HAC Eyes Former Fire Station For Homeless Overflow Shelter

WAUKESHA, WI—The Housing Action Coalition of Waukesha County purchased and plans to renovate the vacated fire station at 1210 Sentry Drive into an emergency homeless overflow shelter during the winter months. The building will also provide office and conference space for HAC staff year-round. The Waukesha Plan Commission will consider the plans during its meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

The building has an area of roughly 6,500 square feet, and its footprint will not expand as part of this project, according to city documents. The facility will have twenty-two beds in shared male, female, and flex rooms. It will also have three suites for families as well as kitchen and lounge areas, staff offices, and a conference room.

The property currently has fifteen parking spaces. Since the secondary driveway on the front side of the building will no longer need to be used as a truck entrance it will be possible to add three additional spots there, for a total of 18. The applicants originally proposed nineteen spaces, but staff requested that one space be removed for the parking lot setback.

Both driveways are currently removed for Sentry Drive resurfacing project, so the Engineering Department will request that the south driveway be reconfigured for cars when it is replaced.

The zoning code would normally require one space per bed, but city staff feels that eighteen spaces will be sufficient since a large share of the population served there most likely will not have cars, and the shelter will be located on a bus line.

In addition to the parking lot work, the applicants plan to close off the old garage doors and infill several other doors and windows. They will add new windows and doors in several other places, to fit the new floor plan. All new siding will match the existing siding. Trash storage for the facility will be outside, between the two wings at the rear of the building.

The applicants have requested that a composite wood trash enclosure be permitted for this location to save money given the non-profit nature of the use. Since it will be behind and fully screened by the building and since it will not be in the parking lot itself staff is comfortable with the proposal, according to city documents.