Planning & Development — Minutes

Town of Phelps Planning and Development Commission 4495 Town Hall Rd., PO Box 157 Phelps WI 54554 Commission Members Quita Sheehan, Chair Gene Hojan, Vice Chair Maureen Robinson, Secretary, Town Board Rep. Eugene McCaslin, Citizen Member Mark Neitzel, Citizen Member Jon Ward, Citizen Member Chad Scheissl-Moore, Citizen Member Phelps Planning and Development Commission Minutes Tuesday September 2nd, 2025, 5:30 PM Phelps Town Hall, 4495 Town Hall Road 1. CALL MEETING TO ORDER: Meeting was called to order by Chair, Quita Sheehan at 5:32. 2. QUORUM OF MEMBERS’ PRESENT: Quorum of members was present. Jeremy Ryan attended the meeting with an update on Number 6 below. 3. VERIFICATION OF PUBLIC NOTICE: The meeting was posted on the website. 4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES from Aug 5th, 2025 regular monthly meeting. Eugene McCaslin made the motion to approve the minutes with one minor revision. Gene Hojan seconded the motion. Motion carried. 5. COMMUNICATIONS AND CORRESPONDENCE: Chair, Quita Sheehan reported that the Accelerator Building was purchased by David Hall. The Phelps Chamber will continue to have their office there until they can move into the Phelps Community Center. Other current businesses will be staying in the building. DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS 6. THRIVE UPDATE: a. Development Plan Review – with Supervisor Ryan: Supervisor Ryan reported that renderings are currently being developed by Cedar Corp, for presentation to the Town Board. A tiered structure is being considered, The first tier would be retail, the second tier would be affordable housing, and the third tier would be owner occupied condos. b. Former Hospital Demo Timeline: The site should be mostly cleared by the end of September. 7. PARKS DEPARTMENT: a. Parks Financial Report: NA b. Park Supervisor Report: Schiessl-Moore – see the attached written report. 8. BUDGET UPDATES FOR PARKS AND PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT: The budget is in preliminary phases. 9. CHAPTER ONE OF THE TOWN OF PHELPS COMPREHENSIVE PLAN REVIEW AND COMMENTS: The Commission is preparing for their 2029 update of the 2019 Phelps Comprehensive Plan. Chapter One was reviewed at this meeting, and commission members were asked to prepare for discussion on Chapter Two for the October 7th meeting. 10. PLANNING SUBCOMMITTEE/COMMITTEE/WORK GROUP UPDATES: a. Housing Development Planning and CDA: Supervisor Robinson and Gene Hojan; the Planning Commission would like to ask the Town Board to reactivate the CDA. There is a lot to do in the development of the downtown and providing more affordable housing.These are primary duties of a CDA, and are extremely vital to the economic development of Phelps We need a strategic vision and goals for economic diversification, job creation targets, housing objectives, and service improvements.A good starting point would be the recruitment of members for a fully committed CDA, a prioritized list of catalytic projects with timelines, budgets and expected outcomes should be developed, a financing structure with a combination of both public funds in the way of grants and subsidies and private investments will be critical to their success. Small business support programs, and the development of affordable housing requirements need to be developed. Regulatory streamlining, infrastructure and utilities, and workforce development partnerships will also be vital for both progress and success of the CDA. The commission also feels it would be of great value to have a financial planner either on the CDA or hired as a professional consultant. Consultants could also be utilized for other professional services, such as Grant Writing. Tracking, measuring, and reporting on benefits is critical for transparency and communication in areas like job creation, private investment, tax base growth, housing affordability, retail and small business vitality, infrastructure, public service improvements, to mention a few. b. Military Hill Forest Fire Lookout Restoration Project: Structural Analysis Report - Eugen McCaslin: indicated that the structural analysis by QLS should be ready for presentation at the August RTBM. c. Veterans Memorial: Site selection: Veterans Memorial Committee met again on August 29th to continue discussing potential sites. d. Broadband Status: There continues to be a lot of progress by Spectrum in preparing for service in the Town of Phelps. e. Community Center Workgroup – Robinson, et al.: Hojan reported that footings, underground utilities, and moving of power poles are all making great progress. Hojan also reported on the Town Shop progress: footings and steel should be completed in September. 11. SET DATE FOR NEXT MEETING: Tuesday Oct 7th st 2025, at 5:30 PM, Phelps Town Hall 12. ADJOURNMENT: Chair, Quita Sheehan adjourned the meeting at 7:11 PM. /s/ Quita Sheehan, Chair ____________________________________________________________________________________ This meeting notice was posted at the Phelps Convenience Center, Phelps Post Office, Phelps Community Center/Town Hall Office, and the Town website. (Notice is hereby given that a majority of the Town Board might be attending this meeting. This constitutes a meeting of the Town Board pursuant to the State ex rel. Badke vs. Greendale Village Bd., 173 Wis. 2d 553, 494 N. W. 2d 409 (1993), and must be noticed as such, although the Town Board will not take any formal action at this meeting.) Parks Department Report submitted by Chad Schiessl-Moore on Aug 28th Thought I would write you up an update since I won’t be attending the meeting next week due to being on vacation. Boat Landings- Basic maintenance has been done on a weekly basis. Issue with North Twin launch has been identified. The left side of the pier final concrete slab has angled significantly downward due to prop washout when power loading. Josh has made a call to Pitlik to determine a fix. Signage has been put up to make boaters aware. Power loading is an issue at launches everywhere. We may want to consider adopting a no power loading rule at all of our launches. With some signage, we may reduce the amount of people that do this on a regular basis. You’re never going to eliminate it, but it keeps the honest people, honest, so to speak. We all know the cost that comes along with launch maintenance and replacement And since we do not charge a fee to launch on our lakes, we need to do whatever we can do to preserve them and be proactive to issues LPP- I met with Damian of Maple Ridge Construction and walked him through Dave Selby in my ideas for the downtown park as far as the Pavilion/grass area/parking lot project. He is going to meet with Dave and I when I get back from vacation to go over what he has laid out so far. Hopefully at our October meeting we will have a better idea as far as cost etc. and we can talk all of that through at that point. Shooting range-No issues and maintenance has been completed on a weekly basis. Wavering Park- No issues and a few rentals and events to go this season I’m sure there’s more that I’m missing, but I don’t think it’s anything that can’t be brought up and discussed at our October meeting. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions Thanks, Chad