Green Bay Press Gazette, October 14, 2004
Lack of regional planning seen as hurdle in avoiding sprawl
By Karen Rauen
krauen@greenbaypressgazette.com
The future of downtown isn’t just in Green Bay’s hands. For the heart of the city to grow stronger, the Ashwaubenons, Bellevues and Denmarks of the county need to care.
“There needs to be some kind of coordinated effort at looking at what we want to be as a region in the future,” said Ray Hutchison, who heads the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Urban and Regional Studies department. “There’s a lack of any central planning, so at the same time as you see all these new stores going up in the area around the mall in Ashwaubenon, they’re pulling out of downtown.
“That’s from not having a countywide planning authority that has any real power to influence the development that’s taking place. Which is not unusual for a metropolitan area, but it sort of points out one of the real weaknesses.”
Downtown enthusiasts can talk about living, working and playing downtown, but without regional planning, it’s difficult for that talk to translate into action, said Georjeanna Wilson-Doenges, also a professor in UW-Green Bay’s Urban and Regional Studies department.
“We’re talking about not sprawling, not sprawling out into the rural areas, but rather infilling, purposely planning bike trails and parks,” Wilson-Doenges said.
In theory, regional planning is a good way to go. But getting communities to buy in is a whole different thing.
“To be community- and civic-oriented is a difficult sell, because why wouldn’t the person in Denmark want to sell off their nonprofitable farm and make a profit so that some developer could develop a little gated community there and have people live there and build 3,000-square-foot houses?” she said. “What would convince someone not to take the capitalist approach? I don’t know the answer to that.”
Chuck Lamine, director of Brown County Planning, said the county’s outlying communities already recognize the importance of downtowns — both in Green Bay and De Pere.
“No matter where we live within the county, there’s still this desire to have a central place,” Lamine said.
Downtown shouldn’t aim to out-suburbanize the suburbs, he said.
“You want to have that downtown experience,” Lamine said. “You
can’t get that at the mall.” 
