Recently, Stoughton groups have been developing this town both residentially and commercially. Houses are already being built to the west of the Kettle Park Senior Living on Jackson St.

There is also the arrival of new businesses in Stoughton, such as Emmi Roth and ZinkPower.

According to the official website of the city of Stoughton, new plans for development were rewritten on July 12, 2016, and these plans were then adopted on July 11, 2018.

Rodney Scheel, Stoughton’s planning and development director, mentions how the redevelopment, reconstruction, and new develo- pments of Stoughton includes an efficient balance of residential and commercial development.

“On the west side of the city we have a development called ‘51 West’, which is a subdivision that [is] primarily residential, but it also has some commercial [developments]. [We also have some] multifamily units [and a park] being constructed on the east side of 51. On the west side of 51 […] there [are] some multifamily and some single family homes being built there [along with] some commercial developments,” Scheel says.

Current houses surrounding Highway 51 will remain untouched, as the construction will be happening on undeveloped farmland.

There are current construction plans on building a new riverwalk by the Yahara River and a bridge across Mandt Park; along with these recreational projects, there are also road redevelopments as well. “This year we’re finishing up a couple of street projects; Academy Street is one that is being totally reconstructed […] We’ve done a bunch of pavement projects, one of them is Milwaukee St. […] a segment in Rowe St., a little segment on Giles St., Silverado Drive, Holten Road, Riverview Road […] [Academy Street has gotten new] curb and gutters, sidewalks, sanitary sewer, water, storm sewer,” Scheel says.

Another road development that is currently happening and is expected to finish in the next few weeks are the four round-a-bouts near the Walmart Supercenter.

“There were challenges and safety issues [concerning] each intersection, there were long wait times, and crash history that really drove the need to look for different methods of control there. Whether that was going to be traffic signals or round-a-bouts or dedicated turn-lanes […] The department of transp- ortation is the one that we worked with. They’re [installing] the round- a-bouts,” Scheel says.

A majority of the subdivisions are being built through Eldon Homes and the Lennar Home Construction company. Keith Anderson is the current owner of Eldon Homes.

“I retired from [the] third largest home builder in America— I ran their operations for seven years [and then] I retired three years ago […] And I said, you know what, I’m gonna start home building; and I’m gonna do it in the area where I know, [an] area that my family’s from,” Anderson says.

Anderson graduated in 1981 from Stoughton High School,. The number of students enrolled was 1200, which has now dropped to around 850. When he discovered the drastic drop in enrollment rate for SHS, he believed that Stoughton needed more homebuilders.

“I trust people in Stoughton […] My dad owned a business for 30 years throughout the 70s and 80s [….] and we have five generations buried at West Koshkonong Church […] I’m emotionally attached to this town, Anderson says.

Eldon Homes is currently building homes around Nordic bridge, Highway 51, and are planning to create a new subdivision called Magnolia Springs. This subdivision will include both single and two-family homes and will be located at the end of Page Street.

“Once we found out the type of homes the architectural committee would allow us to build and once they got the roads and the curbs and everything, it probably took some eight months for me to decide to go forward,” Anderson says.

Anderson mentions that after finishing up the residential projects, he is planning on working more towards the retirement community.

As much as there are new residential areas coming in, there are also new commercial developments coming as well.

“We’ve got a couple of large new businesses that are coming into the city. Emmi Roth is a cheese processing plant that is being built on Williams Drive right now. They’re a large facility that is under construction […], and that will employ over 100 people on the site once that is completed […] In a not too recent past, we also have [had] a large industrial customer called ZinkPower […] and [they] are currently working closely with Stoug- hton Trailers to protect some of the undercarriages of the new semi-trailers that Stoughton Trailers builds,” Scheel says.

Scheel mentions other upcoming projects that will come into Stoughton soon.

“Where the old Pizza Hut is […] that building was just recently purchased and the buyer wants to actually take that building down and build a new building which would have space for up to three new commercial businesses […] they haven’t identified potential tenants yet,” Scheel states.

The expansion of Stoughton is not just to increase the population, but it’s to recognize the growth of the county.