Consultants launch Waunakee comprehensive plan process; steering committee set for 14–16 month effort

Consultants from the Lakota Group, SV Friedman and traffic and market advisors presented a kickoff for an update to the Village of Waunakee comprehensive plan, telling the plan commission their work will run roughly 14 to 16 months and will emphasize public engagement and an implementable set of actions.

Andy Cross of the Lakota Group described a three‑phase schedule: Phase 1 will “engage and assess” existing conditions and produce a state‑of‑the‑village report; Phase 2 will test ideas and refine a planning framework; and Phase 3 will produce the plan and an implementation program, with a recommended one‑year check‑in after adoption. Cross said, “It’s going to be a fairly long process, often 14 to 16 months,” and asked the commission to serve as a steering committee to review work products before they reach the full village board.

Lakota introduced the consulting team: Hannah Kroll (planner, Lakota Group), Scott First (president, Lakota Group), Tran Root (partner, SB Friedman Development Advisors), and Derek Hungness (transportation planner, Traffic Analysis & Design). SB Friedman will prepare housing and market analysis, and the transportation consultant will assess roadway and mobility constraints.

Consultants described planned public engagement tools: focus groups (school district, senior groups, business owners, downtown operators), pop‑up events (farmers markets or community events), community conversations (small‑table workshops), an on‑line survey and a visual preference exercise to test different built‑form scenarios. The team proposed branding options and a working name, including a tentative “Waunakee 2040” label and an illustrative “key to the future” concept for project materials; commissioners offered local images (the movie‑park stone bridge, the water tower and the Main Street watercolor) as possible graphics.

Commissioners used the kickoff to raise local priorities. Housing was a repeat topic: commissioners said Waunakee has a high assessed‑value share in residential property and lacks some housing types (e.g., aging‑in‑place units and owner‑occupied townhomes) that would let long‑time residents relocate within the village. Traffic and Century Avenue aesthetics were flagged as major community concerns; commissioners expressed interest in multimodal connections and better pedestrian/bicycle linkages to county‑ and regional trails.

Economic development topics included maintaining a healthy tax‑base balance between residential and commercial assessment, and identifying business types the village could attract without losing the small‑town character residents value. Consultants urged a systems approach — treating housing, transportation, parks and economic development as linked systems — and said the state‑of‑the‑village report from Phase 1 will present baseline data for those conversations.

Next steps: the consultants will draft a public participation plan for review, schedule focus groups and field work over the summer, and deliver the state‑of‑the‑village report to the steering committee as the first formal deliverable. Commissioners and staff agreed to continue working on outreach methods and to provide local contacts for focus groups and pop‑up events.