Addis wants loan fund to renovate city homes

0 Comments | La Crosse Tribune, Feb 09, 2001 | by Kent, Joan

La Crosse Common Council member Phil Addis on Thursday proposed $375,000 in state loan funds originally intended for City Brewery be used for a neighborhood revitalization program.

"One of the comments we always get is what are you doing to renovate the neighborhoods and make them better," Addis told the La Crosse Tribune.

"We have housing rehabilitation and replacement programs, but they are very restricted because they involve federal money. This is straight borrowing that the city can use for the same purpose, but it doesn't have the same restrictions, as long as the houses are in low or moderate neighborhoods, which is the bulk of the city."

Under Addis' proposal, money from the state Trust Fund loan would be transferred to the Neighborhood Housing Renovation, Restoration and Rebuilding Program.

The program would buy blighted properties in low- to moderate-income neighborhoods. The buildings would then be sold for renovation as singlefamily homes, or removed and the lots sold for new owner-occupied, single-family housing.

Those who buy a building must live there, Addis said, and cannot use it as rental property.

Eight council members co-sponsored the proposal.

Officials of some of the city's major institutions have said they would contribute to a fund to improve the housing stock if the city established it, Addis said. It would become a revolving fund with money from property sales, he said.

Addis said he would hope the fund could be replenished annually through grants from the state or institutions.

In confirming Ken Dentice as Inspection and Zoning director, council members applauded the job he has done during his sixmonth probationary period. "I commend Mr. Dentice for the job he has done," said council member Steve Taylor. "In my district, the cleanup has improved."

The council voted to extend the billboard moratorium to March 17. Recommendations by a citizens' committee have been referred to the council's Judiciary and Administration Committee for consideration in March.

Next month, the council will consider plans and estimates and a zoning change for the South Side Neighborhood Center. The rezoning would change the site at 1300 S. Sixth St. from residence to public and semi-public. Other items introduced Thursday for March meetings:

* Price adjustments requested by Charter Communications for basic cable service.

* Resolution authorizing Campbell residents to connect to the La Crosse water system if they sign an annexation agreement and agree to pay the cost.

* An ordinance to prohibit parking in yards of either side of corner lots.

* Mayor John Medinger's proposal to expand the scope of the Downtown Bar Moratorium Study Committee.

The council followed the lead of its Committee of the Whole on the major issues by voting:

* For zoning changes to match the Federal Emergency Management Agency's map revisions for the Ebner Coulee area. The remapping will bring about 300 houses out of the flood plain by Feb. 20, but it puts eight houses into the flood way. In a related matter, the council voted to ask the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study the possibility of a flood control project to bring more people out of the flood plain.

* For a conditional-use permit that will allow Family Playhouse to move into the Church of Christ Scientist, 145 West Ave. S.

* To receive a citizens' committee recommendation that the "Hiawatha" statue be kept in Riverside Park and restored, and to refer the matter to the Engineering Department for a cost study within 60 days.

* For several rezonings and conditional-use permits that will enable Viterbo University to build an ethics center, expand its student activity center and relocate its physical plant.