City Council could clear way for development at little-used property
By Jason Arndt
Staff Writer
The Franciscan Friars have seen dwindling numbers in recent years and face the daunting task of managing little-used properties both locally and nationwide.
With an uncertain future, other Franciscan groups in the state have sold portions of their property, and that could happen in the City of Burlington.
The city’s Plan Commission put the Franciscan Friary at 2457 Browns Lake Drive in a position to do that at an April 14 meeting.
The commission recommended the Common Council approve both a certified survey map amendment as well as a rezone map amendment.
The certified survey map amendment allows the Franciscans to subdivide one parcel into three parcels. The other amendment includes rezoning lots one and two from I-1, Institutional District and Rm-3, Low Density Multiple Family Residential District to Rm-2, Multiple-Family Residential District.
Franciscan Friars representative Brian Bangart, who did not participate Tuesday’s virtual meeting, previously told the Plan Commission on Jan. 14 members of the group cannot manage the 170-acre property themselves and believed subdividing parcels would make selling portions of the property easier.
Megan Watkins, City Zoning Administrator, said the rezone amendment allows the Franciscan Friars Assumption Blessed Virgin Mary Province to have better flexibility for the future.
“The owners and users of the property … are looking to subdivide and recalibrate the zoning of the parcel for greater flexibility of use, future development, and ownership of Lots 1, 2, and 3,” she wrote in a Plan Commission packet.
Bangart did not give specifics of what the future holds for the Franciscan Friars as it relates to the property.
But, according to a memorandum from city planning consultant Graef, part of the property will be sectioned off for new senior apartments that will nearly mirror and existing 49-unit complex at St. Francis Meadows.
Statewide, some properties owned by the Franciscan Friars have been sold to developers, including one in Green Bay about two years ago.
According to The Compass, an official newspaper for the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay, the sale comes as Franciscan Friar membership has diminished in recent years.
“Our numbers at St. Mary’s (of the Angels Church and Friary) have been going down for years,” Rev. James Gannon said in 2018. “The friary has basically been empty since we moved the novitiate out of the friary in the early 1990s.”
As for the Burlington property, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society, the Franciscan Friars bought the expansive parcel in 1929 and constructed a church the following year. The property also includes a monastery that has been mostly vacant in recent years and a series of religious grottos throughout the property.
The Common Council plans to review both recommendations at an April 21 Committee of the Whole meeting with final consideration set for May 5.
To read the entire report from Tuesday’s Plan Commission meeting, see the April 16 edition of the Burlington Standard Press.
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