This post originally appeared at https://www.badgerinstitute.org/predictable-hobart-a-rarity-for-developers-in-wisconsin/

While many municipalities throw up roadblocks, Brown County village welcomes increased supply of homes

Unlike many places in Wisconsin, there is no housing crisis in the Village of Hobart because its leaders have done something developers say is exceedingly rare — making it as easy and predictable as possible for them to do business there.

With approximately 11,000 residents, Hobart is one of the fastest growing communities in one of the fastest growing counties, Brown, in the state.

The overall equalized value of the village adjacent to and west of Green Bay’s Austin Straubel International Airport was $1.7 billion in 2024, and more than three-quarters of it is in residential property. Coming out of COVID in 2021, the valuation was a little more than $1.1 billion. Twenty years ago, it was just more than $500 million.

The village has the feel of a boom town, albeit a genteel one. “Build where business is booming,” the village website says, touting “More resources. Less red tape.”

 “The business leaders in our village government know how to help, when to stay by your side, and when to get out of the way,” the website promises. “We are your resource for getting things done.”

Ask residential developers around the state, and they will tell you that kind of pro-business stance is rare among local government officials. Village President Richard Heidel and Village Administrator Aaron Kramer revel in what amounts to a refreshingly contrarian embrace of the market.

Aspiring buyers and renters can revel as well in the increasing supply made possible by short timelines and rapid reviews that include emergency meetings.

The week before a reporter for the Badger Institute paid a visit, Heidel convened an emergency meeting to put his signature on an otherwise routine document that helped move along a nearly $20 million four-story apartment and retail complex in the village’s Centennial Centre district. 

Kramer has developed a typical timeline for moving a residential development in eight weeks — not months or years — from initial presentation to the Village Board’s vote on a final draft.

“Our record for a residential project is 61 days,” Kramer says. “We pride ourselves on efficiency and on cutting out bureaucracy. Nobody ever says no here. We might say maybe.”

Hobart is the beneficiary of the overall economic growth of Brown County, which is driving employment and the need for housing. Most of the village’s growth has come from people moving from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and from other Wisconsin cities farther north or west, such as Wausau and Stevens Point, Heidel says.

Village residents have the advantage of good public schools in Pulaski and West De Pere.

Heidel, who has experienced the changes in the county as village president for 22 years, said residential growth made sense for the village’s tax base. Hobart has one of the lowest property tax rates among the 24 municipalities in Brown County.

Hobart’s tax rate of $3.88 for every $1,000 of a property’s assessed value is among the lowest for the nine villages in Brown County. That rate is lower than the $4.42 Hobart charged in 2019, the year before the pandemic.

And along with the growth philosophy comes a frugality in delivering public services. The village’s annual budget is $4 million. “We’re running lean and mean here,” Heidel says. “We’re predictable.”

Openness and predictability have made Hobart the perfect partner for residential development, says Michelle Stimpson, vice president of Lexington Homes, which now makes its home in Hobart.

Over the last 15 years, Lexington has built nearly 1,100 multifamily units and more than 380 houses in Hobart alone. Houses currently are being built in the company’s Gateway subdivision, it has two multifamily projects underway, and another subdivision is set to start in spring.

When Lexington started out in Hobart, starter homes could be built and sold for $150,000. Today, that same home costs about $400,000, Stimpson says.

Homes are expensive everywhere for a variety of reasons. Brown County farmland that went for $6,000 an acre 15 years ago is now $25,000 an acre and more, she says. Material and labor costs have increased. Buyers came out of COVID with more expendable cash than they expected.

But increasing supply — meeting the needs of the market — also helps make homes and apartments more attainable. The rolling median home sales price for the most recent 12 months in Hobart is $497,917, according to data analyzed by the Badger Institute. In 2022, the rolling median was $447,417.

That 11% increase is far less than the overall 20% increase in the metro Green Bay area, where the median home over the same time period increased from $263,417 to $317,333, or 20%.

Time is the most valuable resource in homebuilding, and this is where Hobart has done its residents a real public service, Stimpson says. Every month and year longer that it takes to get a subdivision approved is time that all of the accompanying costs will increase while people who need homes wait.

Hobart’s can-do attitude is rare, but it is catching on, Stimpson says. Lexington has projects under way in Little Chute, Seymour and Sturgeon Bay, led by local officials who believe their residents are better served when they cooperate with developers, rather than throw up barriers in front of them, she says.

 “They’re conservative but forward thinking,” she says. “They’ve caught on to how to figure it out together.”

Lexington, too, has pitched in with a program to allow renters of its properties to buy a single-family Lexington house without paying a penalty to break a lease or paying an inflated month-to-month rent. Stimpson estimates the company relocates 30 to 40 families a year this way.

Not everything, however, is idyllic with development in Hobart. Nearly all of the village, incorporated in 2001, exists on what is the historic 65,000-acre Oneida Nation reservation.

In 2008 a federal judge ruled in favor of the village’s right to protect much of its land against another federal policy that allows tribes to purchase former reservation land and put it in a federal trust.

Since that time, the village has challenged the federal government and the Oneida tribe in court, acknowledging that land in federal trust is exempted from local property taxes but noting that the village is obliged to provide municipal services for what is on that land. Most recently, Hobart filed suit in November to block the Oneida from putting 500 more acres into trust.

The City of Green Bay and the Village of Ashwaubenon have service agreements with the Oneida for former reservation land in trust. Hobart has rejected such agreements, refusing to waive its right to challenge the Oneida’s future land trust bids.

“Our concerns are not solely financial, i.e., property taxes,” the village said in a statement concerning the latest lawsuit.  “We are as much concerned with the inability to plan responsible municipal growth, enforce ordinances, provide public safety, and secure the common good for ALL village residents regardless of whether they’re tribal or non-tribal. These are legitimate jurisdictional issues.”

Heidel says the village will continue to take legal action to protect its viability and its tax base. The village also intends to continue its embrace of development because it works, he says.

Through three years of pandemic policies, Hobart’s total equalized value grew steadily and then surged in the past two years.

“We are very proud of the fact,” Kramer says, “that during the pandemic, we were an island of normalcy in a sea of chaos.”

Mark Lisheron is the Managing Editor of the Badger Institute.

Any use or reproduction of Badger Institute articles or photographs requires prior written permission. To request permission to post articles on a website or print copies for distribution, contact Badger Institute President Mike Nichols at mike@badgerinstitute.org or 262-389-8239.

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