Planners Tour Hobart

On June 17th, the Village of Hobart issued a "Request for Proposal" (RFP) for a commercial center sub-area plan to refine the Master Plan of Centennial Centre at Hobart. Hobart received interest from fourteen planning and engineering firms who came to the Village on July 11th, for a pre-proposal briefing and tour of Northern Hobart. Firms were from: Minneapolis, Madison, Milwaukee, Wausau, Appleton, and Green Bay.  Firms will provide submittals to the Village by August 16th for preliminary review by the Village’s Community Development Authority (CDA), who will make recommendations to the Village Board.  A Sub-area commercial plan will provide a commercial center land use component that attractively accommodates: commercial building footprints, road configurations for traffic and pedestrians, convenient but discrete parking accommodations, and small gathering spaces for shoppers and diners to enjoy multi-store shopping in the new commercial area of Centennial Centre at Hobart. The goal of the commercial center is to provide 7 days a week/365 days a year availability of restaurants, shops, and professional services to consumers within a 15-minute drive time of the Centennial Centre area.

Connecting With New Community Members

Hobart has many new residents living in multi-leased facilities, so the Village staff invited all managers of leased residences to attend a communication strategy session at the Village office on May 23^rd. Our goal in this meeting was to introduce managers to Village staff,  to coordinate useful information between new residents, managers and the Village service providers.

The Village of Hobart now includes Centennial Centre Estates, Ravello Town Homes, and Wyndham Lake Estates in Centennial Centre at Hobart, as well as Layden Estates, Skyline Estates and Knotts Landing in southern Hobart.

 Attending the meeting were the Director of Neighborhood Services, Allyn Dannhoff; Public Utilities Supervisor, Jerry Lancelle, Village Clerk, Mary Smith; Chief of Police, Randy Bani; and Community Development Director, Elaine Willman.

The information exchange was very productive and useful for multi-tenant managers as well as Village staff.  The Chief of Police provided information on local law enforcement, the non-emergency phone number for law enforcement assistance; other staff provided general information as well.

 Village staff reported that it was helpful to have 24/7 contact capability with managers, to learn about the screening and application process for new residents of Hobart,  to encourage new residents to become informed about, and involved in Hobart as their new home.

 

A Hobart Treasure

At the May 9^th Annual Village Meeting, the Village Board had the opportunity to recognize Clerk-Treasurer, Mary Smith, for her 30 years of service to the Village.  Mary is the walking knowledge of the Hobart community, having served the Town and then Village in various capacities since 1983.  Imagine the changes during these 30 years!!  For the first several years, Mary balanced Hobart’s checkbook from her home.  Mary often jokes of fielding calls from residents at all hours of the day and having to pull the Municipal Code Book “out from under her pillow” to answer residents’ questions.

On behalf of the Board and staff, we want to again thank Mary for her service and dedication to the Village.  Luckily, we will have the benefit of Mary’s service for a few more years to come!

 

HOBART PRESERVES TAX BASE FOR ALL…

Over the past 5 years (2008 – 2012), the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin (OTI) processed applications to remove tribal-owned parcels from Hobart’s tax base for placement into federal (tax-exempt) “Indian trust.” The Village filed legal objections to the removal of a total of 142 parcels (approximately 3,000 acres) of taxable land from the Hobart tax base.

 

On May 9, 2013 the Interior Board of Indian Appeals (IBIA) issued a ruling that denied placement of these parcels into federal trust, remanded/vacated all of the tribal parcels back to the Oneida Tribe and Bureau of Indian Affairs. Just as before the Tribe’s application efforts began, the parcels remain in the tax base.

What this has meant to Hobart and other taxing entities is significant in terms of taxes saved over the past five years and taxes available for collection in the future years. Here is the breakdown of taxes collected on parcels owned by the tribe that were not removed from tax base during 2008 – 2012:

While the tax dollars saved by Hobart have helped offset legal expenses, Brown County and the Pulaski and West De Pere School Districts have significantly benefitted from Hobart’s legal courage and will continue to do so—even without their interest, contribution, support, or assistance to the Village of Hobart. The Village also benefits from the ability to manage zoning and future compatible land uses.

Village President, Rich Heidel noted: “Our Board has always promised Hobart taxpayers that we would do everything we could to keep our tax rate low and stable, treat all parcels fairly, and defend the community against unwarranted loss of tax parcels, so we are very gratified that our efforts have been successful.  Much credit goes to our legal counsel, Frank Kowalkowski of Davis & Kuelthau in Green Bay.”  He added, “While we acted on behalf of our Village, I would hope that other taxing entities, with higher tax rates than Hobart, would pay closer attention to the good works of this Village.”

A map attached to this Village press release illustrates Oneida Tribe’s federal trust parcels (in purple) and fee parcels (in red) that remain in Hobart’s tax base.

“J-Turns” You Say….?

There has been a lot of buzz recently about “J-Turns” and, yes, the STH 29/CTH VV intersection (in front of Maplewood Meats) will feature an intersection control measure called a “J-Turn”.  The J-Turn design is new to Wisconsin, although it is used successfully in many other states.  Please click (J-Turn info) to get more information, as well as a video, on how motorists navigate J-Turns. The future plan for the STH 29/CTH VV intersection is to construct a full diamond interchange just like CTH FF.  Hobart and Howard are working together to develop a firm timeline from DOT for that second interchange, but current state funding is a definite challenge we will have to overcome.  In the meantime, officials from both communities embrace the fact that safety must be improved at the CTH VV intersection immediately.  The “J-Turns” will accomplish improving safety, but will take some getting used to.

HWY 29 Construction is Coming to Hobart

Remember:  Short-term Pain, Long-Term Gain

 

On April 3, the WISDOT held its final public information meeting regarding the STH 29 corridor projects including intersection improvements at STH 29/CTH VV, STH 29/CTH U and the construction of a diamond interchange at CTH FF.  If you missed the meeting, you can view the power point presentation at the following link: STH 29 presentation.  The power point will show timelines for construction, including the timeline for closing CTH FF to STH 29.  If you don’t have time to view the entire presentation, click to view DOT’s latest newsletter specific to this highway corridor.

The CTH FF construction will no doubt inconvenience Hobart residents, specifically those in northern Hobart who will not be able to use CTH FF to access STH 29 until late summer 2014.  However, if you have tried to use this intersection, it is easy to tell that safety is a concern, and “short- term pain” will = “long-term gain”.  The Village staff will provide updates through Headlines as construction progresses, or residents can view updates at the DOT’s website, or sign up for their newsletter for more frequent construction news.