Oconomowoc council debates how to count condos as single-family as housing ratios near limit

City of Oconomowoc staff told the Common Council on Jan. 6 that the city's adopted housing-mix rule—set in a 2024 ordinance—has the city at about 59.6% single-family, roughly 35.6% multifamily and about 4.7% duplex units, placing Oconomowoc effectively at its policy limit and prompting council discussion about how condominiums should be counted.

The issue matters because the comp plan and the 2024 ordinance include mandatory ratio language that can block approvals until the percentages are back in compliance. Mark (city staff) said the current numbers leave little room for new multifamily development and that one option is to count condominiums as single-family dwellings for the purpose of ratio accounting: “we have a ratio of that we shouldn't be below 60% for single family. We're at 59.6,” he said, adding that reclassifying condos could raise the single-family share to roughly 68–70% depending on which projects are included.

Why it matters: The housing-mix percentages govern whether new multifamily or duplex projects may be approved without a comp-plan amendment. Staff told the council that, under the ordinance's current mandatory language, any parcel that is not already zoned for multifamily would require rezoning and council approval; a comp-plan amendment is the available mechanism to adjust the permissible percentage for a particular project.

Planning staff (Jason) and others walked council members through examples of condominium complexes in the city and candidate projects such as the Harvest/Papp's Farms proposal. Jason said reclassifying condos into the single-family category would be “a pretty drastic change” and that the numbers include projects already approved but not yet built. He said staff will meet with developers in the coming days and sought council guidance on process rather than immediate policy change.

Council members were divided. Alderman Cloth supported treating many condominiums as owner-occupied and raised constituent concerns about increased apartment development and neighborhood character. Alderman Spiegelberg urged benchmarking nearby communities, noting that some (he cited New Berlin) include condos with single-family housing in their calculations and operate at higher owner-occupied shares. Attorney Riffle warned of legal and technical pitfalls, saying in open session that “multifamily does not include condominiums” under the current code definitions and cautioning that how condos are accounted for could create loopholes or unintended consequences.

No ordinance or comp-plan amendment was proposed or voted on at the meeting. Several council members said they were not inclined to upend the ordinance adopted in 2024 on short notice and preferred that staff return with a recommended process—either a targeted comp-plan amendment for a specific project or a broader review during a scheduled update—rather than immediate reclassification. The council also reiterated that rezoning requests will come before the council for approval and that the current mandatory language in the ordinance constrains approvals until ratios are addressed.

Next step: Staff will continue consultations with applicants and return to the council with options for how to proceed (comp-plan amendment path, ordinance revision, or project-specific comp-plan requests). The council took no formal action to change definitions or numeric targets at the Jan. 6 meeting.