Wausau planners report hundreds of housing units built or planned; vacancy rates, workforce needs shape debate

Wausau — The Wausau Economic Development Committee heard updates June 3 about recent housing production and remaining demand after a regional study projected the need for several hundred new housing units through 2030.

Sam Wessel of the North Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission told the committee the 2022 metropolitan housing assessment projected 2,077 new units needed by 2025 across participating municipalities and a further 1,153 units by 2030 for the eight-municipality study area. Wessel said about three-quarters of the 2025 projection will be met once developments under construction are completed.

The report matters because city and regional planners use those unit projections to guide zoning, funding and incentive decisions. Committee members repeatedly tied housing supply to workforce availability, tax policy and placemaking as they discussed how to keep Wausau competitive for residents and employers.

Wessel summarized the regional picture and the limits of current official projections. “They’re much lower than the ones that they did in 2013 based on the 2010 census,” he said of the state’s population…