By Renee Walk
OSCAR Group

Following a successful year of community engagement on the potential development of the former Oscar Mayer plant, the OSCAR Group has released a 2017 Community Report. The report summarized the input received from neighbors on what they would like to see from a newly developed site.

The OSCAR Group provided three specific opportunities for input in 2017: a community survey fielded online in February of 2017 and two community visioning meetings in the fall of 2017. The OSCAR Group also has monthly meetings where any member of the public is welcome to join and discuss what is known about progress at the site and what they hope to see in the future.

In each instance, community members expressed a desire to see the site quickly become useful again to the city and the region at large. Neighbors at the more recent meetings were hopeful that the new owners are moving quickly to bring new businesses to the area.

Neighbors also enjoyed dreaming big about the possibilities for the site. They shared ideas such as increased ice space for the ice arena, tech entrepreneur office space and mixed use living and recreation space. In addition to sharing their ideas, neighbors also became familiar with the sheer size of the property.

To read the full report, go to http://theoscarblog.wordpress.com and click on the “OSCAR Group 2017 Community Report” post.

In addition to talking about how the space could be used, the OSCAR Group continues to talk about how we as neighbors can best welcome new businesses as they begin to move in, and will begin to focus our future meetings on how we can build relationships with our soon-to-be new neighbors.

If you would like to join our meetings, please feel free. OSCAR meets the third Monday of each month at 6 pm at FEED Kitchens.