Neenah residents rally to oppose rezoning Shattuck Middle School for redevelopment as mix of apartments and homes

NEENAH - A developer's proposal to transform the 27-acre Shattuck Middle School property into 168 housing units ran into a wall of opposition from nearby residents Tuesday.

Petitions, emails, letters, phone calls and comments during a public hearing all opposed Northpointe Development Corp.'s request to rezone the property at 600 Elm St. to a Traditional Neighborhood Development District to accommodate 100 apartments, 36 single-family homes, 16 duplex units and 16 townhome units.

Most residents asked that the property be restricted for single-family homes or senior housing, not the workforce or affordable apartments proposed by Northpointe. Their comments included the following:

• "To put a development of this size in our neighborhood is going to completely change the atmosphere, traffic levels, home values and security of our neighborhood, not to mention losing an exponential amount of greenspace." − Sara Kranpitz

• "Please do not allow lower-income rentals in our area. I have much invested in my property and home." − Kathryn Dwyer

• "We're saying no. Listen to your community. Listen to your city. We're your neighbors, and if you were living on Reed Street, would you really be OK with this to have as your front yard?" − Jessica Williams

• "This project does not fit this neighborhood." − David Tonn

In the end, the city of Neenah Plan Commission postponed deliberations on the rezoning request to its Nov. 29 meeting.

A second public hearing on the rezoning request will be held Nov. 16 before the Common Council, but the council won't act on the request until the Plan Commission makes a recommendation.

A petition started by Megan Florek on change.org and also circulated in Neenah opposes the rezoning. Organizers said 554 Neenah residents signed the petition.

Northpointe's proposal, the petition says, "will destroy the single-family neighborhood fabric that has been the staple of this neighborhood for generations."

"We support the development of single-family housing for Shattuck Middle School because ownership creates a stake in the neighborhood while rentals create transient living," the petition continues. "This single-family housing could take the shape of possibly condos for the Shattuck Middle School building. The development of the remainder of the property we support single-family homes, not rentals."

Brad Schmidt, deputy director of community development, said city staff was verifying the petition to determine if it would require the rezoning to pass by a supermajority of the council, rather than a simple majority.

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Northpointe, which is based in Oshkosh, has an accepted offer to purchase the property for $500,000 from the Neenah Joint School District. Shattuck Middle School will become vacant in June. The school district is building a $171 million high school in Fox Crossing and will turn the existing high school on Tullar Road into a middle school for grades 5-8 starting with the 2023-24 school year.

Schmidt said Northpointe is the only developer to bring forward a plan for the property.

"If this gets denied, there is nothing sitting on the other side that's necessarily better," Schmidt told The Post-Crescent. "This could be a property that sits vacant for a long time."

Such a long-term vacancy could result in increased crime and decreased property values in the neighborhood, which are two of the concerns mentioned by neighbors, Schmidt said.

Northpointe would renovate Shattuck school and restore windows

The two-story Shattuck building dates to 1928 and is located on the north end of the property. Northpointe plans to convert the building into a maximum of 100 apartments ranging in size from efficiency units to three-bedroom units. A medical clinic in the west wing of the building would remain.

"The closure of the school will have a significant impact on the neighborhood, and the proposed development of the school site should mitigate those impacts and provide a reasonable fit with the neighborhood character," Schmidt said.

According to the plan, the school would be renovated in accordance with national guidelines for historic preservation. Bricked-in window openings would be replaced with historically accurate replica windows.

The project would use historic tax credits and federal housing tax credits administered by the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority. The proposed income limits for the Shattuck School Apartments are as follows:

• 35% of the units at 50% of the Winnebago County median income

• 30% of the units at 60% of the Winnebago County median income

• 35% of the units at 70% of the Winnebago County median income

The median income in Winnebago County is $59,500 for a family of one, $68,000 for a family of two, $76,500 for a family of three and $85,000 for a family of four, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Andy Dumke, co-founder of Northpointe, said the apartments would be designed for young professionals so "that they can afford to live in a real quality housing project that isn't going to cost them $2,000 a month in rent."

"I know in this community, as in every other community in the state and throughout the country, there is a significant need for affordable housing," Dumke said.

Construction of the apartments would begin in late 2023 and be finished in 2025.

Development includes single-family homes, greenspace

The single-family home, duplexes and townhouses would be located south of the Shattuck School Apartments and would be built starting in mid-2024. The plan for the area also includes a 1.5-acre stormwater pond and a 2.9-acre greenspace.

"Further discussion is needed to determine whether this area remains private or becomes a public park," Schmidt said.

The Parks and Recreation Commission recently met in closed session to discuss development in the 600 block of Elm Street.

Schmidt said Northpointe's proposal meets and exceeds the minimum requirements and standards of a Traditional Neighborhood Development District.

The single- and two-family areas would have a density of 4.3 units per acre, and the multifamily areas would have a density of 8.9 units per acre. Both are about half of the allowable maximum.

"Early on in the process, city staff worked with the developer to reduce density on the proposed project to bring the overall density more in line with the surrounding neighborhood," Schmidt said.

Traffic generated by the housing units, estimated at 1,269 trips per day, would be lower than traffic generated by the middle school, estimated at 1,539 trips per day.

Northpointe says it 'revives best that early neighborhoods had to offer'

Northpointe's plan for a traditional neighborhood is a return to the past. In the early 1900s, neighborhoods were based on a pedestrian lifestyle, where walking was the dominant mode of transportation. The concept of suburbia took hold after the automobile became dominant and allowed lot sizes to increase in both width and distance from the city center.

Northpointe describes its plan this way: "A traditional neighborhood is a method of neighborhood design that revives the best that early neighborhoods had to offer. Garages are relegated to the back of the lot and accessed by shared alleyways. This frees up the front facade for a traditional porch element, which makes the dwelling more inviting from the street and instills a sense of community among residents. Lot widths are purposely narrow to conserve space and give the appropriate scale between dwellings. Residents then share access to a large common greenspace nearby. This allows a balance of private and public space and helps reduce lawn maintenance and upkeep. Homes are encouraged to be designed to a similar scale to complement one another, while using similar, agreed-upon architectural language. Color and material changes are often used to help differentiate dwellings from one another and provide opportunity for uniqueness and personalization. The proposed Shattuck School Neighborhood is intended to blend into theexisting traditional neighborhood fabric that surrounds it."

Contact Duke Behnke at 920-993-7176 or dbehnke@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DukeBehnke.

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This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Neenah residents oppose rezoning Shattuck school for redevelopment