You know what term Oshkosh residents are going to tire of quickly? “A higher standard”. That will be the buzzword that city officials use to justify their decisions on what development will be allowed in the area around the Oshkosh Corporation headquarters.
City Manager Mark Rohloff used “a higher standard” in his reaction to news that Casey’s Convenience Stores is looking to locate on Oshkosh Avenue. Rohloff questions if the appearance of a gas station can meet the “higher standard”. That led me to go on-line to see what a Casey’s location looks like since I’ve never been to one myself……………
I’d have to say I find nothing offensive about their standard look. A brick façade, covered gas pumps, plenty of parking for in-store shopping. It certainly looks better than the existing Marathon station a few blocks from the Oshkosh headquarters site or the two gas stations on Sawyer Street not far away.
Similar cold water was thrown on a proposed Dunkin Donuts/Kentucky Fried Chicken development on Oshkosh Ave. That too was met with an “Ehhhhhh, we’ll have to see” response from City Manager Rohloff when I asked him about that during one of his monthly shows here on WOSH.
In previous Common Council discussions on this “higher standard”, developments like medical or legal offices were offered as examples. And everyone is showing enthusiasm for a proposed extended-stay hotel on Oshkosh Ave. But if you are a guest of said hotel–or you are an employee of Oshkosh Corp–or you just live in the neighborhood, how often do you have a use for a medical office or lawyer? But coffee from Dunkin or a $5 Fill Up from KFC or a pizza from Casey’s and a quick fill up of your tank at the pump is something that you can use every single day.
And these are enterprises that aren’t turning over ever couple of years. Since we have moved into our building a decade ago, the main tenants downstairs have gone from a bank, to a law office to medical clinic.
So if you want prettier buildings built to a “higher standard” to surround Oshkosh Corp’s vanity headquarters that’s fine. Require certain colors of bricks and tree-lined parking lots so that four blocks of a street look like they were dropped in from Evanston, Illinois instead of the working-class neighborhood that surrounds it. But don’t be stiff-arming what would be successful developments that would be used my a lot of people here in town just because you think Oshkosh is the new Whitefish Bay.
