Plan Commission

MEETING MINUTES Village of Palmyra Plan Commission Meeting Monday June 30, 2025 6:00 pm Village Hall Board Room 100 W. Taft Street. Palmyra, WI. The meeting was called to order by Chairperson Gorsegner. Roll Call: Ball, Dooley, Gorsegner, Holcomb, Scheffner - present. Also present: Brad Vowels-Katter by TEAMS, David Koziol, Adam Gerhard, Scott Halbrucker and Joe DeYoung. Pledge of Allegiance Approval of Minutes: Holcomb/Scheffner motion to approve the April 16, 2025 meeting minutes as presented. All ayes-motion carried. Public Hearing Opened at 6:02 pm Application for rezone of Parcels 171-0516-2722-000, 171-0516-2811-000, and 171- 0516-2814-000 generally located at the intersection of Co Rd H and Marsh Rd from Rural Holding (RH) to Planned Unit Development (PUD) General Development Plan (GDP). The purpose of the rezone is to allow a proposed development for a 60- acre master-planned community adjacent to an additional 30-acres designated as wetlands that will be preserved as open space. The project will blend residential, commercial, and conservation elements to create a walkable, mixed-use neighborhood. It will include 168 multifamily apartment units, 50 townhomes, and 106 single-family homes. Commercial spaces will feature a 20,000 - 25,000 square foot retail center and a 6,000 - 8,000 square feet of stand-alone retail buildings. Gary Brzezinski N831 County Road H:: this area is nice and peaceful it seems wildlife will be cut off. Will wreck the environmental corridor Traffic alone will increase a lot. Debbie Kahn N695 Hwy H: the development butts up to our property. No police protection as it is, what are we going to do with more people. What’s going to happen when her donkey makes noise will she get complaints about that. Joe DeYoung says if it meets your ordinance and the town’s requirements then you can still do it, no changes. Growth and “types” of people and police protection. 1,000 more people are moving in. Joe says that there will be roughly 700 people not 1,000+. Michelle Berg 309 Maple St: she looked at the comprehensive plan and this doesn’t coincide. Hwy 59 traffic is ridiculous already. No one goes the speed limit. Police are not there very often. Referendum failed and the police can’t handle calls at our current population. Empty store fronts. This isn’t a big city. We want the charm of a small town. We are creating a whole new community. Thinks the 700-population number is a low estimate. Tax dollars are good but other costs will take away gains. Aging folks, taxes are not going down. Crime will go up. No one knows this is happening. She passed out a letter. Have some fore site as to what we want our feel to be. Have larger lots that have more single-family homes. How many more apartments do we need. Use common sense. Deb Kahn: has the board already made their decision and this is just a formality? Tom Ball says yes. The village purchased this 4 yrs ago and he was against it. Non has come to any meetings about this. Joe says this is a concept plan and we are listening to the public’s input. Jefferson County housing study shows that there is a housing shortage in this area. More taxpayers will help pay for things. Berg wants single family homes vs. apartments and town homes. Renters won’t take pride and ownership. This is the new standard Joe says. This has been going on for a long time; 4 years and 2 concept plans, Joe says. Developer David Koziol says it will be high quality. This will help stores who are having a hard time. and it will help the schools. These won’t be cheap apartments. Mary Beth Schmidt W1508 Marsh Road- She says Marsh Road is used by large farming equipment. If we are going to move Marsh Road will farm equipment still be allowed. Halbrucker says we have no weight limits road is wide enough. Then there’s the environmental concern, runoff and changes in topography. Township has no voice in many of these things. Why so many houses? Is it a need or is it to meet some TIF requirement? Will the people work here? They will be driving down Marsh Road making it busier. There will be empty homes there she thinks. Virtus to do presentation on the “Westfield development”. Fire lanes and traffic flow has been discussed with the FD and making sure they are meeting turning radius & hydrant locations. Adam and David presented the looks of the homes and apartments as well as park locations, outdoor spaces, parking, etc. Several questions were asked. Joe says to open it up to questions again. Gary Brzezinski heard that it was 5-8 acre lots, he lives in Big Bend, had no clue to what was going on until he got this letter in the mail. Is this the only proposal? There will 400-500 more animals, more dogs running all over. Tim says there are ordinances about not taking care of animals. He says there was another developer that was proposing an industrial park. Tim says the board went off of the housing study and the county comprehensive plan, they don’t want to be another Waukesha County. Roger Kincaid N695 Hwy H: he is concerned about trespassing and their animal’s safety. There are already UTV’s & ATV’s running all over the place. He is concerned about feeding their animals things they can’t eat. Speeders, motorcycles, going to get worse. Get more law enforcement. Randy Berg 309 Maple St.: who owns the home before a homeowner? A developer will own them. Tim says there will be spec homes with certain designs. The costs are all on the developer, but the taxes will come to the Village. Sale of the land with a guarantee that they build the home. Each phase has apts., homes, and town homes. Mary Beth Schmidt: will there be a traffic study that is going to be done? Randy Berg : will farm equipment be able to drive down Marsh Road? Legal road has to be 20 ft wide says Halbrucker and it will be 20 ft wide. Berg says what about kids and strollers. What about our water tower is it enough to support this.  