Green Bay receives final permits for beach and pier at Bay Beach

Green Bay has received the final permits for a sand beach and pier at Bay Beach.

Mayor Jim Schmitt made the announcement Friday.

"This is the first time a permit has been issued, in the state of Wisconsin, to restore a beach project of this magnitude," reads a statement from the mayor.

The beach has been closed to swimmers for decades.

Green Bay received three grants worth $250,000 for a consultant to design a beach, boardwalk, bathhouse, and wildlife viewing platform.

Patrick Engineering was chosen to come up with a design. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources gave its approval by granting permits to the city.

The city estimates more than 3 million people visited Bay Beach last year.

"It's just going to be a place where people are going to want to come and spend time with their families, or with couples or alone," Schmitt tells Action 2 News. "It's just going to be that attractive of an amenity here and there's nothing else like it in Green Bay and we are just very excited."

While the beach is still a work in progress, visitors can expect to see some new additions when the amusement park opens for the 2018 season on May 5.

"We're constructing a westbound train that will bring riders underneath the Zippin Pippin and then back around it, and it will be kind of a really cool experience there," said park manager Jason Arnoldi.

The train ride under the roller-coaster was in the planning stage since 2008. In addition to that, construction is underway on a new, larger concession stand to help keep lines short.

Future updates include a new, bigger Ferris wheel that will likely be added to the park in 2019.