"Big Box" Retail On The West Side Of Sun Prairie
Will Cost You More Than You Know!

Help stop "Big Box"retail sprawl in Sun Prairie.
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"Big Box" retail is being discussed in the Highway C corridor between Highway 19 and Heopker Road which will likely be replaced in 2004 with an overpass interchange.

Our Mission:

It is our mission to promote responsible growth policies and decision-making in Sun Prairie by facilitating discussions among the general public and policy makers and by distributing educational material and sponsoring educational meetings regarding the application of smart growth principles to land use development in Sun Prairie.

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We are not against growth or retail development on the West side. Every neighborhood deserves to have services to meet their needs.
Five Ways "Big Box" Retail Will Change Your Quality Of Life!

  1. Property taxes will likely go up to handle big box development. It is estimated that the proposed 210,000 square foot Woodman's will bring tax relief of only $.39 per household. And when the cost of city services to maintain this big box retailer are taken into account, residents can expect that Woodman's will actually cost us money. Big box development strains city services like police, fire, EMS and road maintenance.

  2. Your shopping experience will become a hassle as you compete with shoppers that have come from as far away as thirty-to-sixty miles. (Traffic counts could reach at least 50,000 vehicles per day in this area and will be impacted by Big Box retailers who will attract thousands of car trips on their own.)

  3. Your downtown may never become "revitalized" as stores and developers are drawn to the traffic the "Big Boxes" will generate.

  4. Your existing favorite stores in other parts of town may go out of business as traffic gravitates to the West.

  5. Your impression of Sun Prairie will change - empty storefronts, large concrete boxes and massive blacktop will define our community character.

"Big Boxes" Are Lined Up And Ready To Go

  • Woodman's grocery store owns a 14-acre parcel near Hoepker Road.

  • At a 7/1/2002 Committee of the Whole meeting, Woodman's described their desire to build:

    • A 210,000 square foot grocery store - 120,000 of it retail floor space while the rest would be coolers and a warehouse. This is equivalent to about four football fields.
    • The store would have 600-700 parking spots each about 350 square feet. (The parking lot is projected to encompass an area the size of about four more football fields.)
    • They described their store as being a "regional grocery store that will attract shoppers from a 30-60 mile radius." [Emphasis Added]

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    Click on photos for larger versions.

  • In the February 20, 2003 issue of The Star, Bret Backus, vice president of real estate for Woodman's said, "Seventy-thousand square feet is not realistic for what we want to do, and other ideas such as creating a multi-story Woodman's are too cost prohibitive to consider."


  • Sun Prairie developers, who own the land in this corridor, are quoted in the Wisconsin State Journal as saying that "they want to develop a 300,000 square foot shopping center next to Woodman's."
    • With up to 1,000 parking spots, this shopping center and parking lot would use up to 10 football fields of space.
    This same developer has also been quoted in The Star saying "they believed the best use of this land would be regional commercial buildings along with office and multi-family apartment buildings." [Emphasis Added]
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Help Put The Lid On "Big Boxes" In Sun Prairie!

Help us communicate to the City Council of Sun Prairie that it’s time to protect our quality of life by creating retail shopping areas that support the local needs of residents and their neighborhoods.

Neighbors for Responsible Growth believe that large-scale, Big Box development is unnecessary given that a large regional shopping district is located only 4.1 miles from Sun Prairie at East Towne Mall and the surrounding shopping areas.

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