By Brandi Makuski

The City Plan Commission on Monday will finally get a glimpse of architectural plans and artistic renderings of the school district’s new Life Skills Center.

Plans for the center originally put the building on a district- owned vacant lot along Second Street North near Stevens Point Area Senior High. Those plans were turned down by city leaders worried the proximity to existing taverns in the neighborhood could be against state law and inappropriate for students.

The city finally agreed to the construction in January after plans were altered and the building was moved closer to SPASH, facing North Point Drive.

The center is being designed as a learning environment for developmentally disabled students, with space for students from the Alternative High School, The Blue Light Café and Threads of Kindness. The building site will feature 22 parking stalls, an enclosed dumpster area, a storage shed, textured stone and brick veneer and various trees and shrubbery landscaping.

The Life Skills Center will be a 3,030 square- foot educational building/community center owned by the school district, focusing on teaching independent living skills to developmentally disabled public school students through age 21. Students who currently take such classes are taught in an apartment across the street which district officials say is too small a setting for wheelchair accessibility.

According to school district officials, the $500,000 projected costs are being most reimbursed by Wisconsin Medicaid.

The City Plan Commission meets 6 PM on Monday, April 7 at the Lincoln Center, 1519 Water Street. The public is welcome.