Green Bay Council Takes First Look at Vacant Building Fees, Weighs Outsourcing City Assessor

Green Bay's Common Council meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday with a long agenda that puts the city's proposed vacant building fees up for a first reading and asks alders to eliminate the City Assessor job in favor of a private contractor. The meeting is in Room 203 of City Hall and on Zoom, and the full agenda and packet were amended Monday afternoon.

Vacant Building Registry Gets Its First Reading

The headline item is General Ordinance 24-26, which would require owners of fully vacant commercial buildings to register them with the city within 60 days. Registration is free the first time. After that, the staff report in the council packet lays out renewal fees that double each year a building stays empty, from $500 to $1,000 to $2,000 and then $4,000. Violations could bring daily fines of $250 to $5,000, FOX 11 reported.

Owners would still have to register but could skip the fee while a building is under construction or rehab, actively marketed for sale or lease for up to 12 months, being repaired after a casualty, tied up in certain legal proceedings, or owned by someone on active military deployment. Ald. Joey Prestley requested the ordinance and Ald. Jon Shelton co-sponsored it.

The Protection and Policy Committee backed the measure 3-1 on Oct. 12, according to the Green Bay Press-Gazette, with Ald. Bill Morgan voting no. The Realtors Association of Northeast Wisconsin argues building codes, fire inspections and nuisance rules already cover problem properties, and Economic Development Director Cheryl Renier-Wigg has said enforcement would likely run on complaints because the city lacks staff to find empty buildings on its own. The agenda lists the ordinance under first readings, so a final vote would normally come at the council's Nov. 10 meeting.

Green Bay's Vacancy Fee and the Case for a Land Value Tax

Green Bay's draft fee on empty commercial buildings echoes Georgism's land value tax, which Wisconsin's uniformity clause rules out.

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City Assessor Job Would Go to Forward Appraisal

The Personnel Committee recommends cutting the City Assessor position, which pays $100,353 to $118,049 a year, and contracting the statutory duties to Forward Appraisal. The firm already handles the city's commercial appraisals, ran the 2022 citywide revaluation and is lined up for the 2027 one. Finance staff estimate the change saves $67,415 a year, comparing $163,415 in salary and benefits for the assessor to an estimated $96,000 contract. The memo says the office's four city-employed residential appraisers would get cross-training and new mentors under the contract. The council may discuss the item in closed session.

Fire Station Flats Deal Rewritten

Alders will meet as a Committee of the Whole on an amended and restated development agreement with GenCap Green Bay Fire Station Apartments, the General Capital affiliate building 85 affordable apartments alongside a new Metro Fire station and headquarters on South Broadway. The new draft replaces the original September 2025 agreement and splits the site into condominium units for the apartments, the fire station and a community service space meant to serve people earning 60% of area median income or less.

The city estimates the finished project will be assessed at $7 million and generate about $139,440 a year in property taxes, $56,840 of it to the city, on land that's currently tax exempt. The city's Redevelopment Authority approved up to $1.3 million in loans and grant support for the apartments in April. This item may also go to closed session.

Global Optics, Overtime and Smaller Items

Global Optics, a vision lens wholesaler based in Green Bay since 1974, wants to build a $9.66 million, 70,000-square-foot headquarters and warehouse on 8.65 acres of city land on Padi-Wood Lane in the Grandview Industrial Park, adding 15 to 18 jobs. The development agreement commits the city to build roads, utilities and stormwater ponds that would also serve 27 more acres of city-owned land. A separate item spends up to $51,000 from TID 25 on right-of-way for the Padi-Wood Lane extension.

A budget amendment covers unbudgeted 2026 overtime, including $145,903.85 for police at federal task forces and events such as Oktoberfest, Art Fest and Notre Dame's game at Lambeau. Each overtime line is matched by reimbursement revenue. Metro Fire would buy 30 Bullard thermal imaging cameras for $111,750 from 2024 bond money, and the city's plan review contract with E-Plan Exam would shift so Green Bay keeps 15% of fees instead of 5%.

Also on the agenda: a repeal and rewrite of Chapter 4 of the city code on alcohol licensing, a rezoning of seven University Avenue parcels to highway commercial, 2027 operating plans for four business improvement districts, a $68,500 engineering contract for a Bay Beach shoreline walk, and $95,771.99 in donations and grants for a new East River Optimist Park playground. The written comment deadline passed at 3 p.m., but residents can speak at the meeting for up to three minutes on agenda items.