Lancaster city officials will continue to search for a suitable site for a housing project after the Common Council turned down a second proposed location this week. City staff have been looking for alternative sites after the initial location for the project at Schacht Field fell through. At this week’s council meeting, staff recommended a potential option in the Arrow Ridge Business Park, which raised council concerns about reducing the city’s already limited industrial space. While acknowledging that the business park was an odd location, there were some advantages, like city ownership of the property and full service by utilities and a stormwater pond. Council members are still hesitant to use city industrial space for any other purpose. City Administrator David Carlson says the city has about 20 acres of available industrial land, and this project would have taken up and rezoned 4.5 of those acres. In March, the city received a $3.4 million state grant to address housing needs in Lancaster with the intention of building 40 new units of workforce housing in partnership with Wisconsin Management Company.
