Highway Access Lacking for Future Development

The most activity is expected on the west side on the two parcels north of Forest Road.

Land sales and rezoning requests are picking up and signaling future development along Highway 42/57 within the Town of Sevastopol from Culver’s north to C&W Auto.

The town’s comprehensive plan defines the area as a commercial corridor, so requests for zoning changes for commercial development are expected, said Dan Woelfel, town board chair, on Tuesday. The town razed old buildings in late 2020 just south of C&W, assessing the cost to the property owners and triggering additional interest on the west side of the highway corridor. 

“That’s when the owners put [the land] up for sale,” Woelfel said.

The town’s plan commission has already heard one rezoning request, and another is expected but that first one has already been suspended “pending our trying to figure out where we’re going with access,” Woelfel said. “It’s not going to make sense to rezone a parcel if they can’t get to it from the highway.”

To learn about access options, Sevastopol town board and plan commission members met Feb. 4 with staff from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT). During that meeting, Woelfel suggested a frontage road, perhaps running parallel to the highway from C&W south. 

David Nielsen, who oversees driveway permits and access management for WisDOT for the northeast region, said during the meeting that WisDOT would favor access options that improve sight lines and enhance safety. If a frontage road were constructed from C&W south, paralleling 42/57, parking lots could be constructed behind whatever buildings were constructed.

“You can have some nice facades on that, and then the parking behind it so you don’t see the parking in front and it looks like an industrial corridor,” Nielsen said.

He said WisDOT doesn’t worry about aesthetics, but it would want access as far away from the 42/57 intersection as possible to give motorists time to make turning decisions. For that reason, Nielsen liked the idea of extending Forest Road across the highway to connect with a north-south frontage road. Forest Road runs east-west on the south side of Grandma Tommy’s. 

Town Supervisor and Plan Commission Chair Linda Wait said she believed there were four fire numbers on the parcels south of C&W with four permitted driveways, but Nielsen said WisDOT would never allow four access points there, even if driveway permits had already been issued.

If access were allowed off the highway north of the location of Tielens Construction at 4001 Hwy 42/57, Nielsen said another access point would not be allowed south of Tielens. He also said access would not be allowed off the highway onto Old Highway Road, a visible path with a road sign that sits just south of Tielens Construction. 

The state would give permission for access, but it wouldn’t build them or a frontage road. Those would be up to the town. When municipalities do build a new road for access, Nielsen said “there is some kind of cost share from the property owners” or developers. 

Farther south, on the east side of the highway north of the roundabout, there’s also talk of a campground or RV development going in, but there’s no road access on that stretch. 

“For that development, bring them up to Forest Road and access from there,” Nielsen said. “You can be completely visible but make your decisions on the highway up at Forest Road.”

Nielsen also said he’s had a dozen phone calls about that particular area, including a request for WisDOT to install a traffic signal so a developer could put in a gas station.

“Number one, that’s not going to happen,” Nielsen said. “Don’t ever be afraid to call and ask the questions, but simply dropping a traffic signal in because someone wanted to put a gas station in wouldn’t work.”

The town officials also asked about possible solutions for the intersection of Gordon Road and the highway where the Culver’s, gas station and car wash are located. Nielsen said the busy intersection doesn’t fit the criteria of being an identifiable issue with an affordable, identifiable solution and WisDOT had no plans for changes there. 

“Otherwise, folks [i.e., towns or the county] can get a right-of-way permit and put things in,” said Jeannette Nelson, WisDOT planning and programming supervisor.

Woelfel said Tuesday they’re not any closer to access concepts or solutions after the conversation with WisDOT – “we are absolutely nowhere with any of that” – and that discussions with the state and local property owners would be ongoing. 

The Sevastopol Plan Commission was scheduled to discuss the conversation with WisDOT during its Feb. 15 meeting.