Updated Aug. 10, 2026, 3:15 p.m. ET
- Kohler Co.’s extended CUP expired on July 5, 2026, according to Sheboygan’s city attorney.
- The company was granted an extension in fall 2024, but that was legally challenged in early 2025, pushing back the deadline because of a tolling provision.
- Kohler Co. has been pursuing an 18-hole golf course bordering Kohler-Andrae State Park for more than a decade.
SHEBOYGAN, WI – Kohler Company‘s more-than-decade-long push for a golf course in the Black River Forest has hit another lull, with the company announcing a temporary pause in plans.
The company has been pursuing various projects in the village of Kohler, including a renovated Woodlake Market, new Big Joe’s Fuel and Go, and a new golf course near Blackwolf Run.
“Given the number of ongoing projects, we have decided to temporarily pause activity while continuing to refine our future plans for our property in the City of Sheboygan, including the expansion of our golf offerings,” Kohler Co. said in a statement.
This is the latest news on the proposed 18-hole golf course, which has been sought on 247 acres of company-owned land north of Kohler-Andrae State Park.
Mary Faydash of Friends of the Black River Forest, a grassroots environmental group that has fervently opposed and stalled the project over the years, said it’s hard to know what to say in response to Kohler Co.’s recent announcement.
Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!
“It doesn’t sound official in any way,” Faydash told the Sheboygan Press. “They have implied that they’re extended far enough on their projects in order to put off development on the lake. We’ll see.”
“Their approach has been to believe that all of the things they build elevate people’s experience and the economy,” she said.
The negative environmental impacts of the project would make the opposite true, Faydash said.
“This specific project could clearly be shown to impact the waters of the state,” she said.
FBRF has been adamant that the golf course would devastate the Black River Forest ecosystem, cause massive deforestation of old growth trees that would deplete habitats, contaminate groundwater and Lake Michigan, and disturb Native American burial mounds.
According to reporting by the Sheboygan Press in 2015, the golf course proposed by Kohler Co. would create 227 full-time jobs and generate an annual economic impact of $20.6 million,
An economic impact study released by the company, performed by SB Friedman Development Advisors in Chicago, estimated that the golf course’s three-year construction phase would create 95 full-time construction jobs and have a $12.5 million economic impact on Sheboygan County.
Kohler Co. said it would make an initial investment of $25 million to build and develop the golf course, although all those dollar figures will need to be adjusted for 2026 economics.
If the course became fully operational, 106 full-time equivalent jobs, or FTEs, would be created by Kohler Co. and another 121 FTEs would be created elsewhere in the county. Together, the 2015 reports said they would be earning $8.9 million annually.
CUP for proposed Kohler Co. golf course expired at beginning of July
Amid the recent news from Kohler Co., the Sheboygan Press learned the company had not submitted new plans or applied for a building permit from the city, as of late July 2026.
The extended deadline of the company’s conditional use permit also expired on July 5, because the permit’s timeline was tolled during the duration of a recent lawsuit, according to City Attorney Liz Majerus.
How did we get here?
The city granted the company a CUP for the golf course in December 2020, but several years of litigation paused the one-year timeline due to a tolling provision in the CUP. Within a year of the final case’s resolution, Kohler Co. had to begin development or request an extension, according to the provision.
The last of seven cases related to the proposed project ended in early December 2024, when a Wisconsin court of appeals denied issuance of a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources permit to fill 3.69 acres of wetland.
Kohler Co. sought extension of its CUP from the city of Sheboygan in November 2024, saying the extension was necessary to revise its plans after the court of appeals ruling.
At the fall 2024 meeting, the City Plan Commission granted a one-year extension for Kohler Co.’s CUP.
But that timeline was paused again in early 2025 when a group of residents living near the proposed site sued Sheboygan’s Plan Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals for granting the one-year extension and denying the plaintiff’s appeal for review. Paramount to their arguments was that a new CUP should’ve been required because a new plan was necessary without the DNR wetland permit.
A Sheboygan County Circuit Court judge dismissed the case in September 2025. The residents did not appeal the decision.
Faydash said Kohler Co. doesn’t have to be concerned about its CUP expiring because a draft of the updated zoning code points to the city eliminating CUPs and reducing the Plan Commission’s statutory authority — instead placing that power with the zoning administrator.
A draft provision says the zoning administrator could amend a CUP that no longer exists or is significantly different if modifications reduce the impact on the desired property more than what was previously approved.
Faydash and other members of FBRF have pointed to this provision paving the way for Kohler Co. to get approval for its golf course without additional Plan Commission review.
“That’s kind of a pointless approach,” Faydash said about pursuing a CUP.
The zoning code is still being revised. The last public discussion was during a March Committee of the Whole meeting.
Contact Alex Garner at 224-374-2332 or agarner@usatodayco.com.