Committee approves food-truck use at Innovation plaza and accepts major development projects

The Committee on Public Works approved a request to allow food trucks to operate in the plaza at the Kenosha Innovation Center and accepted multiple project completions and related property agreements on July 6.

David Salinas, who identified himself as "David Salinas" of 5522 26th Avenue, explained the Kenosha Innovation Neighborhood Inc. structure and the plaza’s use for food trucks. Staff clarified that the city retains ownership of the right-of-way while Kenosha Innovation Neighborhood Inc. controls the parcel under a lease and subleases individual parcels to developers. "The city owns the right of way of the roads that are out there," staff said, and "the city leases it to Kenosha Innovation Neighborhood Inc., which then subleased it to whoever is developing each parcel." The committee voted to approve the food-truck request.

Separately, the committee accepted Kenosha Innovation Neighborhood Phase 1 as satisfactorily completed by AWOaks and Sun Incorporated; staff reported the final contract amount as $21,292,477.66. The committee also accepted concrete street and joint repairs completed by Beardsley Concrete LLC (final amount $389,855.35) and approved a property use agreement with Kenosha Downtown Partners LLC for Block C (the northeast corner of 55th Street and 8th Avenue) to formalize storage and stockpile use tied to a developer agreement.

Why it matters: these actions advance public-private development work in the Kenosha Innovation area, including a multi-million-dollar phase acceptance and agreements that preserve city control of certain parcels while allowing developers to use property during construction.

The committee approved these items by voice vote; staff noted the property-use agreement removes Block C from a prior developer's agreement so it can be used for subsequent blocks.