Village warms to subdivision plan

A subdivision proposed for Fredonia’s north side would not require a tax incremental finance district to be completed but will likely include some sort of “limited amount of partnering” with the village to complete infrastructure improvements, officials said Monday night.    

Developer Oyvind Solvang showed the village Plan Commission and members of the Village Board conceptual plans of his project, which would include about 100 units to be built north and west of the Northern Ozaukee School District campus.

The development would be divided roughly in half, with traditional one-third acre single-family home lots being built west of North Milwaukee Street and a less conventional development with smaller homes on narrower lots being built east of Milwaukee Street at the end of Deer Meadow Drive.

Single-family homes there would probably start with two bedrooms and have about 1,500 square feet, Solvang said.

Many of those lots, Solvang said, would be perhaps 60 feet wide instead of 80 feet. Other lots would include duplex condominiums.

Both home styles would be affordable, starting at around $260,000, and attractive to empty nesters and small families who want to live close to schools, Solvang said.

“We see it as a package deal” that can be marketed, he said.

The smaller lot sizes concerned some officials, however.

“I think the development is a good idea,” Trustee John Long said. “The smaller lots is just a new concept for me.”

Other officials pointed out that the narrower lots proposed by Solvang were also deeper than most village lots so that the square footage was consistent with the rest of the village and that many lots in the village currently are only 60 feet wide.

Narrower lots would make for denser neighborhoods, which would reduce development costs to the village, Village President Don Dohrwardt said.

“You don’t get your property taxes from a patch of grass,” he said. 

Tax incremental finance districts, or TIFs, divert property tax revenue to pay for improvements such as roads and sewers. 

While details are still being negotiated, officials said Monday that Solvang’s project would likely use the village’s lower borrowing costs to build the infrastructure and then pay the village back as lots and houses are built and sold.

“It’s a little more creative,” Dohrwardt said.

“It will enable us to free up capital to kick-start” building homes on speculation, Solvang said.

Solvang said one of the most “challenging” aspects of the project is the 300,000 cubic yards of dirt left behind by the previous developer who gave up on the site in 2008.

“It’s a big reason why the land has sat there as long as it has,” Solvang said, calling it a “major boat anchor” on the site.

He proposes using the dirt, however, to create a hill that would be a “bit of a destination” for a trail system that might be high enough to afford views of Lake Michigan, he said.

Another wrinkle to the project is that Solvang recently told school officials the project would require the district to trade about three acres of school-owned land, enough for eight additional lots, in order to extend Deer Meadow Drive.

Despite the concerns, several officials were enthusiastic for the project.

“They’re willing to make an investment here,” Trustee Joshua Haas said. “We should work with them. I think this is a major opportunity.”

Noting that development was swiftly traveling northward and that Fredonia was primed for expansion before the recession set in, Dohrwardt suggested that officials not let the opportunity slip away.

If projects like Solvang’s were to go to other area communities like Belgium or Cedar Grove, “Fredonia could become the Thiensville of northern Ozaukee County,” he said.

Up to 10 lots of the project are already platted and are ready to develop, officials say.

Solvang said he hopes to bring in plans later this month to get construction started on those sites while details are worked out on the rest of the project.