Next La Crosse Center planning meetings expected in September

More than a month has passed since City Hall told La Crosse Center leaders to go back to the drawing board for new expansion ideas.

The $40-plus million project will be back in the spotlight in September, according to Center director Art Fahey.

“They’ll be some preliminary (meetings) that get us moving again, and then some of the community input and some of the outreach will be happening again and we’ll get the ball rolling on plans for the future,” Fahey said.

He expects Mayor Tim Kabat to call a couple of planning meetings, aimed at making building designs that don’t intrude on Riverside Park.

“They mayor’s interested, and I think we’re all interested,” Fahey said, “in having an area out front that takes in an atrium area, take in the back part of the building again, over the parking lot and over the street, but not into the park, so we get the vista of the river.”

In July, the city council failed to override the mayor’s veto of a large riverfront addition to the La Crosse Center and a $49 million budget.