Editor’s note: The following is the first of a two-part story regarding a Housing Roundtable presentation and discussion held last Thursday at the Whitewater University Innovation Center. The event was sponsored by city officials, including the city’s Community Development Authority. The program was presented in two parts, the first of which featured Ben McKay, the deputy director of the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC). The second part of the program featured a housing study as presented by Erik Doersching, executive vice president and managing partner of Illinois-based Tracy Cross and Associates, Inc., a real estate marketing consulting firm. Our story will mirror the two-part delivery of the event.

By Kim McDarison

Housing inventories, their affordability, and future developments in Whitewater, and across the seven-county area which is assisted by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC) advisory organization, were among topics presented and discussed during a “Housing Roundtable” held last Thursday at the Whitewater University Innovation Center.

Some 60 people, all identifying themselves as having a role in housing developments — representing such groups as property owners looking to develop their land, individuals with knowledge about how to develop land, representatives of financial institutions who finance developments, members of local government, real estate agents, and landlords, among others, gathered for the two-hour program.

At the podium, delivering opening remarks, Whitewater City Manager John Weidl told those in attendance: “One of the models of management I believe in is the ‘good to great’ model by Jim Collins, who states that you need to have the right people on the bus, and you need to have them in the right seats, and I believe this is the start of that. Housing is something that is a conversation happening across the entire state, which is telling me that development and housing is becoming a market that governments are aware of and involved in.”

Weidl said he believed the “right stakeholders” were at the Innovation Center Thursday, along with members of city government, to become involved in “the housing dilemma.”

“I do believe right now we have the right people in the room to begin this conversation,” he said. He next introduced the city’s Economic Development Director Taylor Zeinert, who introduced SEWRPC’s Deputy Director Ben McKay, as one of the program’s keynote speakers.

Aided by slides, McKay began his presentation by describing the commission, and its Regional Housing Plan, adopted in 2013. 

The housing plan, he said, has been used by the commission as it advises counties and communities within its seven-county region, including Ozaukee, Washington, Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine, Kenosha and Walworth, about decisions they make regarding land use and transportation plans.

The region includes 147 cities, villages and towns, which collectively comprise 5% of the state’s land area, and 35% of the state’s population and jobs, McKay said.

He called the region an “economic engine,” of the state.

More broadly, he noted, the commission serves as an advisory group about such topics as land use and infrastructure planning to local, county and state governments.

The Regional Housing Plan, the ‘Housing for a Healthy Walworth County’ booklet, and ‘Vision 2050’

McKay said that the commission’s Regional Housing Plan offers statistics which also were used when compiling the “Housing for a Healthy Walworth County” booklet.

According to information presented within the booklet, it was produced by SEWRPC in partnership with the Walworth County Community Health Improvement Plan Committee. The 10-page document, in its introduction, notes that it was created following the launch of the Walworth County Health and Human Services Division of Public Health, which created a Community Health Assessment (CHA) and a Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP), in August of 2021.

The CHIP worked to improve “health and wellness for all,” the document reads, and identifies housing “as one of the areas where action can be taken to improve the health of Walworth County residents.”

The booklet “presents data that demonstrates housing needs in Walworth County and community-based actions that can be taken to house a healthy Walworth County,” the introduction states.

A link to the full booklet is here: https://irp.cdn-website.com/e397a32d/files/uploaded/Housing%20for%20a%20Healthy%20Walworth%20County%20Booklet.pdf.

During the roundtable presentation, McKay said the Regional Housing Plan was adopted by the commission in 2013, however, he noted, he saw it as a “living document,” which, he said, was used to “inform” the “Vision 2050,” regional land use and transportation plan, which, according to the SEWRPC website, is a long-range planning tool developed by the commission  to “shape and guide land use development and transportation improvements, including public transit, arterial streets and highways, freight, and bicycle and pedestrian facilities to the year 2050.” The plan was reviewed and updated, according to the commission’s website, this year.

A stand-alone website devoted to the plan is here: https://www.vision2050sewis.org/.

McKay said the Vision 2050 Plan was adopted by the commission in 2016, and has since been updated in 2020, and he noted, is undergoing an update.

“The next step will be adopting it in June of this year, so … that plan is still a living document even though it was adopted a number of years ago,” McKay said.

Describing the Regional Housing Plan, McKay said it includes “analyses and advisory recommendations for local governments, particularly, local governments with public sewer service. It was guided, as all of our regional plans are, by an advisory committee that was made up of 29 members. The committee included representatives from county, local and state governments and those within the home building industry, along with housing advocacy, and research and policy organizations. 

“The reason for developing this plan was that our communities, even at that time, and we started work on this in about 2009 — probably right after our housing issues across the entire country — and really identified that we still had an affordable housing problem in southeastern Wisconsin.

“We needed to tackle this with a regional look at the problem, so we took that advice and request from our local governments and developed a plan,” McKay said.

A vision was created for the Regional Housing Plan, which was stated on a slide, as: “Financially sustainable housing for people of all income levels, age groups, and needs throughout the entire southeastern Wisconsin Region.”

“So the plan is all about affordable housing for people of all income levels, age groups, and needs throughout the entire southeastern Wisconsin region,” McKay noted, adding: “We are concerned about affordable housing, so generally, we wanted to know: What was the affordable housing need? And, of course, we used a generally accepted standard that a household should not pay more than 30% of its income on housing, whether it’s renters or rent insurance and utilities, and homeowners, including mortgage, taxes, etc., and even at that time, going all the way back to around 2010 statistics, there were over 280,000 households in the region spending more than 30% of their income on housing.

“And two-thirds of those,” McKay continued, “were low to moderate income households.”

A slide noted that 282,500 households or 36% of the region’s households were spending more than 30% of their income on housing.

The slide defined households of “below or median” income levels earning $53,879.

Said McKay: “So we have used that Regional Housing Plan to inform some of our work with assistance to county level governments across the region in the year since it was adopted, since 2013.”

He cited the Walworth County booklet, noting that he believed “most of the work on this particular document occurred last year, and was distributed around the county.”

McKay said SEWRPC was asked to look at housing as it relates to health in Walworth County because “housing was continually brought up as a major impacter of health for county residents, so that became one of the focuses of one of the groups that was guiding the development of this community health improvement plan. So the sections in this booklet include: Why does housing affect health? How much housing do we need? What kind of housing do we need? What kind of housing do we have? What are the housing needs of businesses? What can communities do? 

“The recommendations that are included in this short booklet come directly out of the Regional Housing Plan,” he said.

McKay next delved into the answers to the questions asked in the Walworth County booklet, saying: “Walworth County first wanted to know: How much housing do we need in the short term? How much housing do we need in the longterm?”