Town of Paris, WI

Paris has been a farm town since it was organized in 1842, according to the town's Learn More page, and the town still describes its goal as keeping Paris an agricultural community. Its history page adds that no railroad ever passed through and the town never formed a central hamlet or main street.

What commercial center Paris had was at Paris Corners, the intersection of Highway 45 and Highway 142. The town's account lists a general store with the post office, a blacksmith and the Paris Corners Creamery there in the early years, a hardware and farm machinery store that operated from 1892 to 1953, and a butter and cheese factory at what are now Highways D and A. The Tin Cup tavern at Highway 142 and Highway 45 has operated under various owners since 1939.

The best-known businesses grew up along the interstate. The same page lists Mars Cheese Castle and Bobby Nelson's Cheese Market, established in 1947 and 1952, along I-94; Kenosha Beef International, which marked its 75th anniversary in 2011; Waste Management's Pheasant Run landfill; and Great Lakes Dragaway on County KR, racing since 1955. Wikipedia describes the dragstrip as one of the oldest continuously operating tracks in the country.

Two historical items draw visitors. The white marble Civil War monument at the Town Hall, dedicated in 1866, is described by the town as the first publicly funded Civil War monument in Wisconsin, and it is lit every night. And in 1993 and 1994, two mammoth skeletons were excavated from neighboring Paris farms; the Schaefer mammoth is on display at the Kenosha Public Museum, and the Hebior mammoth is at the Milwaukee Public Museum, with a replica in Kenosha.

Paris is a town in the Wisconsin sense: an unincorporated civil township with its own board and tax bill. The Census Bureau's 2024 gazetteer gives it 34.0 square miles of land and almost no water. The Department of Revenue's 2025 Town, Village and City Taxes report counts 1,383 residents as of January 1, 2025, and a full value of $369,945,000.

The Town Hall and the fire and rescue station share the Paris Safety Building at 16607 Burlington Road, on Highway 142. The town's tax page uses a Union Grove 53182 address for it, and listings in the town also carry Kenosha 53144 addresses on the east side. As in any Wisconsin town near a city, the mailing address does not tell you the municipality. The tax bill does.

Paris also has a different kind of border from most towns. Under a cooperative plan with the City of Kenosha and the Village of Somers, some Paris land along I-94 is set aside to move into the city or village over time, and the rest of the town gets a permanent boundary. I explain that in the I-94 section, because it is the single biggest fact about land values in the east half of the town.

Zoning in Paris is county zoning. The town's building and zoning page names Kenosha County Planning and Development as the zoning office, with building permits through the county's online system and inspections by Bluestone Inspection Services. Land divisions also go through the town's Plan Commission under the town's own land division chapter.

On October 11, 2016, Paris, Somers and Kenosha announced a boundary agreement for land along I-94, according to the town's boundary agreements page. It designates areas of Paris for eventual annexation into Somers and Kenosha, lets the Kenosha Water Utility bring sewer and water to those growth areas, and gives Paris a permanent border by barring any further annexations from those municipalities. It also shares tax revenue between Paris and Somers for land developed in the village growth area.

The agreement became the City of Kenosha, Village of Somers, Town of Paris Cooperative Plan of 2017. The town's intergovernmental commission page says Chapter 12 of that plan commits Paris and Somers to plan the Highway S planning area and the village growth area together, through a commission of three members from each.

For a buyer, this splits Paris in two. West of the growth areas, land stays in the town, on wells and septic, under the town's farmland-first land division rules. Inside the growth areas, land is expected to become city or village land with urban services, and it is priced that way. A listing I found on Movoto on October 5, 2026 offered 35 acres on 136th Avenue at $5,250,000, about $150,000 an acre, described as land for future development in the City of Kenosha growth area, west of Microsoft's planned development. Its zoning was agricultural and its 2025 tax bill $4,316.

That Microsoft site is real. Microsoft plans a data center on around 240 acres in the City of Kenosha, according to WPR on September 29, 2026. Before you buy a home on the east side of Paris, I would pull the cooperative plan's map and check whether the parcel, or the land across the road, is in a growth area.

No guide to Paris is complete without its power plants, because they shape views, traffic and the town's finances. The town's chair told WPR in July 2026 that "the town of Paris has a large burden of energy generation already."

The Paris Solar-Battery Park is built. The town's solar page says Invenergy developed it, construction began in October 2021, and ownership went to WEC Energy Group and Madison Gas and Electric. The town's February 2023 newsletter adds that the land stays with its owners and is rented to the project. WPR reported on June 3, 2025 that the last piece came online then, with 200 megawatts of solar and 110 megawatts of battery storage, the state's first large battery system.

A We Energies gas-fired plant is under construction. The town's project page calls it a reciprocating internal combustion engine plant at the Paris Generating Station, and its September 2026 update describes gas main work near the site.

