DAHS addition approved by Planning and Zoning Commission – HNGnews.com

The DeForest Planning and Zoning Commission approved a 66,000-square foot project to add onto, and make improvements, to DeForest Area High School at its March 24 meeting.

The project was initially given the go-ahead during an April 2019 referendum. It includes an addition to the high school in the form of a new gym and natatorium on the south end of the building. There will also be more room for classrooms, with improvements to athletic fields and parking.

Zoning Administrator Brandi Cooper listed the details of the project.

The main entrance will shift away from the current one on the north end of the building. It will be moved to the west side. There will also be 163 parking spaces added, bringing the total to 690 stalls.

There will be an access point to the eastern athletic facilities via North Towne Road. The project would include an easterly extension of Jefferson Street and a school-only driveway to North Town Road to its south.

Before it was given final approval, there were a few provisions to the plan. The biggest concern came after the Village Engineer Ryan Quam had been accessing the area for a while. Quam sent an email to Village Board Trustee Jason Kramar, who is also on the commission.

The project initially called for a design of the Fox Hill Estates plat located northeast of the Highway 51 and 19 interchange that does not require the vacation or change of any stormwater outlots dedicated with the recorded plat and Certified Survey Map (CSM), if practical.

Quam said that the requirement could not be met and would be an unfortunate waste of time and/or hundred of thousands of dollars.

Quam has spent the last 10 months evaluating the site and said that the soils in the existing pond outlots are not suitable for infiltration and thusly cannot contribute toward the 100% infiltration requirement.

Also there was a requirement that the existing runoff volume draining to the wetlands be maintained, but the pond would not allow sufficient runoff to the wetlands, according to Quam.

Quam designed a stormwater plan to minimize all future construction costs.

The ponds were designed as low as possible in order keep the lots low and balance site earthwork, Quam wrote in his email. The ponds were designed over soils suitable for infiltration to eliminate the need for importing sand. The ponds were designed in a central location to keep storm sewer sizes below 36 diameter to minimize storm sewer costs. Note that 5-foot by 5-foot box storm sewer is very expensive and causes pipe conflicts. The regional ponds meet the infiltration requirements for the entire plat so developers of the commercial lots will not need to import expensive sand, construct costly bio-retention devices, or install expensive permeable pavement.

Quam said that the design, with a view adjustments, met Capitol Area Regional Planning Commission and DNR requirements.

Also, new additions to the project were to widen the extension of Jefferson Street and adjust the west end of a path connecting to the high school tennis courts to better facilitate its western extension south of the tennis courts as part of a grant application.

The project is scheduled to begin construction in summer an be completed for the 2022-23 school year.

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DAHS addition approved by Planning and Zoning Commission - HNGnews.com