Council approves downtown angled parking plan; funding, trees and park frontage draw debate

The Wausau Common Council voted 9-2 on Feb. 25 to approve a downtown parking improvement project on North Fourth Street, Franklin Street and McIndoe/Mackinac Street that changes parallel stalls to angled parking and includes a cost-share from the Woodson YMCA.

Proponents and city staff said the angled stalls increase total capacity and ease parking congestion near the Woodson YMCA’s Landing senior center. Brian Bailey, president and CEO of the Woodson YMCA, told the council the Landing generates heavy daytime downtown traffic and asked the council “please vote yes in partnering with the Y and the landing parking in this parking improvement project.”

The project drew repeated questions about who pays and how it fits into the city’s TID financing. During the meeting finance staff acknowledged figures in the packet were inconsistent: one packet excerpt showed a $238,000 figure and staff later referred to a higher total construction estimate discussed in budget work. The YMCA has committed $119,000 toward the project; staff said the city would pay the construction bill and then be reimbursed by the Y for its share.

Neighbors and some alderpersons raised concerns about impacts to Yockey Park frontage, tree removals and neighborhood optics. An amendment to exempt the Fourth Street/Yockey Park section failed 2-9. Engineering staff said the park’s footprint will not be reduced, though sidewalks would be shifted into the park and two boulevard trees would be removed; staff estimated a net increase of roughly 33 stalls across project phases and that the Fourth Street segment would add about seven to nine net stalls there.

Council later voted to include the parking project in a TID 3 project-plan amendment so the work could be financed through TID increment rather than another funding source. An amendment to add the Mackinac/Fourth/Franklin parking to the TID 3 plan passed 9-2 later in the meeting.

The council also allowed public comment on the agenda item (6-5 on the procedural vote). Speakers from the public asked that the Yockey Park section be exempted and pressed for clearer numbers in packet materials.

What passed: the council approved the parking plan as presented (motion from Henke, second Larson; outcome: approved 9-2). A separate vote to add the parking to the TID 3 project-plan amendment also passed (motion as amended: approved 9-2).