A third plant is under review. Invenergy's Red Oak Ridge Energy Center is a proposed 1,210-megawatt gas turbine plant, and the Public Service Commission's draft decision matrix of September 18, 2026 describes it on about 25 acres of land now used for agriculture in the Town of Paris, with both candidate sites zoned A-1. The town's page explains that the preferred site lies in the Kenosha and Somers growth areas north of the planned Microsoft data center and would move into the city or village if approved, that the backup site is a 58-acre parcel on the west side of 172nd Avenue near the existing substation, and that approval comes from the PSC with no local approvals required. The PSC held public hearings on July 23, 2026.

Gas lines follow. We Energies plans a 4-mile gas extension in the town to serve Red Oak Ridge, with construction expected in winter 2028 and service by fall 2028, per the town's interconnect page. Separately, Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America has applied to federal regulators under docket CP26-564-000 for a line from Illinois, and the town's pipeline page posted a notice on August 26, 2026.

If you are buying near 172nd Avenue, the substation or the solar fields, I would read those dockets before writing an offer, and look at the land from the house in every season.

Paris housing is detached houses on their own land. The Census Bureau's 2020-2024 American Community Survey counts 540 housing units, and 535 of them are detached single-family houses. Of 525 occupied homes, 456, about 87%, are owner-occupied. The margins of error are wide in a town this small.

The stock is older than in most of the county. The median year built is 1966, against 1975 for Kenosha County. About 85 homes (16%) were built before 1940, 98 (18%) in the 1950s and 86 (16%) in the 1960s. The 1990s were the one big recent decade, with about 100 homes, and only about 69 have been built since 2000.

Values are high for the county. The survey's median owner-estimated value is $428,900, against $265,500 countywide. About 38% of owner-occupied homes (174 of 456) are valued at $500,000 or more, and the survey estimates 48 at $1 million or more, with margins that make the top end uncertain.

The Department of Revenue's 2025 equalized values show a town with more commercial property than a typical farm town. Residential property is $251.5 million of the $369.9 million total, about 68%. Commercial property is $53.8 million, about 15%, and the "other" class, which covers farm buildings and the homesites on farms, is $44.8 million. Agricultural land itself carries only $5.7 million because Wisconsin taxes it at use value.

Paris has two land markets. In the growth areas along I-94, land trades on what it may become. Everywhere else, it trades as farmland and acreage under rules written to keep it that way.

The town's Code of Ordinances, updated February 18, 2026, sets the land division rules in Chapter 13. Any parcel proposed for division must be rezoned to the "Agricultural Preservation Planned Residential Development District" (APD) before or alongside the land division review. A minor land division is one that creates two to four parcels, any of them 35 acres or less, within five years. Before applying, the owner must meet with the Plan Commission and pay a non-refundable fee equal to the town planner's hourly rate.

Density is scored, not assumed. Section 13-225 has each proposal scored on weighted, property-specific criteria to set the maximum number of lots, and the code says the score is a basis for later approvals, not a guarantee. The land division, the county rezoning and the county comprehensive plan amendment are tied together: if one is denied, all are. The town's code does not print the scoring table as text; neighboring Brighton's version of the same rubric sets tiers of one home per 35, 10 or 5 acres, and I would confirm Paris's table with the town before relying on it.

Livestock rules matter on small acreage. Section 4-6 of the code bars large animals or a flock on parcels under 5 acres, allows one on a 5-acre parcel, and allows up to three large animals, or two and a flock, on 6 to 10 acres, with setback rules for barns and fencing on A-1 parcels under 10 acres.

Listings show the range. On October 5, 2026, Movoto's Paris page listed 80.28 acres on 136th Avenue at $1,500,000, about $18,700 an acre, alongside growth-area tracts of 14.28 acres on Burlington Road at $4,999,000, 32.9 acres on 12th Street at $4,935,000 and the 35 acres at $5,250,000. Coming from Lake County, Illinois, where farmland is mostly gone, the jump between those two kinds of land surprises buyers. The location relative to the growth-area line explains most of it.

Zillow's home value index, which tracks a typical mid-tier home, put the Town of Paris at $544,891 in August 2026. That is up 7.2% from $508,058 in August 2025 and 15.6% from $471,318 in August 2024. For comparison in the same month, the Town of Brighton was $634,770, the Village of Somers $390,384, Union Grove $341,532 and Kenosha County $337,519.

Sales are thin. Redfin's public market tracker publishes no series for the Town of Paris, so there is no reliable monthly median. On October 5, 2026, Movoto listed seven Paris properties: two houses at $820,000 each on Burlington Road (a 6-bedroom of 3,366 square feet and a 4-bedroom of 3,856 square feet), a house with land on 128th Avenue at $2,500,000, and four land tracts from $1,500,000 to $5,250,000.

The 128th Avenue listing shows how development value can sit on top of a modest house. Its listing page describes a house built in 1920 with a pole building, zoned A-1, listed at $2,500,000 since May 3, 2025, with a 2025 assessment of $385,000 and a 2025 tax bill of $2,108. The asking price is about land, not the house.

