Sturgeon Bay Common Council Backs PUD for 55-Plus Duplex Development

This drawing shows the site plan submitted by E&I Property Investments for a 55-and-older community with 19 duplexes and a single-family home, along with amenities, on an 11-acre site on the north side of Sturgeon Bay’s Colorado Street. Submitted.

A planned unit development (PUD) to include 19 duplexes and one single-family home – for 39 total units – on an 11-acre site along the north side of Colorado Street took two steps forward during the May 2 Sturgeon Bay Common Council meeting. 

That’s when council members approved the PUD for E&I Property Investments, subject to eight conditions related to zoning, entrances and street connections, trees and lighting. The project also requires final approval of the stormwater-management plan by the city engineer and final approval of the utilities by Sturgeon Bay Utilities.  

The project that E&I Property Investments wants to develop as a 55-and-older community would include a clubhouse, storage-garage building, pickleball courts and other amenities, and its plans call for having a two-stall garage and a driveway on each side of the duplexes. There would also be a 14-stall parking area for the clubhouse.

In addition, the site would have a pond for stormwater retention, one entrance to the residences from Colorado Street, and a separate entrance from the street to the storage-garage building. 

Community development director Marty Olejniczak said a PUD is required for the project because it involves multiple one- or two-family homes on a single parcel.

“Additionally, the garage building normally wouldn’t be – because it’s big, it’s 6,000 square feet, [and] it’s serving the entire development – normally that wouldn’t be permitted, and the clubhouse would be a conditional use,” he said. “This way, they can get all of that approved in one ordinance, if the council agrees with it.”

On May 2, the council also approved the first reading of an ordinance to rezone the property from being a combination of R-1 and R-2 single-family residential to a PUD.

The underlying zoning would be R-2, which requires fewer square feet of lot space for a single-family home than in R-1 – a minimum of 6,000 instead of 10,000 – and if the PUD expires, the ordinance would classify the property as being in an R-2 district.

The ordinance, which will be up for a second and final reading by the council on May 16, would limit the property to no more than 39 housing units and allow the clubhouse and the approximately 6,000-square-foot storage-garage building.

Olejniczak said the design of the clubhouse and storage garage would also require the approval of the city’s Aesthetic Design and Site Plan Review Board.