WEDC Deputy Secretary Sam Rikkers discusses housing opportunities in the City of Peshtigo

PESHTIGO – City of Peshtigo Mayor Katie Berman hosted a variety of community partners and city officials at city hall during a meeting with Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Sam Rikkers.

This meeting was a part of the Thrive Rural Wisconsin program, which Jim Cleveland of the WEDC Office of Rural Prosperity explained aims to “provide technical resources and capacity-building grants for housing.”

This office has also been working in Wausaukee on housing development projects.

Berman presented on the current state of housing in the city, which is being impacted by the downtown redevelopments that aim to increase housing. This includes the current mixed-use property at 341 Oconto Ave. as well as the Peshtigo Brownfield Site Reuse project that aims to update the former Landmark property located at 310 Oconto Ave.

The next housing project that Berman hopes to tackle involves placing housing on a five-acre city-owned plot at the edge of town near the train tracks, located at West Front St. and Hale Rd.

Berman explained, “When the previous mayor was approached on this the committee had looked at different lots around the city, but several of them were owned by private individuals. In my opinion… that just puts up another barrier of trying to get a private owner on board to want to do the housing project. They have to want to sell their property. They have to want to have that vision… So, it’s nice that we have a little chunk of property that we’re able to do that with. That’s what brought the team together to look at that site specifically.”

Eric Fowle of Cedar Corp. shared the preliminary plans of the project.
He said that the current plot of land is, “pretty open, so this project we’re looking at is probably setting the tone for any future development or expansion that continues to occur going in a southward direction.”

This land was previously purchased to facilitate sewer/wastewater infrastructure, but the decisions behind creating housing there came from council workshops. During the meetings, council members did brainstorm activities and discussed different affordable housing options.

This resulted in the council showing a preference for workforce housing with “simple designs, simple roof lines and maybe just enough detail where it’s not going to be extravagant and have a lot of [extra] costs” to create two preliminary plans that both incorporate small lots and small homes, Fowle said.

The first crossing point concept is the traditional small lot, which would include 26 single family homes on 4,000 - 5,000 square foot lots with shared driveways. The plan also includes four separate duplexes and one tri-plex.
The second concept is the cottage style development, where houses face each other with a shared front green space and roads and alleys would run behind the homes. Fowle said that the “cottage style development is something that’s picking up more speed within Wisconsin.”

This plan would include 23 single family homes on 3,000 - 5,000 square foot lots as well as two separate duplexes and three tri-plex buildings.

Similarities across both plans include proposed community gardens, a tree line to buffer any noise from the railroad, a playground, open area near the wetlands, a canoe/kayak launch and a community center/shelter since the homes would be slab structures with no basements to save money.

Additionally, the base concepts do not include garages to keep prices affordable, though space is left for them if desired.

This project aims to keep the cost of the new homes between $225,000 and $250,000.

Fowle explained that these are not the final drawings, but the city is in the process of receiving them.

In developing this neighborhood, Berman shared her plan is to create intergenerational housing that accommodates young people purchasing starter homes and older people looking to downsize. She added that this would benefit the city as a whole by freeing up other existing options.

“WEDC’s partnership here would do more than build homes — it would bridge the infrastructure gap, keep prices attainable for current and future residents and prove a model small, landlocked cities can use statewide. We can’t sprawl; we have to grow near our core — and that’s how we keep Main Street alive with neighbors seeing neighbors,” Berman wrote in a press release.

So far, the upfront cost invested in the plan has been about $25,000. However, Fowle predicted that the total value of the development could range from $10 million to $12 million.

To make this project possible, Berman estimates that the city needs about $1.2 million to install necessary infrastructure like roads and sewer.

“We’ll sequence improvements with construction so taxpayers aren’t carrying costs ahead of need. State participation in targeted infrastructure would directly lower delivered unit costs, helping keep homes attainable for current and future Peshtigo residents,” Berman wrote.

Currently, the city is looking into grant funding for this project as well as developers. Berman said that having a completed design plan would make this project attractive to potential developers while giving the city control, but that having the funding to add the necessary infrastructure would be another big benefit.

“If we can give them the property at a decent price… and we had the money secured from the state to have that option so the developers don’t have to charge $400,000 for a house that’s slightly smaller so we can get them in that $250,000 range without a mark-up that they would have to cover — that would put us in a great spot to have affordable housing,” Berman shared at the end of the meeting.

The city will continue working with inVenture North — a resource for community-based economic development and workforce housing in Marinette and Menominee counties — to make progress on this project.

Closing out the meeting, Rikkers noted the power of “optimistic leaders” and said, “This is what we had hoped for — we knew it wasn’t going to be the silver bullet to solve all of the problems…but we may have a path forward. We appreciate it, it’s awesome.”