV-capable space is a designated parking space with electrical panel capacity, according to the amended ordinance. Level three direct-current fast-chargers, which operate on breakers of 60 amps or more and on 480 volt circuits, are intended for commercial and public applications.

The Village Board and administration continues to work on a Comprehensive Plan, including a housing study, Pullen said. “Housing is a big part of it,” she said. “It’s obviously our biggest need here.”

To address a housing shortage, the village has received a $1.6 million grant through Senate appropriations and Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s help, according to Pullen. “We just got really lucky,” she said. “Now it’s a matter of finding more grants to hire engineering and design.”

The village wants to build workforce housing units, Pullen said. “We have a whole lot of low-income citizens,” she said. About five percent of the village’s housing stock is currently available for purchase or rent, while 95% is occupied. “We’re full. We’re at capacity,” she told a reporter in a phone interview.

The village talked with developers before COVID-19 hit, Pullen said, but the costs involved in developing new housing were too high. “We’re small,” she said, of the village’s population of about 590.

“Developers tend to keep themselves in Green Bay, where there’s mass development,” Pullen said.

The village plans to use the grant funds to provide infrastructure for a housing development on High School Hill. It received a $25,000 grant from the state’s Thrive Rural program to assist with hiring engineers and planners for the project, Pullen said.

Cedar Corp. is working on a conceptual design. At a public meeting, the planners sought input on the kind of housing people wanted. “From that, and some site studies, we’re working on a conceptual design plan,” Pullen said. “The new housing could include a combination of duplex and triplex apartment units and larger apartment buildings. But the plan would require a zoning variance. If that plan falls through, and they say those lot sizes are too small and we have to move to half-acre lots, we would have fewer units.”

The village purchased the land on High School Hill before COVID-19 hit the country, which caused the plan to be waylaid for several years.

“Hopefully we can get it approved by the board. If everyone’s in favor, we’ll go after a developer. These things move at the speed of a snail. It’s been an idea for five or six years,” Pullen said.

In other business at the Oct. 21 meeting, the board approved a Fair Housing Proclamation. It also approved the 2025 Wausaukee Rescue Squad contract and the 2025 Fire District budget.

The village’s biweekly garbage pick-up is scheduled to begin Wednesday, Nov. 6 and run through April. Winter parking bans are scheduled to take effect Nov. 15 and continue to April 1.