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Dear editor,

An open letter to Madam Mayor, City Alderpersons and Honorable Members of the Planning Commission:

I write to express my strong opposition to the proposed re-zoning of 404 Franklin Street, as currently being considered ultimately for a parking lot, for four reasons:

  1. downtown Wausau does not need any additional parking spaces, especially in that particular area of Third Street, in my opinion; and
  2. I’m guessing that rezoning and demolishing of said property will remove this property from the tax rolls, and thus any taxes that may be paid into the City may be lost; and
  3. rezoning of said property will allow a parking lot to directly adjoin one of the most beautiful and historical properties in our City, the Yawkey House Museum, impinging on the overall historical atmosphere of the Museum and its grounds. Which will, in turn, also likely result in unnecessary costs and disruptions including, for instance, having to potentially erect a barrier between such proposed parking lot and the Museum; and
  4. last but not least, the building at 404 Franklin has softened and enhanced the greater overall appearance of the area for nearly 70 years.  It is a part of the history and character of the neighborhood, adds a welcome modicum of greenery to an area quickly becoming an ocean of asphalt, and is architecturally significant as an example of Colonial Revival/Georgian Revival according to the Wisconsin Historical Society.

I invite you to take a look at downtown Wausau from an overhead, online view on Google satellite of the staggering amount of parking lots/ramps that our downtown has become.  The large lots bounded by Fulton, Fourth, Scott Streets and the river, are stunning in size, stark and harsh in appearance, and can frequently offset ongoing efforts to make our downtown attractive and inviting, in my opinion. 

And the lots are seriously underused: drive around the downtown on any day, at any time and it appears there are far more than a 100+ parking lot spaces easily and conveniently available throughout the core – other than a few days/year when there’s an activity on the 400 Block. Dozens and dozens of those empty, unused parking lot spots are, in fact, in the lots just steps from the YMCA.

We’ve sadly lost beautiful, architecturally stunning commercial structures and homes in the downtown over the last many decades. Who remembers the travesty of allowing the Plumer mansion to be torn down?  Thank heavens for the preservation and maintenance efforts, and dedication, of our downtown merchants, owners and companies, particularly along Third Street, who have been keeping alive the “olde” Wausau architecture which gives our downtown so much character!

Members of the Planning Commission, ask yourselves:  does downtown Wausau really need another parking lot at the expense of destroying another piece of Wausau history when our current parking lots/ramps are largely not being used?  I urge the City Planning Commission to vote “NO” in this current attempt to re-zone the property at 404 Franklin Street.

Mary Kay Schneider, Wausau