Can you tear down a building in La Crosse? Depends

Whether someone can tear down a building they own in La Crosse can simply depend on where it sits.

The city’s plan commission today considers three separate demolition applications. Planning staff has different recommendations for those applications.

Tony and Heather Reyerson want to tear down the old Pizza Hut on the city’s south side in order to build a new dental office for Heather Reyerson there within five years.

City staff like the idea. The building is junk, anyway.

A property owner on Sunset Lane, off of Hwy. 16, also has the thumbs up from city staff to tear down a single-family home to make way for a duplex sometime in the future.

“Generally consistent,” the planning office called it.

Staff, however, are recommending against plans by a couple at 21st and Cass to move or demolish a home next door that’s eight feet away in order to have a normal-sized lot.

The Kellys have offered to pay taxes as if the home were still there. Forever. The planning office, however, is saying no to the arrangement.

In its report, staff said, “We value preserving compact neighborhoods, where residences are part of a tightly-knit community.”

The city council has final say on the applications.