Story originally printed in the Coulee News or online at www.couleenews.com
Published - Friday, May 16, 2008
Brewery fate lies with village board
The possible demolition of the old brewery in Bangor could be a reality soon, although it will need the help of the village board.
The Bangor Village Board was scheduled to meet Tuesday night, past Coulee News deadline, to discuss creating a tax incremental finance district where the old Sprehn Mill/Hussa Brewery sits vacant.
A TIF district is hoped to provide incentive for a developer to come in, tear down the building and redevelop the site.
The board’s discussion comes after the Bangor Planning Commission recommended the creation of a TIF district at its May 6 meeting.
“The reason we’re here is to discuss the possibility of tearing down the old mill and establishing a TIF district,” said village President Robin Gjertsen at the beginning of the meeting.
John Wyciskalla, senior scientist at Braun Intertec, environmental engineers overseeing cleanup of the site, spoke first about the removal of contaminants. He said that Braun had recently excavated the last bit of potentially contaminated soil from the site and that analysis of that soil should have been completed by May 14.
“Nothing was noted in the field report — if everything comes back clean, we can submit this to the DNR as a clean site,” Wyciskalla said.
Asked how long it would take the DNR to give the OK for demolition, Wyciskalla said that it would probably take about a month. When Trustee Dan Hesse asked whether the process could be expedited, Wyciskalla replied that, in some cases, it might be possible to speed things up a bit, but it would be difficult to say for sure.
Chuck Sulik of MSA Professional Services, the village’s engineering firm, gave the commission basic information about the TIF process with an emphasis on the four potential objectives of a TIF: eliminating blight, encouraging rehabilitation and conservation, acquiring and developing an industrial park and/or encouraging mixed use development of a property.
The TIF process requires the formation of a joint review board that then oversees the whole process. That five-member board has representation from the community college, the village, the county, the school district and one public member-at-large. Once that board approves a TIF, however, it is the village board that makes decisions.
“After the TIF is approved, a base value must be determined, so we’re going to need to have some feel for the redevelopment potential,” Solis said.
County Planner Charlie Handy added that “the big thing in a TIF is that you have to convince the state and the county that future development would not occur without the TIF.”
Gjertsen said that shouldn’t be a problem.
“Well, that bar’s not set too high,” he said.
The commission was told that getting a TIF in place would probably take between 60 and 90 days but that it had to be in place by Sept. 30 if work was to be done on the site this year.
Sulik also told the commission that most TIFs provide infrastructure improvements to make sites attractive to developers. He recommended a formal, binding legal agreement with the developer or developers defining expectations on both sides.
At an earlier meeting, Sulik was informed that there are at least two parties interested in demolishing or developing the site and that one of them is currently trying to gain ownership of the site from Robert Lunke, the current owner.
Sulik said that he would need to meet with potential developers to find out their plans.
“Once that is done, I will do an analysis and give you a timeline. This is all preliminary, but within a month we could start the formal creation process,” he said.
Handy said plans would be a plus for the county.
“If (the county is) going to decide to forgive taxes, the notion that development plans are in place would certainly help,” Handy said, adding that he thought it would take about 20 days for the county to review the village’s TIF request and render an opinion.
Sulik said that he could provide a recommended timeline at the village board’s June meeting so that the board could vote on the formal creation of a TIF.
Gjertsen reminded everyone that, if that were the case, the meeting would need to be posted and open to the public.
The meeting ended with Wyciskalla being urged to obtain closure from the DNR regarding contamination at the site. Meanwhile, Sulik will be talking with potential developers and the planning committee will be meeting again in advance of the June meeting at a date yet to be determined.
All stories copyright 2006 Coulee News and other attributed sources.