Halbrucker said yes. Tower water pressure will be fine. R. Berg: How was the size of homes and sq. foot area looked at? Joe says there will be a Village Board meeting and then a preliminary plat and final. This has been ongoing. Tonight is for zoning. DNR will give permits for our stormwater management which is based on impervious area. There are engineering and S/W requirements that must be met and the DNR gets these reports. Mary Beth Schmidt: does the contract state that the village must pay the developer? What is the developers guarantee, Virtus must pay a certain amount of tax per Phase to the Village no matter what happens with the sale of homes. Village Attorney has been involved in the contract. Parks are in phase 2 mainly. Joe says there are roughly 30 acres of wetland and that will be left as is. Trash pickup will be done by whoever the Village contracts with. Berg how will that look as far as trash containers for all of the apartments and homes. Adam stated that there is usually a dumpster and a comprehensive refuse plan for the apartments and town homes. Michell Berg: Was Jefferson County pushing for this and if so will they have more Police Officers in this area. There will be a HOA Koziol says. Mr. Berg-will, the landscaping will be complete by phase 2. Yes, says Koziol. What if commercial space doesn’t go. Koziol says then possibly there will be more residential space. Roger Kincaid: Will they have to connect to our sewer system. Halbrucker says no if you are in the township. Gary Brzezinski: When is there another meeting and is this thing a done deal? Tim says we are progressing with the original idea. They will take the concerns into consideration. Ken Dooley tells the residents to continue to do your due diligence and look at our website for upcoming meetings. Public Hearing was closed at 7:27 pm Business: 1. Discussion/possible action on the rezone of Parcels 171-0516-2722-000, 171-0516- 2811-000, and 171-0516-2814-000 generally located at the intersection of Co Rd H and Marsh Rd from Rural Holding (RH) to Planned Unit Development (PUD) General Development Plan (GDP). The purpose of the rezone is to allow a proposed development for a 60-acre master-planned community adjacent to an additional 30- acres designated as wetlands that will be preserved as open space. The project will blend residential, commercial, and conservation elements to create a walkable, mixed-use neighborhood. It will include 168 multifamily apartment units, 50 townhomes, and 106 single-family homes. Commercial spaces will feature a 20,000 - 25,000 square foot retail center and a 6,000 - 8,000 square feet of stand-alone retail buildings. Joe and Brad from MSA explained that there will be a GDP-General Development Plan that goes over the top of the current zoning that is there. They can ask for variances in this area. SIP-specific implement plan. Any changes have to be submitted to the Village Board. There was discussion on whether or not the boulevard area would be a public or private roadway. Virtus prefers that the village  will own this so they have access at any time. Virtus lost a lot of parking spaces due to where stormwater ponds had to be so whole plan had to be shifted toward Hwy H. Parking will be permitted on either side of the bump outs. Halbrucker there will be no parking during the winter, Virtus says they can look at that as well. Roads on either side of the Blvd. are 28 ft. wide with parking stalls as part of this. Halbrucker says snow would be hauled out unless they can plow it to the middle. He thinks this will work. Joe thinks having a Blvd. is a great idea if we can plow it but Joe proposes they keep it as a private road. Let’s give Halbrucker a chance to review this. This is currently open ended. Ken Dooley asked if the Blvd. has passing area for pedestrians, yes says Virtus. Ken asks who clears the piles of snow? Can’t use that area during the winter. Some S/W management will take care of some of this. Could be just esthetic Blvd. No mowing it as it will be a rain garden says Virtus. If it is kept private, then the HOA maintains it. Bill H. has the legality of loss of parking spots being checked out. Brad says by ordinance this is an overlay district, it still follows the zoning ordinance, and they have to meet the parking requirements per our zoning says Brad. There is flexibility to fit enough parking spaces in this. Bill Holcomb- what do you consider low and medium density residential? Virtus says that the apartments are higher density. The density has nothing to do with income. Per Joe: Marsh road will be built up in phase 1 due to runoff. Bill Holcom-who put the concept plan together? This concept has developed several different times, and it didn’t address the wetlands at that time. This is separate zoning for this development only says Brad, they will have the underlying zoning like the rest of village, and this is the “Westfield PUD” zoning ordinance. Bill Holcomb voiced concern over homes only being 10 ft apart. Joe says that is what they are seeing, people can’t afford larger lots. Typically, there is 15 ft. side setback on each home, says Adam, certain lots could be at minimum depending on size of homes that it could be 10 ft apart. Adams says they have gone through the plan with the FD and they got an email from our FD and it will be stated in the GDP. Dooley/Scheffner motion to recommend to the Village Board the rezone of Parcels 171- 0516-2722-000, 171-0516-2811-000, and 171-0516-2814-000 generally located at the intersection of Co Rd H and Marsh Rd from Rural Holding (RH) to Planned Unit Development (PUD) General Development Plan (GDP), along with the 10 conditions as listed in the MSA memo. All ayes-motion carried. This won’t come in front of the Village Board until August. Scheffner/Ball motion to adjourn at 8:27 pm. All ayes-motion carried. Respectfully submitted, Laurie Mueller, Village Clerk/Treasurer Minutes approved without corrections August 20, 2025