Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Utilities Relocation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Developer will relocate utilities, board approves excavation for Division and Ferry Streets
Summary
The Board of Public Works approved a utility excavation request tied to a 360 Real Estate project; the developer said work will be on Division and Ferry Streets (not Tenth), and utilities serving the Cooley Recovery Center will be relocated onto that parcel. The board approved the permit after staff noted code limits on excavating newer streets.
The La Crosse Board of Public Works on Sept. 2 approved a request from 360 Real Estate to excavate on Division and Ferry Streets to install new utilities for two upcoming residential buildings.
Jeremy Novak, the project representative, told the board the work will serve a 12‑unit townhome fronting Division Street and a 24‑unit studio building at Tenth and Ferry. Novak said, “we will not need to go in to Tenth Street. It would just be Division and Ferry Street that we'll be excavating into for the new utilities.” He added the project team plans to begin breaking ground on the studio building in the next couple of weeks.
Novak said utilities that currently serve the Cooley Recovery Center run off Tenth Street and under the developer’s building; the project will relocate those utilities so they are on the recovery center’s tax parcel, a change Novak described as “cleaning up a couple of sins that currently exist.”
Director Gallagher explained why the item required board action: city code restricts excavation in newer streets. “By code, no one can excavate in a new street,” Gallagher said, and when excavation occurs in a recently constructed street the contractor must complete a full‑width patch. That provision triggered the board review because the streets involved are five years old or less.
The board voted to approve the excavation request after Novak said the developer has discussed the work with the recovery center and is preparing a memorandum of understanding.
The board’s action authorizes the permit; the transcript does not record detailed sequencing of construction or a final construction schedule beyond Novak’s comment that site work will start soon. The permit will include standard restoration requirements and is subject to further coordination with affected utility owners and city staff.
The board moved the matter with a motion by Director Gallagher and a second by Council President Dickinson; the vote was taken afterward and the motion advanced.
