Wausau plan for west side street reconstruction edges forward

Damakant Jayshi

A plan to reconstruct a portion of West Wausau Avenue will require the city to temporarily acquire property from multiple private and public entities, likely requiring an eminent domain process.

Eminent domain refers to the power of the government to take private property and convert it into public use, referred to as a taking.

Wausau’s Infrastructure and Facilities Committee on Thursday approved temporarily acquiring private properties along the project pathway. Owners will have the right to negotiate, and the Wausau City Council will be tasked with approving purchase amounts. City officials say the process could be both lengthy and painful. Before it moves to the council Wausau Plan Commission will consider the proposal. It is scheduled to do so on Tuesday.

As part of the project plan, the city’s Board of Public Works has already hired a consultant firm, Becher Hoppe, through a request for proposals. The fee for the consultant, $50,000, has already been budgeted in the 2024 budget, Public Works Director Eric Lindman told Wausau Pilot & Review.

The consulting firm will then assess the cost of the land to be acquired and make the recommendation to the Finance Committee.

Alder Tom Neal said the $50,000 consultancy fee is high given that the city is likely looking at three or four blocks for acquisition. He said the amount might also lead to questions from some on the council as to why the assessment of real estate costs isn’t being done in-house, which happened recently. Neal was referring to a failed bid to hire a consultant through an RFP to prepare a master plan for the north riverfront redevelopment. That plan raised questions among some alders.

Lindman acknowledged the expense but said Wausau does not have the in-house expertise to assess property values. City Engineer Thomas Niksich said real estate professionals should make contact with property owners and handle negotiations, in part because the eminent domain process will be used.

A civil engineering firm, EMCS, has already identified the plat along West Wausau Avenue from Stevens Drive to North 10th Avenue for temporary limited easements, or TLEs.

Wausau received a reconstruction grant under the federal Surface Transportation Program for the project, which is funded through the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. The cost share is 80 percent federal and 20 percent local, and Wausau can receive a maximum of roughly $1.2 million in grant funding.

Hypothetically, Niksich explained that if construction costs come in at $1.5 million, the city would receive $1.2 million, with taxpayers on the hook for the remaining $300,000. The taxpayer burden will rise if the costs are higher, given the grant cap.

The city is also responsible for 100 percent of all real estate costs including hiring a consultant to determine the value of acquired land, Niksich told Wausau Pilot.

As the name indicates, the TLEs approved by the committee are temporary and limited in nature. A TLE is in place until the completion of the specific project for which the real estate is to be acquired.

The properties along Wausau West Avenue that will be impacted include institutional and individual private properties, the largest of which is Wausau West High School. The square footage of land required from the high school is 36,370; every other property is below 2,000, with the smallest being 314 square feet.

Wausau School Board President James Bouche told Wausau Pilot that the district’s building and grounds director informed the Board in the spring that the city was seeking permission to use land in front of Wausau West High School for road construction plans.

Niksich said TLEs are required under the WisDOT process. The construction is only for grading, which could add or remove a slope and is typically done to create drainage and boost the street’s weight-bearing capacity. He said Wausau needs the upgrades to allow for proper drainage, accessibility and roadway design. Because grades within the corridor need to change, the grading will happen outside of the current right-of-way.

“This is typical for many federally funded roadway reconstruction projects,”he said.

Niksich said if the City Council fails to approve the acquisitions and pricing “we would explore our options if that happened, but for now we are moving forward with the project as it is currently designed.”

Public Works Director Lindman said all of the city’s projects that use WisDOT funding require them to use the eminent domain process if the project requires additional property outside of the right of way.

“The funding agency and the funding type determines if (the) eminent domain process will be required,” he said. “The city does not require this with our locally funded projects.”

He clarified that the term “eminent domain” property does not mean the property is being condemned as “most people believe,” though in some instances, they might need to condemn some properties. He cited a Stewart Avenue construction project as an example. Then, the city acquired small areas and strips of property for the project, and nothing was condemned. The city used the eminent domain process to acquire and pay property owners for the property.

“We will do the same for this West Wausau project. The process is arduous and requires a real estate expertise we do not have on staff,” Lindman said. “So we contract out this work to make sure the work is completed properly.”