News
Master plan leads to OMNA
The Pointer
ajuhn217@uwsp.edu
When the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point released its master plan, local residents sprang into action forming the Old Main Neighborhood Association.
“Neighbors got together and decided they were against the master plan,” said Holly Ehrhardt, UW-SP student representative on the seven-member board.
The master plan is the university’s plan for renovations, additional parking, green space and aesthetic features for the next 20 years.
With the abrupt development of the plan, the community needed a way to get their views heard. Shortly after the master plan was passed, neighbors got together and came up with a mission statement and constitution.
“What we are trying to do is make it a very viable place for families to live along with students so that we can co-habitate in the same area and gain from each other rather than have the negative effects that people see,” said Cindy Nebel, the secretary and treasurer of OMNA.
Possible expansion of parking lot R is one of the largest concerns for the association. The minimum requirement for new city developments is 2 percent of green space. Currently there is 7 percent of green space in this area and members of the group would like to keep it that way. They would like to incorporate a park-like area.
“We are not against the development of the university, because I love living near the university and this university is vital to this town,” said Nebel. “So we want development but we want it so that the neighborhood is also preserved and that they can enhance the neighborhood along with the university.”
Parallel to this issue is the university’s desire to purchase 12 houses on Briggs Street.
“They didn’t like the fact the university was encroaching,” said Ehrhardt, and they are “concerned the university won’t upkeep the properties in the best interest of the neighborhood.”
The university and the Board of Regents currently own four of the houses.
One thing the group has already had part in with the university was working to get a polling site on campus.
Ehrhardt said there were people who do not like the liberal environment of the university. These people felt that if there was a polling site on campus the students may have too much influence on the elections.
Nebel said it is important to remember students would not be the only people voting at this location.
Thomas Miller, UW-SP senior university relation specialist, is also a board member of the association.
Miller said, “I would call it a huge success. No polling site is perfect but I think the community and the campus can be proud of how the Dreyfus pulled it off as a polling site.”
Ehrhardt wants students to know that this group is “a resource for students if they have any landlord issues and is all-encompassing.”
More information about the association and how to get involved can be found at: http://www.geocities.com/omna1/index.html.
