County agrees to sell land to Port, city to secure option

The Port Washington Common Council will purchase a three-year option to buy 6.67 acres at the intersection of highways LL and 33 from Ozaukee County for a new public safety complex.

Aldermen voted unanimously to buy the option for $5,000 following a roughly five minute closed session Tuesday night, accepting an offer made by the Ozaukee County Board last week.

After the initial three years, the option can be extended by the city for 90 days at a cost of $500, but City Administrator Tony Brown said that likely won’t be necessary.

“I would assume at some time in the next year the city’s going to have a good idea if the site is viable (for a safety complex),” Brown said.

The county Public Works Committee last month unanimously recommended that the property be sold to the city.

Port Mayor Ted Neitzke told the five-member committee that obtaining the parcel “is a big part of our strategic plan” and a “significant location” for a future public safety building that would house both the fire and police departments.

“We have every intent to move our police and fire there,” he said.

Neitzke called the area a “significant intersection” that would allow access to the City’s population center, but also outside the city to make it easier to assist Grafton, Saukville and other fire departments.

The property was acquired by the county in 2017 when the state rebuilt Highway 33 and replaced the cloverleaf there with a roundabout.

The next year, Casey’s General Store offered to buy the land for $500,000 but eventually pulled that offer after the state Department of Transportation demanded payment of $287,000 to access the property for private purposes from both highways.

Because the City of Port Washington would use the land for public purposes and install a city street there, the state’s access fee would be waived, county officials said.

Port Fire Chief Mark Mitchell told the committee that the city had long eyed that property for a public safety building and that he, then-County Board Chairman Rob Brooks, who currently represents the 60th Assembly District, and former County Administrator Tom Meaux were hoping to arrive at a deal for the property.

“Our hearts kind of sunk when Casey’s made their offer,” he said, but his hopes were revived when Casey’s pulled out.

County Supr. Tony Matera, who represents a part of the city, said a public safety building on the site “is a much better use than a gas station.”

Funds from the sale to the city would be deposited in the Highway County Road and Bridges Special Revenue Fund, according to a memorandum from County Administrator Jason Dzwinel to the Public Works Committee.

The city’s offer contains a provision that if the city sells any part of the parcel to a private developer within five years of closing, it will pay the county $41,230 per acre.

“It is a claw-back provision that would reimburse the county if the city sold the lot at a profit,” Dzwinel said.

Inclusion of the paragraph was Dwzinel’s idea, Port City Administrator Tony Brown and Neitzke said.

“We have no intention of ever selling,” Neitzke said. “This is a once-in-a-century opportunity.”

County Board Chairman Lee Schlenvogt recently said he would look favorably on an offer from the city in the neighborhood of $250,000, about what the county would have netted from the sale to Casey’s and that the sale would go quickly once a price was agreed to.

Officials have said Schlenvogt and Brown have been negotiating the purchase of the property “for some time.”

The city has hired Bray Architects of Sheboygan to do the preliminary work on the public safety building, including finding other potential sites for the structure.

Initial work on the project is expected to be done by late this year or early next year, Brown has said, with detailed design work to be done in 2024.

Construction could begin in early 2025, with completion of the complex in 2026.