SHEBOYGAN, WI (WHBL) - A proposed townhouse development on South Pier is moving forward once again after plan commission approval.
South Pier LLC will be able to start their construction immediately after that project was sent back down to he plan commission last month. Several local business owners complained at city council about the current lack of parking on the pier, and told the council that new construction would prevent people from getting to their businesses.
The council made the project's approval contingent on having a parking and traffic study done. The city and the developers contracted with the TADI company out of Cedarburg to complete that study. Alderman John Belanger says he was satisfied with it. "It looked at the roundabout, it looked at the worst case scenario when they did the study. They included the Lakeshore Weekend which is obviously a heavily trafficked weekend on that peninsula."
The study found that parking and traffic on the Pier would remain about the same with the new housing. Belanger says that South Pier is providing more than enough parking for its residents. "It's going to be self contained. Each unit is going to have 2.6 parking spaces, so they're going to have their own self contained parking." He also hopes that the businesses will get to see a boost in their sales once those people move in. "They're going to have a captured population that's going to live there year round and funnel into their businesses and support them during the off peak months, and they should be looking forward to that coming down the road."
The developer will start Phase 1 construction of 52 townhouses immediately. Phase 2 will include the construction of 36 units and will begin in August 2017.