BY LEE REINSCH
CORRESPONDENT
DE PERE — The De Pere Common Council unanimously approved the designation of the George E. Bowman House at 933 Oakdale Ave. as a local historic structure.
“This is only the fourth property in the city that would be designated locally as a historic landmark,” Alderperson Jonathon Hansen said. “This provides greater protection, over the long term, for the property.”
Hansen thanked the owners, Kathleen and Gene Hackbarth, for bringing the matter forward.
Built in 1928, the clapboard Colonial Revival was identified as potentially historic in the city’s 2001 intensive survey.
The house is in the Randall Avenue Historic District, which has been on the State Register since 2006 and the National Register since 2007.
Alderperson Dean Raasch asked what the designation did for a property’s value and for its owners.
Peter Schleinz, a planner with the city, said there was no real financial benefit.
“The city does not offer any perks,” he said. “It’s mostly bragging rights and the ability to place a plaque on your property that identifies it as a historic property. Property owners tend to do it more for the awareness of their property and for being able to say that they live in a historic home.”
The designation transfers with the property from one owner to the next.
Exterior renovations will need to be approved by the historic preservation commission, which will issue a certificate of appropriateness, he said.
The Bowman House is one of the two earliest intact examples of Colonial Revival architectural style found within the Randall Avenue District.
The other is the brick Enos Ellegard House at 924 Oakdale Avenue, which was built in 1929.
Lawrence development
In other matters, the Common Council approved a three-lot preliminary extraterritorial plot of the Shady Court subdivision in the 2400 block of Little Rapids Road between French Road and Lawrence Parkway and (Parcel L-458-7) in the Town of Lawrence. The town hall is north of the area, which has undeveloped land on the other three sides.
The Town of Lawrence rezoned the properties from estate residential (ER) to single- and two-family residential (R-1 and R-2) in 2020.
New city attorney
The Common Council welcomed Anthony Wachewicz to the position of city attorney. Wachewicz, who is currently an attorney with von Briesen & Roper, S.C., will start with the City around Nov. 14.
At von Briesen, he works in the areas of government, municipal, labor, employment, real estate and school law.
He also has experience with real estate transactions and tax incremental financing.
He has been interim city attorney for the City of Manitowoc since May.
Prior to von Briesen & Roper, Wachewicz was the Village Attorney for the Village of Ashwaubenon.
He also worked for Brown County.
He earned his law degree from William Mitchell College of Law.