Damakant Jayshi
Seeking clarification about a lawsuit filed by a developer against the city, the Wausau City Council on Tuesday postponed decisions on two pending matters with the organization until the group’s next meeting.
One resolution asked the council to approve an ingress/egress easement with Green Acres at Greenwood Hills, LLC regarding the Vistas at Greenwood Hills First Addition and the other was approving a developer agreement with the company.
In February, the city approved entering into an ingress/egress easement with Green Acres at the cul-de-sac connecting Reserve Drive and Green Vistas Drive. The following month, the City Council approved the final plat for Vistas at Greenwood Hills First Addition. The company wants to develop seven residential lots on the north side of the proposed Reserve Drive.
Alder Tom Neal said he wanted more information about one or both the items on the agenda in light of the lawsuit, filed in January, and motioned to table the items until the next council meeting on May 14.
“It could be one or both of these items perhaps are not fully prepared for action tonight in terms of all the I’s and T’s dotted and crossed,” he said. He added there might be room for negotiations.
City Attorney Anne Jacobson said that both documents in front of the council “contain language that is objectionable to the developer and they’ve proposed language which is objectionable to the city to amend these two documents.” Jacobson said she is open to a discussion in closed session at a later meeting to provide clarification. She would invite outside counsel retained by the city on the litigation to the closed session.
Green Acres at Greenwood Hills LLC filed a lawsuit against the City of Wausau on January 26. An injunction hearing has been scheduled in Marathon County Circuit Court in front of Judge Gregory Strasser on June 12. The company has engaged law firm Ruder Ware, whose attorney Eric Johnson is listed in court documents as representing the developer. The city is being represented by Todd Koback and Daniel Varline, of Davczyk & Varline, LLC.
Neither the city attorney nor the attorney from Ruder Ware responded to questions about the lawsuit by press time. Johnson’s email elicited an auto response saying he is out of the office for depositions on Tuesday and Wednesday. Unclear is whether lawsuit is related to the ingress/egress easement requirement and developer agreement or some other matter. Ruder Ware has represented the developer in its battle to collect alleged “unlawful tax” of about $9,500 from the city.
While agreeing that alders needed clarification on the litigation, Attorney Jacobson stressed that the city is fully prepared to move ahead as far as the documents related to the two items in the packet were concerned.
“I am not representing that they were agreed to by the developer or his counsel but you certainly may move to table…to a certain time or indefinitely,” Jacobson said.
Alder Lisa Rasmussen said that they should approve the two items since the legal department thinks these are ready for action. “I’d think they would have already assessed whether or not any of this was connected with the conflict that we have with other facets of Greenwood Hills.”
But alders Michael Martens, who seconded Neal’s motion to table the items, Carol Lukens and Terry Kilian wanted more clarification.
The motion to table the developer agreement for Vistas at Greenwood Hills First Addition passed 6-4, with Lukens, Martens, Kilian, Neal, Becky McElhaney and Rasmussen in favor and Alders Sarah Watson, Victoria Tierney, Lou Larson and Chad Henke voting against it. Alder Gary Gisselman was excused for the meeting. For the item on ingress/egress easement, the motion to postpone was unanimous, 10-0.
