MENASHA, Wis. (WFRV) – On Wednesday evening, community members had a chance to help shape Menasha’s future.
City leaders hosted an open house at City Hall to discuss the city’s comprehensive plan. It’s a road map that establishes the city’s priorities for the next 10 years.
“It’s nice to see a room packed with neighbors excited about the future of their community and who care a lot about the city of Menasha,” Mayor Austin Hammond told Local 5 News.
At the open house, community leaders discussed a wide variety of potential projects and priorities that could get included in the finalized version of the comprehensive plan.
Redevelopment at the former Shopko site on Appleton Road in Menasha was one of the hot topics. New stores have moved into part of the Shopko plaza, but much of the property remains vacant.
Mayor Hammond said the owner of the rest of the Shopko property is from out of state, and there hasn’t been much progress made on selling it. However, he’s hopeful that someday the property will sell and they can turn it into a multi-use development with things like housing, restaurants, and retail.
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Mayor Hammond said another priority in the comprehensive plan is getting more businesses to come to Menasha and retaining the ones that are already in the city. There are multiple vacant storefronts in downtown Menasha and several others with ‘for sale’ signs in their windows.
The mayor said they’re working on creating a nonprofit that could market and assist the city’s businesses. It would be similar to Appleton Downtown, Inc. and Future Neenah. He said the comprehensive plan will include other strategies to bring in new businesses.
“Keep making good partnerships, beautify our community, things that feel little like beautification projects, murals, and gateways,” Hammond said. “People like to be in places that they feel are welcoming and vibrant.”
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Wednesday evening’s comprehensive plan open house also included several presentations. UW-Madison students presented the results of their capstone project. The project looked at potential redevelopment plans for the city’s waterfront.
Winnebago County Executive Gordon Hintz updated folks on the future of the UWO-Fox Cities campus. As Local 5 News first reported on Tuesday, the campus’s theater and fieldhouse will reopen for at least a year.
Megan Karth has lived in Menasha since 2020 and was one of the people at the open house on Wednesday.
“My husband and I are really into sustainability, so we’d love to see native plants, being able to recycle, and keeping the water clean (in the comprehensive plan),” she told Local 5 News.
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City staff said they’ll take community members’ feedback into consideration as they continue to develop a finalized comprehensive plan. The Common Council will have to approve the plan, and Mayor Hammond said he hopes this gets done by the end of the year.
“I think we have a responsibility to future generations, and you have to care about the place that you live,” Karth said. “You can’t complain if you aren’t involved.”
“I hope they (community members) feel compelled to share their ideas and I hope they’re inspired and excited about the ideas that are being thrown around currently,” Mayor Hammond said.
