By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer
HOWARD – A preliminary planned development district (PDD) to create a 21.8-acre, multi-use residential development in the Village Center and along Riverside Drive was approved Monday, April 26, as part of the Howard village board’s consent agenda.
The preliminary PDD, which was unanimously recommended a week earlier by the Plan Commission, calls for 14 single-family homes and 62 townhome-style condominiums (34 two-story townhomes and 28 three-story townhomes) for a total of 76 units in the Howard Townhomes development.
Community Development Director Dave Wiese said the village is looking at the potential of extending Elm Tree Hill south to Riverview Drive and Howard Commons west to Shawano Avenue, with the latter extension just south of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources facility connecting the Village Center to Shawano Avenue.
“The village has been in negotiations with the property owners for several years,” he said. “The property owners in that area, which there are four-five different owners, have looked at marketing this property for development for several years.”
Given the current economic conditions and the amount of development going on in Howard, Wiese said the village is looking at purchasing the land and working with a developer or developers.
“We’re not really looking at that we were going to build these ourselves, finance and own them and start to rent them or sell them,” he said. “We’re going to try to partner with someone in the future to accomplish that. But by setting up the road patterns, setting up the individual layouts and getting some conceptual approvals, we think this will go a long way toward marketing it accordingly.”
Wiese said the project would also include a network of trails to connect the new development to the rest of the Howard Commons/Village Center, as well as to the existing trail system in Meadowbrook Park.
He said the final PDD, once it is put together, must be reviewed by the Plan Commission before receiving board approval.
Design services
The board also approved a proposal from Mach IV Engineering & Surveying for design services for the Howard Townhomes with the fees not to exceed $124,400.
Of the estimated fees, Joel Ehrfurth of Mach IV said $95,200 would be associated with zoning, platting, public improvements and permitting, while the balance of $29,200 would be associated with the private work with the townhomes.
Director of Engineering Mike Kaster said the design services will include all the public improvements and some of the private improvements for the condominiums between Howard Commons and Riverview Drive.
“The hope is that we could get this project going relatively quickly, perhaps even get some of the improvements going in yet this year,” he said.
Kaster said the board last December approved a master service agreement with Mach IV to create a partnership with a local firm to do some engineering services for the village.
“We do have a lot of construction work going on and also other office duties as well,” he said. “For us to get the design done in a timely fashion and a high-quality fashion would be extremely difficult from now until the rest of the year.”
However, because the master service agreement didn’t authorize Mach IV to conduct any specific projects, Kaster said the proposal was presented to the board for its approval.
Kaster said Mach IV handled the Hazel Estates project for the village in a quality and timely manner, so he would expect the firm’s fees to end up being less than $124,400 for the Howard Townhomes project.