City setting aside $200,000 for consultants on Hwy. 53 corridor project

Three groups will be interviewed
in May on ideas for development

The future of Rose Street in La Crosse is being planned with the help of a new steering committee.

The Highway 53 Corridor committee had its first meeting Thursday, hoping to develop a plan for the corridor. 

The committee is planning to interview three companies that have proposed master plans for improving streets and neighborhoods along the northern entrance to La Crosse, from I-90 to the Causeway.

The city has budgeted $200,000 for the consulting work.

Those consultants will be interviewed by the committee in early May before choosing. 

“They all have excellent experience directly related to traffic corridors, riverfront development and everything else,” La Crosse mayor Tim Kabat said. “So, I think it’s going to be a challenge for us to pick one.”

Kabat sits on the panel, along with north-side council members and business representatives.

Kabat says better transportation is just one focus of the plan for improving the riverfront roads from the interstate to downtown.  

“The commercial opportunity, some of the redevelopment and the riverfront access, and the fact that we’re looking to try and create recreational connections from downtown, and from the marsh, all the way up to the interstate,” Kabat said of some of the plan’s other focuses.