DOT shows up last minute, objecting to plans for new La Crosse apartments

Dept. believes plans would mess with north-south corridor

The Wisconsin Dept. of Transportation might be a little late to the party in the latest conflict with La Crosse’s city hall.

The state agency is objecting to a city plan to vacate a section of Seventh Street to make way for some new apartments.

Apparently, the move could mess up future potential plans for a controversial north-south corridor into the city.

City council president Dick Swantz isn’t sure he buys the complaint and that’s not his only issue.

“The real concern is having this correspondence show up at a committee meeting the evening it’s going to be dealt with and no one in the room, including staff members, had seen it,” Swantz said.

In a letter objecting to the seventh street plan, the DOT doesn’t specifically mention a new north-south highway, but warns about issues related to the Coulee Region Transportation study, which leans heavily on a future marsh road.  

“It’s very unusual and certainly shouldn’t be the case where,” Swantz continued, “if a governmental agency has a legitimate concern about some action the municipality might be taking, you wouldn’t show up with that concern in writing at the committee meeting that it’s going to be dealt with.”

As for the complaint, itself, in reference to those apartments going up, Swantz wasn’t sure there should be one.

“I certainly am under the impression that it does not have a significant negative impact on anything and, if it does, it’s a decade away,” Swantz added.