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Regional planning commission briefs Chippewa County board on 2025 projects and business‑loan activity
Summary
The West Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission briefed the Chippewa County Board on regional projects and local services including a comprehensive-plan update, safe‑routes coordination and a revolving-business loan fund.
Scott Allen, executive director of the West Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, presented the commission’s annual report to the Chippewa County Board, summarizing regional planning work and county-specific projects.
Allen outlined services provided to Chippewa County including updated annual economic profiles, transportation planning (including bicycle-facility planning and a Chippewa Valley bike-route sign program), safe routes to school coordination for local districts, stormwater-education outreach and a county capital-improvement-plan (CIP) mapping tool. He said the commission is leading the county comprehensive-plan update (including a farmland preservation element) and reported that a mailed farmland-owner survey generated 452 responses from 1,483 mailed surveys.
He also described the West Central Regional Business Fund (RBF Inc.), a nonprofit revolving loan program that provides low-interest financing to businesses across the seven-county region. Allen said that, since consolidation in 2007 through August of the current year, the RBF has supported roughly 140 loans totaling about $7.6 million, creating more than 530 jobs and leveraging more than $67 million in private investment. He gave county examples of projects that used RBF financing, including facade and micro-loan projects and a business/property acquisition loan.
