Navy Reserve site could become “pocket neighborhood”

Site has been unused since Navy left nearly a decade ago

It’s been a while since the Navy Reserve site on Green Bay Street in La Crosse had much going on.

Not much has happened on the site since the Navy packed up and moved on close to 10 years ago.

City hall seems anxious to get the redevelopment process moving again. A meeting scheduled for next week at Central High School appears to be the start of that process.

The public input meeting will allow city planners to share information they’ve gathered on the possibility of creating a so-called “pocket neighborhood” – a group of micro-sized homes around a common green space – on the site. But the meeting will also provide an opportunity for the public to provide feedback on what to do with the 1½-acre site.

The Navy stopped drilling there in 2006 and handed the keys to the city in 2007. The city demolished the Naval Reserve Center building on the site the following year.