• Dan Cunningham of Forward Janesville;
• Rich Gruber of Mercy Health System;
• Tony Hickey of Lamar Advertising;
• Duke Kelly of Janesville Brick & Tile;
• Kathy Kessler of Freedom Plastics, Inc.;
• Mark Membrino of Hendricks Development Group;
• Christine Moore of the Janesville Design & Development Center; and
• Steve Scaccia of Freedom Plastics, Inc. 

April 20, 2007

Dear Councilman Williams:

We are writing regarding the City of Janesville’s planning process and the update of the Comprehensive Plan. 

We appreciate this opportunity to comment on the future of our wonderful City.  We applaud City Government and the Plan Commission for its wise, rational leadership during this process, and for soliciting input from Janesville’s citizens and key stakeholders at every turn. 

The purpose of a comprehensive plan is to ensure that quality growth will continue in our community.  The Wisconsin Department of Administration projects Janesville’s population will top 70,000 people by the year 2025, and many feel this projection may be conservative.  We encourage City leaders to take into account more aggressive population growth projections, and to manage future growth in a way that allows Janesville and surrounding areas to prosper for decades to come.  

But with growth comes challenges.  To identify these challenges, Forward Janesville assembled a diverse, dedicated group of business community leaders to identify these issues and formulate possible solutions.  This letter, which is signed by each member of this focus group, contains the business community’s view of the key issues facing our community.  Please note that our goal in presenting these recommendations is purely advisory, and should not be construed as criticism of existing conditions and their management by City officials.    

Transportation Access

• The business community has identified several transportation access challenges that the Comprehensive Plan could address, including west and south side access and how they could be improved. 

• Examples of these access challenges include: Rail crossing management; the transportation flow through City gateways, especially on the City’s west side and the Milton Avenue corridor; and traffic safety and flow issues along Milton Avenue and its frontage roads. 

• Further, we believe that transportation access to the downtown is vital, and hope that the City will continue to explore the possibility of converting one-way streets to two-way streets throughout the downtown area. 

• City leaders should also take into account possible expansion on routes like Wisconsin Highway 26, US Highway 14/Wisconsin Highway 11, and Interstate 90-39 when planning for future growth and development.  Specifically, the business community is interested in the potential connection of Highway 14 and the existing Highway 11 bypass on the west side of Janesville.  

• As our population continues to grow, we encourage City leaders to explore a viable, cost-effective expansion of our outstanding public transportation system.   

Rail Corridor Management

• Balancing the business community’s need for rail transportation while minimizing traffic disruptions is a key challenge for our City.

• We recommend that the Comprehensive Plan address “choke points,” where traffic is often held up by trains.  These choke points include the Five Points intersection, Memorial Drive, and Delavan Drive, among others. 

• In light of transportation access issues on the west and south sides of Janesville, we encourage the City to reconsider the Five Points rail overpass concept. 

• Finally, we encourage the City to work aggressively to enhance Janesville’s relationship with the railroad companies, who are vital to our community’s economic viability. 

Economic Diversification & Workforce Issues

• The business community is very interested in Janesville’s economic future, and wants to help prepare our City for a changing economy.

• We are working aggressively to maintain a strong relationship between the business community and the School District of Janesville, and encourage the City to join in this effort where possible.  

• As Wisconsin’s population continues to age, it will become more challenging for businesses to find skilled, qualified employees.  In light of this, we believe that community leaders should work together to ensure our children are getting the training they need to succeed.

• We encourage School District leaders to focus not only on producing college-bound students, but on cultivating and nurturing more labor-ready students who are ready to enter Janesville’s workforce upon graduation.

• Thousands of citizens leave Janesville and Rock County every day for work.  The business community wants to reduce our out-commute rate, and will continue working with City leaders to bring high quality jobs to our area.

• To attract and retain the workers our economy needs to succeed, we recommend aggressive marketing of Janesville’s high quality of life to those outside our community.

• If our community is to continue to thrive, Janesville needs a vibrant, diverse economy.  We believe that community leaders should continue to make economic diversification a priority, and look forward to contributing to these efforts. 

Natural Resources Management

• Balancing natural resources preservation and Janesville’s growth is a major issue facing our community.

• To maximize the potential of the areas containing the richest soils, we support infill development within the City’s urban service boundaries, particularly on the northwest side, and redevelopment of blighted areas.   

• We recommend avoiding further incursion into the City’s northeast corridor until this infill development is completed.      

• We also believe that City leaders should explore creative residential developments that are conservative in their land use.

• There is tremendous potential for the mining of aggregate on Janesville’s north side, specifically the land near the County Farm.  This could be an outstanding economic asset to our community.  We recommend that the Comprehensive Plan focus on this issue, both in terms of the mining potential and future reclamation opportunities.

Rock County Issues

• The business community is interested in the future of the County Farm and the 4-H Fairgrounds, and hopes the Comprehensive Plan will address the future of both institutions. 

• Further, we recommend that the Plan focus on the future of buildings on the Rock County campus on the northwest side, some of which have fallen into disrepair over time.

Cooperation

• Intercity: Every side of the City of Janesville has different issues.  Where possible, we recommend that all of these issues be addressed within the Comprehensive Plan using neighborhood sub plans.

• Intermunicipality: In many ways, Janesville seems to be on a collision course with neighboring communities.  Therefore, we believe the Plan should take into account the priorities of surrounding municipalities. 

• Intergovernmental: We recommend that Comprehensive Plan contain strategies on how City leaders and the business community can help promote cooperation between various governmental entities, who often have widely divergent goals.

• Janesville is limited by its urban service boundaries, and we believe City leaders should work with leaders of surrounding communities to adjust these boundaries to the satisfaction of all parties. 

Community Redevelopment

• We recommend that the Comprehensive Plan contain strategies for improving the appearance of Janesville’s gateways, especially on the City’s west side and the Milton Avenue corridor.  We believe this can be done in a way that does not burden the business community with costly new regulations, and look forward to working with the City on this issue. 

• There are several areas in the south, west and central sections of Janesville that are in need of repair.  We believe the City should work aggressively to revitalize these areas, both through enforcement of existing laws and implementation of community development incentives that could be used by the private sector. 

Zoning Management

• The business community hopes that the Comprehensive Plan will address Janesville’s zoning management principles to ensure that “spot” industrial and commercial zoning becomes a thing of the past. 

• Where possible, we recommend the consolidation of areas that are zoned for industrial purposes.  

• Again, we encourage infill development within the City’s urban service boundaries.