Fire Chief Cancels Plan Commission Meeting Due to Overflow Crowd

A rendering of the hotel with the planned public space along the waterfront.

A special meeting of the Sturgeon Bay Plan Commission did not take place as planned on Dec. 3 because too many people showed up for the meeting to consider a zoning request for a proposed five-story waterfront hotel in the city’s West Waterfront Redevelopment Project.

It turns out the city violated its own building code ordinance at the Plan Commission meeting held two weeks before with an overflow crowd that turned out for the public hearing on the hotel proposal by developer Bob Papke.

Sturgeon Bay Community Development Director Marty Olejniczak said he talked to city staff earlier in the day of the planned meeting about what to do to accommodate another large crowd.

That’s when Fire Chief Tim Herlache alerted him to the 90-person capacity in the city council chambers.

“If we’d only had 90 people here, we would have had the meeting,” Olejniczak said.

Instead, everyone who believed a meeting was happening gathered at City Hall at the appointed time – many with signs opposing the hotel – only to learn that the meeting will be rescheduled for a larger venue. Olejniczak said that was decided after consulting the city attorney.

“Some might say we should have done that from the get-go, but the hearing was over,”Olejniczak said. “We didn’t realize there would be marching and signs and chants. We will find a bigger venue. Where and when that will be, we don’t know.”

Overwhelming opposition to the hotel was expressed at the public hearing, ranging from those who want no development on that chunk of city west side waterfront property to those who object to the size and look of the proposed 90-room hotel. Those views were expressed at the non-meeting in signs such as “No Hotel” and “No FrankenHotel.”

One of those in attendance at the non-meeting was Bill Chaudoir, Executive Director of the Door County Economic Development Corporation. It seemed a good time to ask what this organized opposition to a development project means to his job.

“What I’ve been saying all along and what I said at the public hearing two weeks ago is, if not this, what?” he said. “The city’s already declared that we need new tax base to pay for public improvements. They set that policy when they set that TIF district, so if not this developer, who? We can’t be talking a couple of shops. We need a significant increment to pay for all the improvements we’re talking about. We’re talking about a wonderful waterfront promenade, transient docks and piers and park space and kids’ features and sculptures. It’s a wonderful plan. But it all costs money and you need tax base to pay for it. If not these guys, who? If this hotel is not approved, we have two other projects. The brewpub said they want to come forward, but it’s contingent on the hotel. And they’ve been waiting for a couple of years. I don’t know how long they will wait and we have another project an out-of-town developer is interested in doing, and he’s waiting to see what happens here. It’s a domino effect.

“Our TIF district has a limited life, 23, 24 years and it’s already started. The more years this is delayed, the harder it is for the new tax base to pay for the improvements. It’s frustrating. Is it going to help us attract other developers? No.”