Legal move aimed at Allouez hall land The land's owner says the village doesn't need 29 acres By Ray Barrington News-Chronicle The owner of land being sought by the village of Allouez for a new village hall is suing to stop condemnation procedures. The suit in Brown County Circuit Court was filed by Hillcrest Lumber Inc., whose president, Harry Macco, has already gone through one land dispute with the village. Allouez is seeking a site for a new village hall. The current site, 1649 S. Webster Ave., is a converted garage that does not meet building codes. In the suit, Macco says the village does not need to condemn the 29 acres Hillcrest owns, according to Macco's attorney, Ann L. Patteson of Bouressa & Patteson. "He has various concerns; it's just that some are appropriate for legal actions," she said. Village president Cameron McCain said he was not surprised by the action. "I signed the papers the other day to start the condemnation process, and he has a certain number of days to respond. I knew it was going to wind up in court," McCain said. "We're still hoping to have everything done by June." The land is at the corner of Libal and St. Joseph streets. The village, on March 21, submitted a jurisdictional offer for the 29 acres of $510,000. Macco is disputing the offer, as his own appraiser had valued the land at $1.25 million, Patteson said. That, however, is not part of the legal action. Patteson said Macco had other concerns, some reaching back to an attempt by the village to buy a six-acre parcel across the street that Macco leased from the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay. "They submitted an offer of $650,000, but the diocese and Harry did not reach an agreement on what to do with the money," Patteson said. After that, the village dropped its attempt to get that land and went after the 29 acres. "The legal action is based on the village not needing all of the land," Patteson said. In addition, she said, Macco was concerned that the failure of the first would-be sale has caused the village to be "punitive" in this deal. "He tried to have the land rezoned for multifamily use, and he's always been turned down," Patteson said. "I think maybe he wonders if there's not some punitive action in the village going after him because they wanted him to voluntarily sell the land to them." PETITION DRIVE PLANNED In a related development, former village administrator and trustee Clarence Matuszek and others plan to circulate a direct-legislation petition to try to stop the acquisition. "The project is much too costly," Matuszek said. "They want to condemn the biggest and best piece of developable land in the village for government purposes and take it off the tax rolls." A direct-legislation petition requires the village to either accept the petition as village law or put it to a binding referendum. Matuszek is proposing another site, Optimist Park, about six blocks east of the existing village hall. "Currently, the village is operating on 2.2 acres of land, and I think the park has a little over six acres," Matuszek said. He said the village might have received "bad advice" in trying to condemn the land. Matuszek was confident about the petition. "We're still in the starting stages. I haven't begun approaching people to participate in circulating it, but everybody I talk to wants to sign it," he said.