Thursday, January 4, 2007
1,230 homes eliminated from Sho-Deen subdivision plan
By Mike Heine; Gazette staff

DELAVAN TOWNSHIP-Sho-Deen Construction has shaved 1,230 addresses from plans for a residential development that included 6,000 housing units when it was first introduced in August 2005.

Updated plans for Sho-Deen's Jackson Creek development were unveiled at a town plan commission meeting in December. The plans now include 3,357 single-family homes and 1,411 multi-family units on about 2,000 acres surrounding the Delavan Lake inlet. The plans also show several parks, three schools and a village center commercial plaza.

Gone from the plans are a resort hotel or golf course, which earlier renderings showed surrounding the inlet. That area will be kept as green space.

Also gone is a business park on about 60 acres between Interstate 43 and Marsh Road. A road connection to Valencia Drive, which sparked much opposition from residents living along the street, was also eliminated, Sho-Deen President David Patzelt said.

The prices for the condominiums and houses would range from $180,000 to $600,000 if sold in today's market, Patzelt said. The development, however, is expected to take 20 years to complete if it receives approval from the town and county.

"I support this project," said town Chairman John Pelletier. "I support keeping it in the town and not letting it be annexed into the city of Elkhorn or Delavan."

Pelletier feels it's best to keep development in the township so the town can benefit from increased tax dollars.

"It's a question of in whose community does it ultimately wind up in?" Pelletier said. If it's ever annexed, "We'll be left with all the headaches without a single opportunity for a benefit, and I think that's wrong. The town would be crazy to allow that to happen without doing anything it can to keep it in the town of Delavan."

Sho-Deen's property lies roughly between Highway 50, Mound Road, Interstate 43, Highway 67, Theater Road and Town Hall Road, all in Delavan Township.

Sho-Deen's plans have been questioned and criticized by both residents and town officials.

Some residents worry about strains on the town's infrastructure, increased traffic, the ability to maintain adequate police and fire protection, affects on taxes, the number of children in area schools, groundwater supply, increased pollution and more use of Delavan Lake.

The size of the development, which could bring in upward of 11,000 new residents, has frightened many. A petition last summer contained more than 1,000 signatures of area residents opposing the development.

The latest Sho-Deen plans-including renderings of neighborhoods, streets, schools and commercial areas-will be discussed again at the Thursday, Jan. 11, plan commission meeting.

Pelletier expects the meeting will include time for public comments and questions and a heavy dose of questioning by commission members. He didn't expect any votes to take place.

While Sho-Deen rearranged areas for multi-family development, the proposal calls for 10.5 units per acre. Township planner Carolyn Esswein, principal at Planning and Design Institute, favored a density of eight to 10 units per acre.

Another sticking point could be lot sizes of some of the homes. County zoning requires 15,000 square feet per lot on standard zoning. Substandard lots can be 7,500 square feet. About 15 percent of the lots are below 7,500 square feet, Patzelt said.

"Would a new zoning category need to be created at the county level because their design does not fit with any of the current county zoning options?" Esswein asked.

Patzelt said the developer and the town will likely never be 100 percent in agreement with the plans, but it's time to move forward with votes on the concepts. Plans have changed since their inception and they will continue to change with market demand as the project rolls along, he added.

"We have agreed to disagree," on some issues, Patzelt said. "We've come a long way. I don't want to sound bull-headed or stuck up, but I think it's unfortunate that some of the plans have (already) been compromised. But sometimes you have to move on and work with what you've got.

"We've been in this process now. It's been well over a year. It's time that we start getting some decisions."