Posted: June 15, 2010 |(0) Comments

The city is willing to sell property south of City Hall to developer Cindy Shaffer but the cost and mechanics of a possible sale are pending.

Shaffer owns two houses between the Mobil station at Mequon and Cedarburg roads and the city property. She told the council last week she is ready to develop her property into a 5,000-square-foot retail site with eight residences above. That proposal could generate $35,000 in property taxes, she said, but if the city were to sell its land to her the resulting larger retail/office/housing development could bring in $100,000 in taxes.

Shaffer has talked to the city off and on over the past five years about incorporating the city land into her development and is now at a point where she wants an answer one way or the other. She said she has a tenant for her development and is ready to build.

Other communities in the area, such Grafton, Shorewood and Glendale, have worked with developers in tax incremental finance districts. Shaffer would like Mequon to work with her by selling her the land.

"I haven't heard any opposition to a sale," Alderman John Wirth said at last week's council meeting. "I also haven't heard an offer to buy."

The council is willing to sell but wants to make sure Shaffer would develop a parking lot that would be open for visitors to the city park across Cedarburg Road. The park is being upgraded as part of the Town Center redevelopment.

Shaffer's proposal is in line with the type of development the council hoped to attract to the Town Center area, except its current rendition is four stories versus the three stories allowed under the zoning for the area. The city would need an amendment to its zoning code before a four-story building could be approved, according to Director of Community Development Kim Tollefson.

The city is in the process of investing $7 million in infrastructure improvements along Mequon and Cedarburg roads but, so far, in a struggling economy, has only one project that will soon be under construction - a community-based residential facility for people with memory loss.

Before the specifics of her proposal can be discussed, the city and Schaffer must begin negotiations for the property. The council discussed the sale of the land in closed session.