La Crosse committee adopts 2025–29 consolidated plan, accepts 2024 CAPER

The La Crosse Economic and Community Development Committee voted unanimously June 25 to authorize the 2025–2029 Consolidated Plan and the 2025 Action Plan and to accept the 2024 Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report (CAPER).

Mara, a member of the city’s community development team, told the committee the five‑year consolidated planning process — required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) — sets priority needs and goals for the next five years, including quality affordable housing, poverty alleviation, economic development and an “urgent needs” category that the city is adding. She said the city has completed public input, a market analysis and a needs assessment and that the next formal step is a council adoption action after the committee’s approvals.

The committee opened both required public hearings; no members of the public spoke. A voice vote authorized the consolidated plan and the 2025 action plan. Later in the meeting the committee moved to accept and file the CAPER, a year‑end report that recounts activities funded through the city’s CDBG and HOME allocations for the April 1 program year.

During discussion on the CAPER, Commissioner Gavins asked how the CAPER’s “expected” and “actual” numbers were determined. Mara said the numeric targets are set during the consolidated plan process (the most recent plan’s goals were set several years ago) and the “actual” numbers reflect what the city reported to HUD over the five‑year period. She used the example that a prior consolidated plan set a five‑year target of 8,000 persons assisted and the city ultimately reported approximately 10,161 persons assisted over that period.

Commissioner Markerson asked why some tables in the CAPER show blank dollar amounts and why a program table had no data. Mara said section 3 of the CAPER corresponds to a specific CDBG activity the city has not been actively executing in the covered year, so there were no entries to report. She also noted that some housing deliverables that count toward the five‑year totals (for example, multifamily projects) had long lead times and only recently came online, and that projects still completing in the reporting year may explain shortfalls in particular categories such as rental units constructed.

Mara said the city’s approximate HUD allocations for the 2025 program year were in the same range as the prior year — roughly $900,000 in CDBG funding and a HOME allocation on the order of several hundred thousand dollars — and that staff would not recite exact figures in the meeting but that the allocation amounts are listed in the draft action plan. She also noted that earlier council decisions on public‑service contracts allowed staff to proceed quickly once the plan is accepted.

The committee accepted the CAPER by voice vote. Mara and staff said the next procedural steps include forwarding the consolidated plan documents to the council for formal adoption and executing contracts tied to the plan’s one‑year action allocations.

Why it matters: The consolidated plan and CAPER document how the city plans to use and has used federal CDBG and HOME resources for housing, public services and economic development. Approval of the five‑year plan and the annual report sets the program priorities and releases staff to finalize contracts connected to the 2025 allocations.

What’s next: Staff will forward the adopted plan documents to the full council for final adoption and will proceed with contract execution for already‑approved public‑service awards.