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Plan commission staff reviews 2024 actions, zoning‑code rewrite and downtown redevelopment plans
Summary
City planning staff on Jan. 16 reviewed the Plan Commission’s 2024 activity and outlined priorities for 2025, including draft zoning‑code chapters, an RFP for redevelopment of the police/fire block and potential data‑center zoning work.
City planning staff briefed the Port Washington Plan Commission on Jan. 16 about the commission’s 2024 actions and a set of priorities and upcoming tasks for 2025, including continuing a citywide zoning‑code overhaul, preparing a request for proposals for redevelopment of the current police and fire facilities block and tracking annexations and extraterritorial reviews.
Planner Bob Harris said the city’s zoning code, described at the meeting as roughly 50 years old, is being rewritten in chapters by a consultant. He told commissioners that draft chapters should begin arriving for review in the coming weeks and that staff prefers a sectional approach for review rather than expecting commissioners to digest a single, lengthy document.
Harris said he has prepared an RFP draft for redevelopment of the existing police and fire building and plans to present that RFP draft to the commission before it is finalized. He also noted the city is tracking a possible data center proposal for the north side of town; he warned that a large proposal could substantially change project cost and infrastructure estimates and said the commission should consider zoning provisions for data centers sooner rather than later.
Staff also reviewed procedural matters that will affect future workloads: several subdivision proposals will require annexation and sewer‑map amendments, and if Port Washington becomes a city of the third class the commission’s extraterritorial review authority would extend from 1.5 to 3 miles, increasing the number of reviews. Harris said several conditional uses approved in 2024 are subject to 12‑month check‑in reviews, beginning in April. He also outlined staff work to update the city’s official map and zoning maps, develop cross‑department downtown plan implementation strategies and begin reporting key performance indicators.
Commissioners suggested approaches to reviewing the zoning‑code drafts. Commissioner Ted recommended receiving draft sections with a comparative “T‑chart” that shows what the code was and what it will be, to make changes easier to spot. Commissioner Roger and others urged the commission to begin considering code language specific to data centers at an early stage to provide clear guidelines to prospective applicants.
The meeting included two procedural voice votes: the commission approved the minutes of its previous meeting (voice vote; mover recorded as Rogers; second not specified) and later approved a motion to adjourn (mover Mr. Reyer; second Mr. Traum).
