The Town of Grand Chute is located within the Eastern
Ridges and Lowlands area of northeastern Wisconsin, with most of
our natural features created by glacial activity. Topography is
generally flat to gently rolling, interrupted by a few ravines cut
out by Apple Creek, Mud Creek, Bear Creek, and their tributaries.
We are about thirty miles southwest of Green Bay and one hundred
miles north of Milwaukee.
With 20,590 residents, Grand Chute is the largest Town in
Wisconsin. We are one of nineteen communities in the "Fox Cities"
metropolitan area, with over 370,000 residents. 700,000 people live
within a forty-minute drive and 1.3 million live within the
eighteen-county New North region.
Our "daytime population" is over 70,000. The 1.2 million
square-foot Fox River Mall anchors a major regional shopping center
that is surrounded by hotels, restaurants, and entertainment
facilities. Several other businesses offer health care and
professional services. Industrial firms are involved in
manufacturing, distribution, and wholesale trade
activities.
The top three sectors of employment for Town residents are
manufacturing; educational, health, and social services; and retail
trade. Our region is one of the top 50 manufacturing centers in the
U.S. There is a strong history of paper, paper converting,
printing, and packaging industries, with more recent growth in
administrative services, field operations, finance, health care,
insurance, retail, and teleservices.
The Town is around 15,000 acres in size. Of the
10,000-plus acres that fall within four major zoning categories,
approximately 42% of the land is residential, 29% is agricultural,
23% is commercial, and 6% is industrial. Our aggregate assessed
value is just over $2.3 million.
U.S. Highway 41 (a multi-lane, controlled-access freeway)
bisects the Town, providing a major connection to points north,
east, and south. State Highways 15, 96, and 125 and County Highways
A, E, EE, JJ, and OO also transport significant volumes of people
and cargo.
The Valley Transit system, serving over 600,000 riders
annually, connects the Town with surrounding communities. The
Outagamie County Regional Airport, serving over 250,000 passengers
and ten million pounds of freight and mail annually, is located
just to the west in the Town of Greenville. Canadian National owns
two sets of freight railroad tracks running through the
town.
The Appleton Area School District serves a majority of
Town residents, with two elementary schools -- Badger and Houdini
-- located within our boundaries, while the Hortonville Area School
District serves the northwestern section of the Town. Fox Valley
Technical College, a member of the Wisconsin Technical College
System, serves over 50,000 people annually, including 7,100
degree-declared students.
We have two community parks and three neighborhood parks
totalling over sixty-seven acres. We are also home to the Gordon
Bubolz Nature Preserve, a 775-acre non-profit wildlife preserve
education facility, and Plamann Park, a 257-acre county park. Fox
Cities Stadium hosts the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, a Class A
minor-league baseball affiliate of the Milwaukee
Brewers.
Town Government employs over 130 full-time staff, owns
over 310 acres of land, manages 160,000 square feet of building
space, and maintains over 120 miles of streets and ten miles of
paved trails.
