By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer

ASHWAUBENON – The village board decided Jan. 12 not to reacquire the site of the BP gas station at the corner of Waube Lane and Allied Street as allowed in a decades-old restrictive covenant for the property.

Board members agreed to release the parcel from the village’s right of first refusal in the recorded restrictive covenants of Ashwaubenon’s Industrial Park and the park’s first addition.

When the property was sold by what was the Town of Ashwaubenon in the 1970s, Community Development Director Aaron Schuette said one of the restrictive covenants recorded with the site required an opportunity for the municipality to repurchase the property as the right of first refusal in selling it.

“This is something that I guess I was not aware of, and it came about as a result of a proposed sale of the BP station,” he said.

Schuette said documents with the property allow for a formal offer to be made to Ashwaubenon to purchase, and if the village wouldn’t act within 90 days, the offer would be considered null and void, and the sale to another party could proceed.

“However, in this case it seems more timely to just take action on it with this property right now, and then bring forth a formal resolution in the future to release these properties from the right of first refusal for the village,” he said.

Schuette said he would have to research where exactly the boundaries of properties with restrictive covenants are located in the industrial park and its first addition before bringing a resolution forward.

“In this case, this (right of first refusal release) would just be for the BP property,” he said.

With properties changing hands over the years in the industrial park, Schuette said he didn’t know why the right of first refusal for Ashwaubenon hadn’t come up in the past.

Trustee Steve Kubacki, who previously was Ashwaubenon’s village administrator more than a decade ago, said Village President Mary Kardoskee contacted him to find out if he knew anything about the restrictive covenant for the BP gas station, which took effect in 1973 when he was a freshman in college.

“When I saw that (date), I went, ‘Oh boy, Steve’s going to think I’m nuts for calling him on this one,’” Kardoskee said.

Schuette said he contacted Public Works Director Doug Martin and Engineer Steve Birr to see if the village would have any reasons, such as for street realignment or utility reconstruction, to want to acquire the BP gas station site.

“They saw no reason at all why we would want that property, and I would personally agree with that,” Schuette said.