| By Big Radio News Staff |
A set of 10 duplexes are coming to Janesville’s far west edge as part of a bigger development of 48 new homes.
This week, the city of Janesville’s Plan Commission OK’d a conditional use permit that will allow duplexes planned at Pine Ridge, a proposed subdivision along Highway 14 and North Crystal Springs Road.
Developers’ plans show four duplexes would be set at the subdivision’s northwest edge. Six other duplexes would be scattered at corner lots around a neighborhood that otherwise would include dozens of single-family homes.
The plan commission heard from neighbors who brought concerns over traffic at North Crystal Springs Road and Highway 14. That’s alongside a few residents who worried about what duplexes might mean for their nearby property value.
They wondered if the properties would be rentals, or if they’d be marketed as condominiums that would have a homeowner’s association.
An engineering consultant for the developer told the plan commission the duplexes would not be marketed as condos.
Plan commission chairwoman Kathy Voskuil says the city could reach out to the state Department of Transportation over traffic issues on Highway 14.
Most residential areas in Janesville require a special zoning designation called a conditional use permit to build duplexes or other multi-family housing.
City planning officials say pending changes to the city’s 43-year-old zoning code would make neighborhood zoning more flexible.
The changes could allow a greater mix of single-family and multi-family housing in neighborhoods without special zoning consideration, as was required for the Pine Ridge duplexes this week.
This comes as Rock County communities continue to wrestle with a shortage of affordable housing for both young, working families and elderly residents.
