Tweaked downtown plan to debut at open house next week

Port Washington residents will get their first look at the newest iteration of a downtown plan intended to guide development over the next 10 years and beyond next week.

The city will host an open house from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 12, at Grand Avenue United Methodist Church.

A presentation by the city’s consultants, Graef and Kubala Washatko, outlining the plan will be held at 6 p.m.

Bob Harris, the city’s director of planning and development, said this draft of the downtown plan incorporates many of the items included in previous versions of the plan.

“This has many of those elements but in more detail,” Harris said.

The city has worked on creating the downtown plan for more than a year, and last year held two open houses where major aspects of the document were unveiled.

Public comments made at those sessions were used to tweak the plan into the document that will be discussed next week, Harris said.

“This is the ‘What do you think about it’ stage,” he said.

The downtown plan identifies five key issues — the marina and waterfront and how they define the city, the mix of commercial and residential uses to embrace the character of downtown, parking and traffic circulation to meet changing conditions downtown, making Coal Dock Park a year-round destination and the overall downtown district that extends beyond Franklin Street and Grand Avenue.

Among the concepts unveiled last year were townhouses on the land where the Port Washington police and fire stations are located and a library with homes above on what is today the Jadair site.

Commercial and residential uses for properties along the city’s lakefront were outlined, as well as a major expansion of the marina to be done by building a new breakwater to protect the west slip, moving the marina fuel piers and the marina service building and relocating the launch ramps to Coal Dock Park.

A long-discussed pedestrian bridge that would connect Rotary and Coal Dock parks is also included in the plan.

Harris said many of these ideas are included in the newest edition of the document.

“You’ll see a little more fleshing out of plans for the marina, Coal Dock Park, Main Street and some other redeveloment sites,” he said. “I don’t think there should be any big surprises.”

Harris noted that the plan also contains ideas for redevelopment sites in downtown, many of which are privately owned.

Just because the plan may include specific ideas for a property in downtown doesn’t mean these are the only concepts the city will consider for these properties, Harris emphasized.

“We’re showing aspirational ideas to consider,” he said. “These plans are not a literal to-do list. It’s all about finding future land uses, design ideas and just inspirational vision.”

Those aspirational pieces, including the marina and Coal Dock Park plans, are among the aspects of the plan that likely won’t be done in 10 years but further into the future, Harris said.

“This stuff takes a while,” he said.

The Ozaukee Square project, proposed for a two-block area around City Hall and the Ozaukee County Administration Center, isn’t directly addressed, Harris noted.

“There is some plan language about that site,” he said. “There was a desire for that after it (Ozaukee Square) was presented.”

The plan also takes into account a parking study the city commissioned last year, he said, and takes into account the demand for parking at the various redevelopment sites, he said.