Public Hearing Sept. 23 for Office Park at Proposed Walmart Site

Caledonia trustees Monday scheduled a long-awaited public hearing for Sept. 23 about changing the land use designation at 4-Mile and Green Bay roads.

Walmart's applications for both rezoning the land at the southeast corner of the intersection and amending the village's land use plan to make way for a 182,000 square foot supercenter triggered the need for a public hearing. State statute dictates no less than a 30-day notice for public hearings before a final vote can be taken by the village board.

Though residents have been making their opinions public for months at both village board and planning commission meetings, the public hearing for the first time will include comments as part of the formal record.

"I know these last few months have felt like we've had public hearings because residents have been commenting," Village Administrator Mark Janiuk noted. "But we are going to now schedule the formal public hearing."

Trustees voted on July 22 to send the office park designation to a public hearing after resident Katie Tiderman put the idea together using supporting language from a county ordinance.

Racine County Planning Direct Julie Anderson outlined some of the uses for an office park as including:

• General office use for doctors, attorneys, graphic artists, financial planners, and other recognized professions; 
• Corporate headquarters;
• Financial institutions;
• Schools; 
• Commercial greenhouses; 
• Wholesalers an distributors; 
• Light industrial plants like for cabinet making; 
• Limited retail to support these uses like restaurants, coffee shops, daycare centers and hotels.