Feb. 14, 2025
VIROQUA, Wis. – The Viroqua City Council accepted an agreement from a developer for the last remaining residential lots in what is known as the “Hanson Farm” development on Viroqua’s north side on Tuesday. The council approved a proposal from Riverland LLC to build two 12 unit apartment buildings and 10 townhomes. That means all of the residential property that has been proposed for the development have all been spoken for.
The process of developing the property began in 2023 when the approximately 23 acres was initially purchased for development by the Viroqua Development Association for $650,000.
The city later purchased the property from the VDA and hired Vierbicher and Associates to do site development. Vierbicher came up with a site plan that laid out site infrastructure, how the lots would be situated and generally the types of housing desired. The initial site plan included three commercial lots just north of the existing Culvers and about the same general size as the Culvers lot. The plan called for residential lots behind those commercial lots with access to the residential area via a new street the would run from the area of the Walmart entrance, west to Chicago Ave. There will be a retention pond on the southwest corner of the property to manage the fairly significant amount of runoff that runs across the property.
The city has applied to the Wisconsin DOT for permission to install a traffic light at the Walmart intersection as a part of the project, and city officials said at the Tuesday meeting they received positive feedback from the state on that project, but it has not received final approval.
Once that initial planning was completed the city put the plan out to developers. A total of four developers have proposed plans for various parts of the development that have been accepted by the city. The developers are Kickapoo Homes, Vikemyr-Wangen, Newenhouse, and Riverland LLC. The developers are all local with the furthest one hailing from the Sparta area. Riverland who presented their plan to the council on Tuesday said they currently own/operate about 450 rental units throughout the area.
Riverland presented a picture of what one of their apartment buildings looks like but that design could change somewhat for the Viroqua development
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