Development

Welcome to the City of Watertown

The City of Watertown, Wisconsin, pop. 24,000, is located in beautiful southeastern Wisconsin, midway between Milwaukee and Madison.  We are a friendly, hard-working city surrounded by lush forests and beautiful farmland. Distinct and self-sufficient, Watertown is big enough to have all the amenities you'll need, but small enough to access them in 10 minutes or less.  Watertown is truly a wonderful place to live, work, dine, shop, play and do business!  It's a genuine American hometown.

For demographic information about the City of Watertown please visit: https://www.thriveed.org/community-snapshots/ and select "Watertown."

Services
In order to facilitate your development concepts, the Mayor and the Building, Safety & Zoning (BS&Z) Department are your primary points of contact to facilitate the process for you. BS&Z performs various services to develop the community in a safe, healthy, and attractive manner. BS&Z primarily focuses on land use activities, property development, and code enforcement.

BS&Z oversees the community planning and zoning activities that occur in the City. BS&Z staff works with developers through the proposal and review processes, coordinating with other departments. BS&Z services include administering the Municipal Zoning Code, implementing the Comprehensive Plan, walking developers through the meeting and permitting process, reviewing site plans, and processing permits and requests.

Contacts
Emily McFarland, Mayor
emcfarland@watertownwi.gov

(920) 206-4220

Brian Zirbes, Zoning & Floodplain Administrator
BZirbes@watertownwi.gov(920) 262-4041

Department of Building, Safety &  Zoning
106 Jones Street, PO Box 477
Watertown, WI – Room 2034
Office Hours are 8 a.m.-4:30 a.m. Monday-Friday

Development Partners 
In addition to the City of Watertown resources noted above, the city works closely with Watertown Redevelopment Authority. For more information about the Redevelopment Authority please visit their web site: https://www.watertownredevelopment.org/

Mason Becker, Strategic Initiatives and Development Coordinator
MBecker@watertownwi.gov
(920)-567-8181


The City of Watertown works closely with Jefferson County Economic Development to provide site selection services, demographic and industry data, confidential project management, introduction to financial assistance and more. For more information please visit: https://www.thriveed.org/


Deborah Reinbold, ThriveED President
deborahr@thriveED.org
414-405-9249

Watertown is home to the State of Wisconsin's longest historic downtown. The Main Street Program is a vibrant resource that provides assistance with design, historic tax credits, historical information, and more. Please contact the Executive Director for more information. 

Melissa Lampe, Executive Director 
watertownmainstreet@gmail.com
(920) 342-3623
https://www.watertownmainstreet.org/