City approval required

By Kris Leonhardt

Editor

MARSHFIELD — The American Legion Post 54 is interested in developing an event space attached to its clubhouse at 2100 S. Maple Ave. The addition, however, will require permission from the city.

“Essentially, the American Legion is planning on developing an outdoor meeting and dining space on the south side of their facility,” said Director of Public Works Dan Knoeck. “First, it is on city property. … There is a lease with the Legion for them to be on city property. That’s a long-term lease. Just that in itself requires city approval before they can make improvements on the site, but this use of an outdoor dining space requires a conditional use permit, and the parcel needs to be rezoned.”

The Legion currently leases a 195-foot-by-315-foot space from the city. The property is currently zoned as residential, which does not allow for outdoor commercial entertainment use. Therefore, the property would need to be rezoned as community mix use, which requires the application for a conditional use permit.

“Because it is part of a larger city-owned park parcel, … we would prepare a CSM (certified survey map) that would create a separate parcel overlapping the Legion lease,” Knoeck explained. “That is the piece that they would like to rezone into commercial use, which is more appropriate for the activities that happen on the Legion lease parcel.”

Knoeck came before the Board of Public Works Sept. 5 on behalf of City Planner Josh Miller to request approval for the American Legion to apply for rezoning and a conditional use permit.

“That will go through the normal process of a public hearing and so forth for the zoning change, but before we did that we wanted to bring it to the Board of Public Works to make you aware of it and kind of get your blessing before they move ahead with that rezoning request,” Knoeck said. “In addition or concurrent with the rezoning, conditional use is required for that outdoor event space that would be connected to the facility.”

The request to move forward with rezoning and the conditional use application passed through the Board of Public Works at the Sept. 5 meeting, but both ultimately need common council approval before the Legion can move forward.