NEWS

Public input kicks off stadium district planning

Jeff Bollier
USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

GREEN BAY - Over his 15 or so years running Smitty’s Auto Mart, Ron Smits has watched the slow churn of businesses in the neighborhood east of Lambeau Field.

After years of closures and demolitions, Smits happily offered up his thoughts Wednesday evening on how to shape the neighborhood’s next evolution.

Smits made the wet slog Wednesday evening to the Tundra Lodge to participate in the first public meeting to plan future growth of the 90-acre area bounded by Ashland Avenue, Lombardi Avenue, Mike McCarthy Way and Holmgren Way.

“It’s all a win,” Smits said. “So many parcels have been vacant forever. It’s time,” Smits said. “I’m glad to see the focus on this area. Everyone (that owns a business) here has lived through the hard times and should reap the benefits of redevelopment.”

Between now and fall, Vierbicher Associates’ community development consultants and city planners will take resident, business owner and community input on how to revitalize the district and fashion it into an action plan to guide the growth and development of what the city is calling the Stadium Entertainment District.

City Planner Stephanie Hummel said preliminary input has focused heavily on improving pedestrian and bicycle routes through the area, but that there’s still a lot of input and refinement to go before the plan comes together. That will include two more public input sessions, six stakeholder meetings and extensive study of the district.

Many of the more than two dozen attendees at Wednesday night’s input session said they want to see existing businesses preserved, with new retail businesses, more restaurants and a lot of sidewalks and public amenities added to the area.

Jim Ridderbush grew up in Marquette Park, just north of the stadium district. He called the focus on the area overdue. He said he hopes a plan for energizing the district can give the city an area that matches what the Green Bay Packers are doing to the west of Lambeau Field with the Titletown District.

“It’s time that this side (of the stadium) piggybacks on what the Green Bay Packers have done on the other side,” he said. “But we need to make sure to help existing businesses spruce up what they have so they can keep up.”

Jon LeRoy said he sees a gem amidst “a hodgepodge of incompatible uses” in the district he has lived near for much of his life. He said he hopes the planning effort produces a cohesive design and plan going forward to match a similar effort in Ashwaubenon.

“We can really capitalize what’s happening around the stadium,” he said. “But without a plan, it will just stay the way it is now.”

jbollier@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @GBstreetwise .