As indicated in Confluence, the City of La Crosse’s Comprehensive Plan, approximately 176 acres of industrial and commercial land will be required for development and redevelopment purposes by the year 2020.  This future need assumes that the present trends of land consumption continue on into the future.  The breakdown can be explained as follows:

The projected employment for the year 2020 equals 4,242 new jobs.  Of this total, 1,697 will be office/service jobs; 1,697 will be industrial jobs; and 848 will be new retail jobs.  Based on the assumptions that 1,000 square feet is needed for each 4 office/service jobs; 2 new industrial jobs; and 2 new retail jobs this equates to 33 acres of new office/service space needed, 78 acres of industrial space needed and 65 acres of retail space needed.