Much of West Green Bay Street in Shawano is zoned as residential, but there are enough businesses moving into the neighborhood that the city is looking at potentially changing the zoning.
Currently, some businesses are operating in the area with conditional use permits. However, the future indicates that more businesses could utilize the corridor between Main Street and the Wolf River, according to zoning administrator Dave Moesch at a March 25 meeting of the Shawano Plan Commission.
“We want to give some ability for different types of uses along the corridor,” Moesch said. “Doing my research and stuff with the comprehensive plan, it would not need an amendment. We would just have to go through a rezoning process like we’ve done in the past and get plan commission approval and city council approval to do so.”
Street work will take place on West Green Bay Street in 2027, and Moesch is hoping the rezoning will be finalized by then, but there is still a lot of discussion that must take place.
“We felt it would good to do that before and during that process,” Moesch said, noting the corridor wouldn’t be completely changed immediately. “We don’t want to cause any panic. We just want it to be a smooth process and help people understand what the rezone would be.”
Moesch noted the subject would continue to come up for the next few months with the plan commission, but he’s also going to work with the East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission to get some input on what process would be most effective in changing the zoning.
“We want to do this correctly and appropriately,” Moesch said. “I think the corridor is going to change with the street work, and the uses will probably change.”
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
