By Gazette staff - Dec 9th 2024
JANESVILLE
A neighborhood meeting is set for Wednesday at the Hedberg Public Library in Janesville, on a proposed 78-unit apartment and townhome development along Rockport Road.
The informational meeting is at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 11, in the Woodruff Room at the library, 316 S. Main St. in Janesville.
Proposed in the 100 and 200 block of Rockport Road and the 200 block of Riverside Street are a four-story building with 70 apartments and a two-story building with 8 townhomes. The site along the Rock River, near where S. Franklin St. runs into Rockport Road, is in the city’s Fourth Ward Neighborhood and has long held single-family homes.
“The purpose of the meeting is to introduce the project, gain feedback, and allow you to ask any questions,” the developer, Bear Development of Kenosha, that also has offices in Chicago, Milwaukee and Madison, said in a letter to neighborhood residents.
According to Bear Development’s website, www.beardevelopment.com, its recent projects include The Flats at 402, a new, 54-unit affordable housing development off of Wilson Street in Madison, as well as new and redevelopment projects in Kenosha, Mount Pleasant, Milwaukee, Union Grove and Franklin, Wis.
According to the letter, a zoning change and conditional use permit are required from the city to allow multi-family housing on the site.
In October 2024 correspondence with an environmental engineering firm representing the developer, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources noted the presence of contamination in soil and groundwater on the site.
“The DNR agrees that understanding current site conditions and potential risks is vital before redeveloping a property with significant CVOC contamination,” wrote Janet DiMaggio, a hydrogeologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ Bureau for Remediation and Redevelopment/Environmental Management Division.
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