The Whitewater Community Development Authority Board of Directors met Nov. 20 to discuss topics including loan approvals and land sales
The Whitewater Community Development Authority Board of Directors (CDA) met Nov. 20 to discuss loan approvals, land sales, department updates and program revisions. The meeting also addressed actions on industrial parking property, housing assistance requests and ongoing legal matters.
The board recently approved revision to the home renewal program. The idea for the home renewal program and developer assistance loan was brought to the common council last month. It was unanimously decided to move forward with the home renewal program. The $1.2 million remaining from the affordable housing extension will go towards this new program.
The eligible home age for assistance has been updated to 30 years and a scoring metric has been implemented to be used as an evaluation tool. After board members made several suggestions to clarify criteria and a potential tiebreaker for the use of local contractors, it was decided that the proposal will return to the common council for final approval at a later date.
The two down payments assistance loan requests in relation to the city’s ongoing affordable housing efforts was unanimously approved by the board. The loans support purchases of housing at 255 N. Park St. and 215 E. Clay St. through recommended approval from the Community Credit Union. The program will retain $475,000 after approving both loans.
Whitewater’s new economic development coordinator Ashwini Rao was also welcomed at the meeting. Rao has a background in economic development, specializing in entrepreneurship and small business development.
“I spent a lot of time at the University of Wisconsin helping entrepreneurs get access to a lot of resources,” Rao said. “After that I moved to the department where I worked with small-to-medium-sized agricultural companies and helped them find markets for their products abroad. I did that for about a decade then moved to Alliant Energy where I was helping to attract businesses to the state of Wisconsin specifically for Alliant and now I’m here.”
An offer of $169,360 was approved after the board returned from a closed session. The offer will go towards lot 5B located in the Whitewater Industrial Park. The buyer, Jason Burke of Summerset Marine Shoreline Restoration, sent the offer under the condition that construction on building the property is commenced within three years and officially completed within four years. The CDA supported reviewing options and approving at a later date.
Alderman Michael Smith noted that he had reached out to Whitewater’s financial director Rachel Blitch to put together a memo regarding fund 910. The memo highlighted where some of the city’s funds are currently with one in particular being of interest to Smith.
“I wanted to point out the status of the action fund program,” Smith said. “The action fund is currently broken between two separate lines. There’s an action fund for business development and there’s an action fund for land purchases.”
Since the fund accounts currently operate as separate line items, recombining the two could give the board a little more latitude based on recommendations from Blitch.
Board member Christ Christon was appointed to be the representative for the city’s upcoming Comprehensive Plan Update Advisory Committee. The update will take place over the course of 12 months and include seven meetings. The city selected RDG Planning and Design to conduct the first update to the city’s comprehensive plan since 2017.
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