62.71 Pedestrian malls in 1st class cities.

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A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.

(1)Purpose. The purpose of this section is to authorize a 1st class city to undertake, develop, finance, construct and operate pedestrian malls as local improvements.

(2)Definitions. In this section:

(a)“Annual pedestrian mall improvement” includes any reconstruction, replacement or repair of trees, plantings, furniture, shelters or other pedestrian mall facilities.

(b)“Annual pedestrian mall improvement cost” includes planning consultant fees, public liability and property damage insurance premiums, reimbursement of the city’s reasonable and necessary costs incurred in operating and maintaining a pedestrian mall, levying and collecting special assessments and taxes, publication costs, and any other costs related to annual improvements and the operation and maintenance of a pedestrian mall.

(c)“Board of assessment” means the board created under subch. II of ch. 32 , for the purpose of estimating benefits and damages in connection with the creation or improvement of a pedestrian mall.

(d)“Business district” means an existing recognized area of a city principally used for commerce or trade.

(e)“City” means a 1st class city.

(f)“Commissioner of public works” means the board of public works, commissioner of public works, or any other city board or officer vested with authority over public works.

(g)“Community development advisory body” means any corporation or unincorporated association whose shareholders or members are owners or occupants of property included in a proposed or existing pedestrian mall district.

(h)“Council” and “common council” mean the governing body of the city.

(i)“Intersecting street” means, unless the council declares otherwise, any street which meets or intersects a pedestrian mall, but includes only those portions of the intersecting street which lay between the mall or mall intersection and the first intersection of the intersecting street with a street open to general vehicular traffic.

(j)“Mall intersection” means any intersection of a city street which is part of a pedestrian mall with any other street.

(k)“Owner” includes any person holding the record title of an estate in possession in fee simple or for life, or a vendor of record under a land contract for the sale of an estate in possession in fee simple or for life.

(L)“Pedestrian mall” means any street, land or appurtenant fixture designed primarily for the movement, safety, convenience and enjoyment of pedestrians.

(m)“Pedestrian mall district” means any geographical division of the city designated by the board of assessment for the purpose of undertaking, developing, financing, constructing and operating a pedestrian mall.

(n)“Pedestrian mall improvement” includes any construction or installation of pedestrian thoroughfares, perimeter parking facilities, public seating, park areas, outdoor cafes, skywalks, sewers, shelters, trees, flower or shrubbery plantings, sculptures, newsstands, telephone booths, traffic signs, sidewalks, traffic lights, kiosks, water pipes, fire hydrants, street lighting, ornamental signs, ornamental lights, graphics, pictures, paintings, trash receptacles, display cases, marquees, awnings, canopies, overhead or underground radiant heating pipes or fixtures, walls, bollards, chains and all other fixtures, equipment, facilities and appurtenances which, in the council’s judgment, will enhance the movement, safety, convenience and enjoyment of pedestrians and benefit the city and the affected property owners.

(o)“Skywalk” means any elevated pedestrian way.

(p)“Street” means any public road, street, boulevard, highway, alley, lane, court or other way used for public travel.

(3)Acquisition, improvement and establishment of pedestrian malls.

(a)Upon petition of a community development advisory body or upon its own motion, the council may by resolution designate lands to be acquired, improved and operated as pedestrian malls or may by ordinance designate streets, including a federal, state, county or any other highway system with the approval of the jurisdiction responsible for maintaining that highway system, in or adjacent to business districts to be improved for primarily pedestrian uses. The council may acquire by gift, purchase, eminent domain, or otherwise, land, real property or rights-of-way for inclusion in a pedestrian mall district or for use in connection with pedestrian mall purposes. The council may make improvements on mall intersections, intersecting streets or upon facilities acquired for parking and other related purposes, if the improvements are necessary or convenient to the operation of the mall.

(b)In establishing or improving a pedestrian mall, the council may narrow any street designated a part of a pedestrian mall, reconstruct or remove any street vaults or hollow sidewalks existing by virtue of a permit issued by the city, construct crosswalks at any point on the pedestrian mall, or cause the roadway to curve and meander within the limits of the street without regard to the uniformity of width of the street or curve or absence of curve in the center line of the street.

1. Subject to subd. 2. , the council may authorize the payment of the entire cost of any pedestrian mall improvement established under this section by appropriation from the general fund, by taxation or special assessments, and by the issuance of municipal bonds, general or particular special improvement bonds, revenue bonds, mortgages or certificates, or by any combination of these financing methods.

2. If a pedestrian mall improvement is financed by special assessments and special improvement bonds are not issued, the special assessments, when collected, shall be applied to the payment of the principal and interest on any general obligation bonds issued or to the reduction of general taxes if general obligation bonds or the general tax levy is used to finance the improvement.

(d)The council may exercise the powers granted by this subsection only if it makes the findings required under sub.

(4)and complies with the procedures and requirements under subs.

(5),

(6)and

(8).

(4)Preliminary findings. No pedestrian mall may be established under sub.

(3)unless the council finds all of the following:

(a)That the proposed pedestrian mall will be located primarily in or adjacent to a business district.

(b)That there exist reasonably convenient alternate routes for private vehicles to other parts of the city and state.

(c)That the continued unlimited use by private vehicles of all or part of the streets in the proposed mall district endangers pedestrian safety.

(d)That properties abutting the proposed mall can be reasonably and adequately provided with emergency vehicle services and delivery and receiving of merchandise or materials either from other streets or alleys or by the limited use of the pedestrian mall for these purposes.

(e)That it is in the public interest to use all or part of the street in the proposed mall district primarily for pedestrian purposes.

(5)Procedures.