Monday, October 14, 2024

Indoor commercial recreational use approved

Posted

By Kevin Boneske

Staff Writer


ASHWAUBENON – An indoor commercial recreational facility will be a permitted use in areas of the village zoned I-2 Heavy Industry under a recommendation approved Tuesday, Oct. 26, by the Ashwaubenon Village Board.

Community Development Director Aaron Schuette said the request to add “Commercial Recreation, Indoor” to the allowed uses in the I-2 district came from A.J. Aitken, owner of Route 1 Hockey.

Aitken is looking to open a hockey training facility in a building he leases.

Schuette said the amendment adds commercial indoor recreation as a permitted use, consistent with the text in the code, to the table of permitted uses.

He said Aitken wants to operate the hockey training facility on Baeten Road off of South Broadway.

Accessory buildings

In other action, the board approved a recommendation from Ashwaubenon’s Site Plan Review Committee and the Plan Commission to amend the village code as it relates to accessory buildings.

Schuette said the committee received a number of requests related to sheds located within commercial and industrial areas.

“The issue they ran into at Site Plan Review Committee, and even the Planning Commission and Village Board for that matter, was that there was really no criteria upon which to approve, deny or otherwise take action on whether or not (an) accessory building in these zoning districts meets what we’re looking for,” he said.

Schuette said he received direction from the committee to put together the amendment, which includes criteria based on zoning classification.

For commercial accessory buildings, Schuette said a maximum of 144 square feet will be allowed, while up to 240 square feet will be allowed for industrial accessory buildings.

“The accessory buildings, as identified in the code, can only be used for cold storage of things, (such as) snowblowers, lawnmowers, shovels, equipment necessary to maintain the building,” he said.

Schuette said a larger building could still be permitted, but would be considered an actual building subject to the standards of the site plan review ordinance and reviewed by the committee.

He said the amendment would grandfather in existing structures.

Trustee Gary Paul said there have been problems with people buying an accessory structure and “dumping it on the property.”

“(The Site Plan Review Committee) decided we need something, some language done in these parts of our community to… make them think about it, rather than just dump a building on there,” he said. “One of the concerns I had was just setting it on a property and rodents digging underneath it. I know we get rodents throughout the village, but we don’t have to invite them in either.”

Ashwaubenon, Community Development Director Aaron Schuette, Plan Commission, Trustee Gary Paul