WRA Responsibilities Reassigned to City for Three Projects

The City of Sturgeon Bay is taking over the responsibilities for projects that were previously under the jurisdiction of the city’s Waterfront Redevelopment Authority (WRA).

The Sturgeon Bay Common Council approved three motions Sept. 6 to reassign the WRA’s interests in the Stone Harbor Resort, Bridgeport Resort and Harbor Club Marina development agreements to the city and to quitclaim any related property interests to the city.

Sturgeon Bay Mayor David Ward said the WRA was an instrumental body that started the development of the city’s waterfront on both sides of the bay during the 1990s.

“I think they did fine work,” he said, but “their mission is probably pretty much over,” and the reassignments are a “major step forward in cleaning everything up.”

District 3 Alder Dan Williams, who chairs the WRA, said the process to turn over responsibility to the city went faster than anticipated after the WRA dealt with the matter for about six months, in consultation with City Attorney Jim Kalny.

Community-development director Marty Olejniczak, who is also the WRA’s secretary, said the council’s action Sept. 6 handled three of the four WRA contracts that needed to be dealt with, and the fourth is still before the WRA for consideration in the future.

Olejniczak said that ongoing obligations the city has, such as parking, are included in those contracts.

“Reassigning the rights and responsibilities of the WRA to the city is appropriate and can be done, according to Mr. Kalny,” he said. “It’s been recommended by the WRA to both accept the properties that are involved, and accept the rights and responsibilities in all the contracts.”

Olejniczak said what was offered to Bridgeport Resort in financial incentives and the construction requirements for that development are different from what Stone Harbor had to do.

“Each agreement is independent of each other,” he said. “But the action set up by Mr. Kalny is more or less the same – that the city just takes on that contract and accepts the property that goes along with it. In this case [for Bridgeport Resort], the property that goes along with it is the waterfront path between the resort and the actual water’s edge that is currently owned by the WRA.”

Olejniczak said the Harbor Club Marina agreement involves the marina by the railroad spur next to the Michigan Street Bridge.

“They have to pay a minimum property tax based on the value of their docks,” he said.

Olejniczak said the Harbor Club Marina agreement includes extensions, as opposed to most development contracts that typically expire when the tax increment district is done.

“This one is very important to reassign to keep it going, and therefore it makes sense to follow with the [Waterfront] Redevelopment Authority’s recommendation,” he said.

The marina development, which was established in 1995, had an initial term of 20 years, followed by two 25-year terms. 

District 4 Alder Spencer Gustafson, who is also a WRA member, praised Olejniczak and Kalny for their involvement in getting the WRA’s responsibilities turned over to the city.

“I think what we found the most was some pretty shaky agreements that were made in the past, so I think a lot of cleaning had to be done,” he said. “I don’t know how that all came about, but I think we’re in a place, finally, where the city has full control of the assets of the WRA, and I think that’s where we needed to be.”