Oconomowoc retail development on wetland is first under new state law
By Mark Kass, for SBT
A Wauwatosa development firm is completing the first new wetland development in the state of Wisconsin to allow it to move forward on a $6 million, 95,000-square-foot shopping center on an 18-acre site near Highway P in Oconomowoc.
The shopping center will be anchored by a 60,000-square-foot grocery store, said Stewart Wangard, president of Wangard Partners, a Wauwatosa development firm that is a partner in Rosenow Creek LLC, which is developing the shopping center.
Wangard said an agreement has been reached with a grocery store to anchor the site, but he declined to reveal its identity.
In addition, the center will include a 35,000-square-foot co-anchor store that could be a hardware store, pharmacy or outdoor furniture store. There are also three proposed outlots that would contain a bank, day care center and convenience store, Wangard said.
"This is a great location in a growing part of the community," Wangard said. "There is a tremendous amount of growth occurring, and unlike other parts of the lake country (of Waukesha County), there is a higher density. This means more people to frequent the shopping center."
The project will be part of a larger development that will include 180 residential and condominium units that will be developed on an adjoining 72 that was recently sold by Rosenow Creek LLC to Sheldon Knoll LLC, which includes Jerry Erdman, Pat McNamee, Mike Herro and Mark Herro.
The project is the first in the state to be required, under a new law passed in 2002, to create 1.5 acres in wetland for every acre of wetland that is filled, Wangard said.
The area that is being filled, which is in the middle of the shopping center site, is a low-quality wetland that did not provide wildlife habitat and contained minimal wetland vegetation.
The restored wetland, which is on the residential site, is next to Rosenow Creek, an environmentally significant creek and watershed. A large shortgrass prairie has been planted to protect the restored area and Rosenow Creek. Sheldon Knoll will also install a new bike path as part of its development between Lisbon Road and Lake Street.
The Rosenow Creek watershed is part of a larger recreational area that has been acquired by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and is one of only two creeks in Waukesha County that support a natural trout population.
"The quality of the water entering the stream (Rosenow Creek) will be greater or higher quality than we currently have," Wangard said.
In all, the wetland project added about $50,000 to the cost of the project, he said.
"It has been a learning experience for the DNR, for the consultants, the engineers and certainly for us," Wangard said. "We really learned how to be creative over the time that we’ve been working on this project. We were the first ones to go through this so we ran into many issues that no one has ever dealt with before. It seemed that for every step we took forward, we took one step backward."
Wangard said the developers knew they might have to deal with the wetland issue when they started on the project in 2000. However, a court ruling in 2002 forced the state to have to pass new legislation regarding the development of wetlands. Once that was signed into law by former Gov. Scott McCallum, Wangard said it changed the entire project.
But rather than drop the project, Wangard said they made the decision to make the best of the situation and try to create something that would enhance it. He said the developers made the decision from the beginning that they were going to create another wetland in the Oconomowoc area, rather than tapping into the state’s wetland bank and creating one in another part of the state.
"If we did something in central Wisconsin, it would not have helped Oconomowoc," he said. "We wanted to do something that would benefit the community."
Wangard said throughout the process, the developers had to undertake several tasks that they had never performed in the past, including a soil characteristics study, a survey of plant species and a wildlife inventory. He said the wildlife inventory found hawks, turkey and deer on the property.
"We had to decide what type of plants we can use, what types of seedlings and everything had to be approved by the DNR," he said. "It was quite a process, but in the end, it ended up working out well for everyone because we all worked together as a team. It is going to be a nice development."
Roland Tonn, planner for the City of Oconomowoc, said this was the first time this type of wetland development was undertaken by the private sector. He said it is normally done by a government agency, such as the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.
"This was really ground setting and there were a lot of eyes watching this one," he said. "But it worked out very well. They took a small isolated wetland that was not a valuable wildlife habitat and created a new one that is a highly valuable environmental area. It has really worked out well for the city.
"I think a lot of other developers were watching to see how this one would turn out. And based on its success, there may be more opportunities for these type of projects in the future."
Tonn said the land was recently annexed to the city of Oconomowoc and a rezoning petition to rezone the land from agriculture to suburban commercial will be considered the City Plan Commission on Aug. 13. It is expected to receive final approval in September.
The residential portion of the project must also still receive its final approval from the city, he said. So far, there has been no opposition to either project.
Wangard said he expected to start construction in September and have the project completed by spring of 2004.
"It is a good project that will provide neighborhood commercial services that are lacking in that part of the city," Tonn said.
July 25, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee
