Oak Creek council approves comp‑plan change and rezoning for South 20th Street site after hours of public comment

The Oak Creek Common Council on March 18 approved an amendment to the city's 2020 comprehensive land use plan and a companion rezoning that redesignates roughly 29 acres at and near 10700'10840 South 20th Street from business park/agriculture and single'family residential to B-6 Interchange Regional Retail District, moving the site one step closer to hosting a Buc-ee's travel center.

Christie Lane, Oak Creek's community development director, told the council the two items are tied: "The application that is before you to consider this evening is to change those 3 parcels for a future land use map to identify them as commercial," and the B-6 zoning would "meet the intent and vision of the commercial land use category per the city's 2020 comprehensive land use plan." Lane said the parcels total about 29 acres and that the comp plan is a state requirement administered by the Wisconsin Department of Administration.

The public hearing that preceded the votes drew more than two dozen speakers, most of them nearby residents and neighborhood groups who urged the council to reject or slow the proposals. Concerns raised repeatedly included traffic, water and stormwater impacts, air quality and vapor from fueling operations, light and noise, threats to property values, and the effect on a nearby storybook horse farm.

"If this plan moves forward, it will turn this area into an impervious wasteland," said Sadie May Schult, a St. John's subdivision resident, citing runoff and downstream effects on the Oak…