Meeting slated for retail development on South Side

0 Comments | La Crosse Tribune, Jun 05, 2002 | by Kent, Joan

The parties involved in negotiations on a major proposed retail development on the South Side have scheduled a meeting for Monday at the South Community Library.

Continental Properties Inc. of Menomonee Falls, Wis., set up the meeting, said Anne Grayson, spokesperson for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

A spokesperson for the South Community Library confirmed that Continental Properties has reserved a room for a meeting of 15 people from noon to 5 p.m. Monday.

The Library Bill of Rights says that all meetings held within library facilities must be free and open to the public.

"The only way I would be interested is if it is a public meeting," said La Crosse Common Council Member Jerry Every, who has called for a meeting of all the interested parties and council members. "Conducting meetings behind closed doors is one of the things I have a problem with. It's definitely a good idea. We need to get some things aired out and get some questions answered. What led to this is that some council members are not being informed."

La Crosse Public Works Director Pat Caffrey said he called the developer last Friday and suggested that officials from the DOT, town of Shelby and city meet with the developer to iron out issues raised by the DOT.

The DOT has rejected a request for two access points to the retail development.

Continental Properties has been assembling properties on the west side of Mormon Coulee Road south of Shelby Mail. City or DOT officials will name the retail development. But in a letter to Don Gilles, chairman of the La Crosse Common Council's Highways, Properties and Utilities Committee, Council Member Gerald Every said "the people who apparently want to do a Wal-Mart Superstore on Mormon Coulee Road, was to be on the June agenda."

The city is not organizing the meeting because the land where the development is proposed is in the town of Shelby and no annexation petition has been filed yet, said Mayor John Medinger.

But he said the city welcomes the tax base and jobs creation that the proposed retail development would bring to La Crosse.

"Other people might be adversely affected, but that is the nature of capitalism," he said. The Mormon Coulee retail corridor is the right place for a retail development, Medinger said. "I do not want a Kwik Trip or big boxes out in the coulee. It is nice with residential homes. There shouldn't be any business there other than maybe a country tavern. That's true for the Goose Island corridor (Hwy. 35), too."