PROPOSED ACTION PLAN FOR CITY GOALS

As you may have read in the paper, or read on here, I have proposed a number of goals for the city in 2009. The next step is implementation of an action plan to make the goal happen. Here are some of the ideas I have at this point:
* Brownfield Redevelopment – We have received a large grant to conduct a study of the Brownfield sites across the city. For those of you not familiar with a brownfield, it is a parcel of land which has been contaminated through, for example, a fuel spill recently or in the past. The presence of these contaminants makes redevelopment highly unlikely. I would propose that we identify and inventory all of the brownfield sites in the city, so we can develop a remediation and redevelopment plan.
* City Beautification Efforts – The goal this year is to install at least two new Welcome to Ripon signs (most likely along Highway 23 West and at the new Business Park). We are also looking to construct a sign to welcome visitors to the new Business Park along Highway 44. I am working hard to have the projects done locally. As I mentioned before, uur city’s Community Appearance Team, which has done a great job so far with their analysis and recommendations, has made a number of realistic and affordable suggestions. Some of their ideas for the West End include improving the appearance of our median strips along Highway 23 West, cleaning the area up around the detention pond near Dollar General, and reducing the sign clutter along the highway. We may also look at putting up banners on the lightpoles out there, drawing attention to such civic institutions as Ripon College and the Little White Schoolhouse and civic events such as Dickens.
* Extension of the West End – Geographical and development barriers have been created that have limited the opportunities on our west end of the city. We cannot grow to the south with the commercial district because of the Rolling Hill and Stoney Ridge developments. We cannot go to the north due to the landfill and the compost center, and the large parcels of land held by private parties. We cannot go back to the east, obviously, unless we want to buy up homes and tear them down. The natural direction of the development is to the west. The first major hurdle is the extension of utilities across, or under, or through Silver Creek. I am going to be asking our staff to develop a cost analysis on the various approaches we can take to open the land west of Silver Creek for development. With the natural wetlands to the south and rolling hills to north, we have a number of man-made and god-made selling points for developing to the west.