Menomonie rezones Alliance Church property from residential to commercial
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.
By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — The Menomonie Alliance Church property, 502 21st Street Northeast in Menomonie, has been rezoned from Family Residential (R-1) to Local Commercial (B-2) to accommodate a daycare offered by the YMCA.
The Menomonie City Council held a public hearing on the request for a rezone from the Menomonie Alliance Church and the YMCA at the August 4 meeting.
Of the approximately half dozen people who spoke about rezoning the church property, the majority of those speaking live in the residential neighborhood around the church.
The residents said they were supportive of the church and the plan to have a daycare, but they were hesitant about the idea of a rezone to Local Commercial in a residential neighborhood.
Information provided to the city council notes that B-2 zoning would allow, in addition to a church and a daycare, banks, clinics, clothing stores, restaurants, grocery stores, hardware stores, theaters, places of amusement, and additional uses could be allowed by conditional use permit.
During the public hearing, Derek White, the chief executive officer of YMCA Chippewa Valley, said that when YMCA conducted a feasibility study for Menomonie, the response was positive.
White said he would like to raise money for a “full” YMCA in Menomonie and wants to build programs and services in the community.
Plan commission
The Menomonie Plan Commission, on a vote of four “yes” to three “no” at the July 28 meeting, recommended the rezone to B-2, said David Schofield, director of public works.
A commercial daycare would not be allowed in R-1 zoning. If the YMCA wanted to hold athletic events in the gymnasium at the former Menomonie Alliance School, the athletic events also would not be allowed under R-1 zoning, Schofield said.
The Menomonie Alliance Church operated a school at the site on 21st Street Northeast from 1981 to 2008.
The school began with kindergarten through third grade and then expanded to include eighth grade by 1996,
The school closed at the end of the 2007-2008 school year.
There is R-1 zoning to the north of the church property and R-2 zoning to the south, and the closest B-2 zoning is the Mayo Clinic property 500 feet to the south, Schofield said.
The comprehensive land use plan identifies the property as “institutional” but institutional is not in the zoning code, Schofield said.
A commercial use is not identified in the comprehensive land use plan, but the proposed use is consistent with the previous use, he said.
Wisconsin Statute 66.1001(3) requires consistency between zoning ordinances and comprehensive land use plans.
Residential lots
The church has two parking lots and four residential lots, but the four residential lots are not buildable because approximately 30 of the parking spaces are located on the residential lots, Schofield said.
Several people who spoke during the public hearing asked that a daycare at the Menomonie Alliance Church be allowed as a conditional use and that the zoning not be changed for the property.
If daycares are added to the list of conditional uses allowed in R-1 zoning, daycares would be allowed in all R-1 zoning in Menomonie and not only at the Menomonie Alliance Church, Schofield said.
The church property also cannot be conditionally zoned, and so the zoning cannot go back to R-1 automatically if the property is no longer being used for the purpose attached to the conditional zoning, he said.
The YMCA does more than daycare, so the B-2 zoning fits with the activities offered by YMCA , Schofield said.
Spot zoning
Mayor Randy Knaack said he was concerned that rezoning to B-2 would be “spot zoning” since the surrounding zoning is residential.
After the property is rezoned, if or when the church sells the property, there is nothing to restrict the uses other than what is allowed under B-2 zoning, Knaack said.
Since state law requires the zoning to be consistent with the comprehensive land use plan, changing the zoning to business in a residential area could be viewed as spot zoning.
Sydney Brennan, city council member representing Ward 9, said that she, too, was concerned about changing the zoning to B-2 and did not want the residential lots zoned as B-2.
The four lots are zoned R-1, so what is to prevent those lots from being used as a parking lot? asked Ryland Erdman, city council member representing Ward 10
A parking lot used for a commercial purpose must be zoned as commercial, Schofield said.
The zoning ordinances could be reconstructed to allow a commercial daycare in a residential zoning, Knaack said.
If the ordinance change is based on the request from one landowner, then it’s “all or nothing” for the zoning ordinance and it would apply to other residential zoning in the city, Schofield reiterated.
The city council cannot say that only half of the property should be rezoned. The property owner would have to make a request for only half of the property to be rezoned, and the issue before the city council is rezoning the entire church property, Schofield said.
Storefronts
Mixed use zoning occurs in cities, noted Gretchen Yonko, city council member representing Ward 4.
Yonko said she did not believe there would ever be storefronts on the church property.
Storefronts would be “possible,” Yonko said, “but realistically” businesses would want to be located along a major road and not a residential street.
The area where the church is located is not a commercial area, and a daycare would be “a good bet” for that area, said Randy Sommerfeld, city council member representing Ward 11.
One of the problems identified by residents in Dunn County is a lack of available daycare services.
Approval
The Menomonie City Council unanimously approved motions to waive the first and second readings of the ordinance to change the zoning for the Menomonie Alliance Church property from R-1 to B-2.
The motion to approve the zoning change for the Menomonie Alliance Church from R-1 to B-2 passed on a vote of seven “yes” to three “no.”
Voting in favor of the motion were Leland Schwebs (Ward 6); Cody Gentz (Ward 7); Randy Sommerfeld (Ward 11); Jeff Luther (Ward 1); Matthew Crowe (Ward 2); Gretchen Yonko (Ward 4); and Abigail Pickard (Ward 5).
Voting against the motion were Sydney Brennan (Ward 9); Ryland Erdman (Ward 10); and Eric Sutherland (Ward 3).
By that point in the evening, Mary Solberg, city council member representing Ward 8 and also the president of the city council, had left the meeting.
Mayor Randy Knaack called the August 4 Menomonie City Council meeting to order at 7 p.m., and the meeting adjourned at a little after 11 p.m.
All together, the two public hearings on the annexation and rezone of land in the Town of Red Cedar and on the rezone of the Menomonie Alliance Church property lasted for nearly two and a half hours.
Other business
In other business, the Menomonie City Council:
• Approved resolution 2025-13 regarding the exemption of the library tax. Dunn County levies property taxes to help support the libraries in the county. An exemption from the library tax means that residents in Menomonie will only pay the library tax levied by the City of Menomonie and will not be taxed twice for the Menomonie Public Library.
• Approved the purchase of a 2025 Prodigy 1860 Tunnel at a cost of $56,060 for the fire department to use as a rescue boat. The fire department’s existing rescue boat is a 1996 fishing boat that does not work very well for water rescues, said Denny Klass, Menomonie fire chief. The boat used by the fire department before the 1996 fishing boat was purchased in 1958, he said, in response to a question concerning how long a new rescue boat would be expected to be in service.
• Approved special event permits for UW-Stout “student move in” from August 23 to August 31; the UW-Stout Homecoming Soap Box Derby on October 20; and the UW-Stout Homecoming Parade on October 25.
• Approved a budget transfer from the contingency fund to the fire department in the amount of $4,300 to purchase computer equipment. A required software update to Windows 11 has left many of the desktops and laptops in need of replacement. The number of units that must be replaced has exceeded the scheduled replacement budget.
