La Crosse County seeking public’s help in reaching sustainable goals

What’s the best way for La Crosse County to use its resources in the next few decades?  County officials would like suggestions from the public, by way of an internet survey being conducted through November 8th. 

Sustainability is the main theme of the survey, but county planner Charlie Handy says that includes needs such as housing and transportation.

“Transportation has a lot to do with housing, and housing affordability,” says Handy. “If you have to travel a long ways in a car, it’s much more expensive than if you can take public transit, things like that.”

Handy says this survey is different from one recently conducted, to get suggestions for spending $23 million in COVID relief funding.  

County leaders recently rated sustainability as their top concern for future planning needs.  But a previous survey suggested affordable housing should be a bigger goal.  Handy argues that housing and sustainability are inter-related.      

“The county doesn’t have jurisdictions inside of the cities, which is where most of that affordable housing happens,” he says, “but we can certainly help with different programs and trying to find funding for affordable housing, so it’s important that we’re involved.”

The brief survey can be found on the La Crosse County website, at lacrossecounty.org/comprehensiveplan.

It can be filled out through the first week of November.