| By Big Radio News Staff |
A developer plans an open house to tell neighbors of a plan to build nearly 80 apartments in Janesville on a 2-acre, riverfront park space at 101 Rockport Road.
Bear Development says it’s running a meeting Wednesday night to give details and answer questions about its plans to build a four-story, seventy-unit apartment building and an eight-unit condo along the riverfront at the end of Rockport Road.
The apartment plan has been in the works about a year. It would leverage open space in the Fourth Ward along the Rock River, and tie into a biking and walking bridge across the river near South Jackson Street.
The group plans a Q-and-A over the project at Wednesday’s meeting. It would require a zoning change to allow multifamily housing on the property.
Bear’s open house is at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Hedberg Public Library.
A south side residents’ group called SNOW encourages residents to attend the meeting. The group says in a Facebook post it questions an apartment project that’s planned close enough to the river to put it in a FEMA 500-year floodplain.
A Big Radio reporter has reached out to SNOW for comment, but as of Monday afternoon, the group had not responded.
It’s not clear whether any of the apartments planned at the Rockport Road site are intended to be “affordable” — or low-income — housing.
City Economic Development Director Jimsi Kuborn told Big Radio last week that the city has “no current prospects” for affordable housing in the pipeline in four TIF districts that are slated to expire soon. The city sought the city council’s OK Monday night to hold open four expiring TIF districts for another year to try to bankroll affordable housing projects.
This story has been corrected. Assistant to the city manager Nick Faust said public notice of the upcoming neighborhood meeting with Bear Development was posted last week. This story was also updated with additional context about prospective affordable housing projects in the city.
