| By Neil Johnson, Big Radio News Staff |
Some Janesville residents think a developer has their eye on the wrong site for a 78-unit affordable apartment project while others point out there’s precious little local land set up for such housing.
Many at a neighborhood meeting Wednesday night say they’re worried a 2-acre, city-owned site at 101 Rockport Road is within 60 feet of a 100-year-flood zone. And they say 78 apartments there would eat up green space the neighborhood views as an important buffer for river wildlife.
Bear Real Estate, a Kenosha developer, plans to buy the city land and build the apartments. The company intends to relocate a segment of city bike trail so it hugs the river. The apartments would be set back about 60 to 100 feet from the river.
Resident Cassandra Pope says a development along the river bend in the Fourth Ward doesn’t make sense to her.
She says it seems to ignore parts of the city’s own comprehensive plan that call for flood plains to remain open space to protect neighborhoods from flooding.
Pope says in the past, the city has relocated wading pools and removed housing in a city flood plain near Riverside Park, “yet we’re building in a flood plain even though it’s against what the (city’s) comprehensive plan says we should be doing.”
“That concerns me, that we’re putting houses in a flood plain.”
Another resident, Susan Johnson, told Bear officials she remembers the historic flood in 2008, when the Rock River reached 13 feet at Afton. She says that flood swamped the riverbend where Bear seeks to build apartments.
City Planning Administrator Duane Cherek attended the meeting Wednesday and offered background on city development and planning practices, as well as flooding issues.
Cherek says the 2008 flooding in the river bend area in question occurred only in areas directly along the river bank, which is at a slightly lower elevation than much of the property.
A Big Radio analysis of river flood data from June 2008 shows at its peak, flooding at the Monterey park area would have submerged only the lowest areas along the riverbank.
Much of the property is within a 500-year flood zone. In that kind of flood zone, federal officials calculate about a 6% chance of flooding that would seriously affect a property in a 30-year time span.
Most developers use 100-year flood zones as the main threshold for flood risk because there is no federal standard against building housing in 500-year flood zones.
Bear Real Estate says the only land in the 100-year flood zone is the strip of riverbank the city would continue to own and maintain — including the bike path the city plans to relocate along the riverfront.
Bear says apartments would be built about 3 feet above the 100-year flood zone. Another part of the plan would be to knock down a dilapidated barn along Riverside Street. That’s where Bear says it would build eight town homes.
The developer says they’re early in designs, but the four-story apartment building planned could include water-permeable parking lot pavement or rooftop gardens that limit runoff.
Bear says they chose the city land along the riverfront and approached the city with interest in development there.
Bear plans to build housing that would be rent capped for working families to afford.
Plans are for rents between $450 a month and $1,500 a month, with pricier units being three-bedroom homes.
Jessica Locher, director of Janesville social service nonprofit ECHO, says Janesville is in dire need of affordable housing like the kind Bear plans.
Locher tells those who oppose the project the land is one of just a few census tracts in the city that allow government grants for affordable housing.
“We need those extra dollars from the state and federal government to build (affordable) housing,” Locher says.
“So, really, if you don’t want that (affordable housing) in certain areas, then you should advocate to your state and federal lawmakers so that more (housing) funding opportunities are made available throughout the whole city, not just in certain areas.”
Bear Real Estate has not yet received city approval for the project, and it hasn’t officially closed on the land and two adjacent parcels.
Bear aims to submit official site plans to the city in January or February.
If the project materializes, it would be on a timetable for completion sometime late in 2026.
Bear could take ownership of the property this summer. That’s pending ongoing negotiations with the city on project plans and possible soil contamination on the site that might need remediation.
The city, meanwhile, intends to leave open several tax-increment financing districts an extra year to try to leverage tax incentives to spur housing. It’s not clear if Bear would be a recipient of TIF funding for housing.
But an earlier development, the River Flats apartments along the downtown riverfront, garnered millions of dollars in a city development deal alongside state grants aimed at spurring affordable housing.
