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Politics & Government

Village Board Gives Preliminary OK to Downtown Plan

Plan will act as a guide for leaders as they develop a new vision for area along Main Street.

Sussex has taken yet another step forward in crafting its downtown redevelopment plan.

The Village Board gave unanimous approval Tuesday to amending the Sussex 2020 comprehensive plan and preliminary approval to the Main Street vision and action strategy plan.

Those actions pave the way for the village to continue to build a downtown redevelopment plan, using preliminary plan as a guide on how to proceed.

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The board also held a second public hearing on the plan prior to giving approval Tuesday, however, more hearings will occur in the future.

“We want as much public input on this as possible,” Village President Greg Goetz said. “This is going to be their downtown as well.”

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The downtown redevelopment plan entails road and sidewalk improvements along Main Street stretching from Maple Avenue to Waukesha Avenue in order to make the area more pedestrian and bicycle friendly.

The plan also calls for spurring economic improvement in the downtown area, including the proposed site on the east end of Main Street near Waukesha Avenue.

The board needed to hold a public hearing Tuesday on the plan because amendments were made to documents in the 2020 downtown design and comprehensive plan, such as new maps and photos of the area. No one from the public spoke during the hearing.

The Community Development Authority and Plan Commission will use the preliminary plan as a guide to crafting a final vision for downtown, but changes can still be made as it moves forward.

In conjunction with the downtown redevelopment plan, village leaders are also looking into speeding up the timeline to , and also creating a by 2012 to pay for improvements along Main Street.

Trustee Pat Tetzlaff said three subcommittees have been formed to help the TIF district move forward. The committees will focus on loans and grants for the project, market analysis for downtown and marketing the area for businesses.

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