The 109-page Go Big Green Bay 2050 Comprehensive Plan. PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — The vision for what Green Bay should look like in the next 20 years is being finalized.
State law requires communities of 10,000 people or more to make a comprehensive plan every two decades.
For the past year and a half, Green Bay city officials and two outside firms have been gathering community feedback that guided what is now the 109-page Go Big Green Bay 2050 Comprehensive Plan.
“It’s basically a vision of how you’d like to see the city develop,” said Green Bay Principal Planner David Buck.
Buck says the two main topics residents wanted addressed were housing affordability and increasing transportation flexibility and access.
“People wanted to be interconnected with the community and they wanted to be able to get to places multiple ways,” said Buck.
A majority of the plan is about the city’s land use.
An existing use map shows opportunity on the far east side for land that is currently agriculture or natural areas.
The future land use map shows the area could see a variety of new housing.
“This is not a plan that is meant to sit on a shelf and collect dust,” said Green Bay City Council President Brian Johnson. “The reason it’s not one of those is because it’s adopted by ordinance and it’s used as a reference for a lot of initiatives that come through council.”
Johnson says he likes that the plan has been made to be updated every five years.
The comprehensive plan the city is currently using was adopted in 2003 and includes outdated recommendations, like attracting big box retailers.
“Cities live and breathe, and things change and uses change,” said Johnson. “What might have been a priority 20 years ago may not be the case today, which is why it’s so critically important for us to redo these from time to time.”
An open house with city officials to go over the draft of the comprehensive plan is being held Wednesday, Sept. 3 from 6:30-8 p.m. at the Water Utility Training Center at 631 S. Adams Street.
The city’s Plan Commission will take up the plan Sept. 4.
The city council is expected to take up the plan in at least two meetings — the first coming after a 30-day wait period after the Plan Commission meeting, according to Buck.
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