Paris is not a lake market and has no lakefront. Its top tier is acreage and development land rather than estate homes, which sets it apart from Brighton, where the $2 million listings are large houses. I would price a Paris home on its land, its distance from the growth-area line and the energy sites, the well and septic, and outbuildings, and use the Zillow index for direction only.

Paris has the lowest effective property tax rate in Kenosha County. The Department of Revenue's 2025 report puts the town's effective full-value rate at 0.431%, against 1.011% in Brighton, 1.082% in Wheatland, 1.098% in Randall, 1.219% in the Village of Somers and 1.348% for the county as a whole.

The reason is that Paris charges no town tax and uses its own revenue to offset part of everyone else's. The town's February 2023 newsletter says the town operates without a town tax for its government and fire and rescue services, paying for them with revenue from the landfill and state shared revenue, that it will receive some shared tax revenue as the Somers growth area develops, and that the board budgeted to offset the majority of the county levy for Paris owners. The DOR report shows the result: the town's local tax line for 2025 is a negative $901,211.

The rates. Kenosha County's 2025 tax rate sheet lists $5.83 per $1,000 of assessed value for Paris grade school and Central High, and $10.86 for Union Grove grade school and Union Grove High, the combination that covers a small part of the town. The town's aggregate assessment ratio is 0.7149, so assessments sit at about 71% of market value; the DOR report agrees at 0.71. The lottery and gaming credit, for a primary residence only, is $102.22 in the Paris combination and $199.35 in the Union Grove one, and the first dollar credit, which the DOR's guide says goes to any parcel with an improvement, is $34.07 and $66.45.

A worked example at Zillow's typical August 2026 value of $544,891. At the 0.7149 ratio the assessment would be about $389,500. At $5.83 per $1,000, the 2025 bill would be about $2,271 before credits and about $2,135 after both, roughly 0.39% of value. In the Union Grove area it would be about $3,964 after credits. The 128th Avenue listing above is a check: $385,000 assessed at $5.83, less both credits, comes to $2,108, the bill the listing reports.

The Paris grade school rate is low too. The DOR's apportionment shows that only about 26% of the Paris J1 district's taxable value is in the town; about 62% is in the City of Kenosha, with the rest in Somers and Bristol, much of it commercial land along I-94, and the newsletter credits that growth for lowering the school rate. The same Paris and Central combination is taxed at $15.92 in the City of Kenosha on the same county sheet, which shows how much of the difference is the town's own offset.

Two cautions. The offset depends on the town's revenue and each year's budget, and the 2027 budget hearing is set for November 2026. And Wisconsin's real estate transfer fee is $0.30 per $100 of value. This is general information, not tax advice; your bill depends on the parcel, its school district, your credits and the assessor.

Outside the growth areas, plan on a private well and septic. City water and sewer come only with the Kenosha Water Utility service planned for the growth areas under the boundary agreement. The town's building page names the Kenosha County Health Department as the health inspector, and the code's land division rules require septic and drainage standards to be met. The Red Oak Ridge page also lists groundwater and private well concerns among the environmental issues the town asked residents to raise with the PSC. On any Paris purchase I would write a well water test and a septic inspection into the inspection period.

Internet is improving. The town's internet page says two fiber builds are underway: Charter/Spectrum, using a grant, covering portions of the town, and Midwest Fiber Networks, in a partnership the town invested in, whose footprint will reach all residences when complete. E-Vergent fixed wireless remains an option where there is line of sight.

Trash is self-haul. The garbage page says residents take garbage and recycling to Waste Management's Pheasant Run landfill at 19414 60th Street, open weekdays from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and the first Saturday of the month, free once a week for residents who bring their own; electronics are not accepted.

Fire and rescue are the town's own. The Paris Fire & Rescue Department works from the Safety Building at 16607 Burlington Road, and its 2022 annual report describes a staff of 35 that by then included full-time members along with part-time and paid-on-call staff. Tax bills are mailed in December and the first installment is due January 31, payable at the Town Hall; the assessor is Associated Appraisal Consultants, per the tax page.

Almost all of the town is in the Paris J1 School District, a one-school K-8 district, and the Westosha Central Union High School district. The DOR's 2025 apportionment puts about $355.2 million of the town's value in both, and about $14.7 million in Union Grove J1 for grade school and Union Grove Union High School for high school. The town's education page lists all four schools.

Assignment follows the parcel, not the mailing address. A Union Grove 53182 address can still be in the Paris district. Confirm the district for any specific property with the district office or on the tax bill, which names it.

Paris's location is its practical advantage. Highway 142 (Burlington Road) runs east from the Town Hall to I-94, and Highway 45 crosses it at Paris Corners.

I ran free-flow routes on the OSRM routing engine, which uses OpenStreetMap roads and no traffic, from the Town Hall on October 5, 2026. Treat these as best-case estimates. The I-94 and Highway 142 interchange is about 4 miles and 6 minutes. Vernon Hills is about 34 road miles and 43 minutes. Downtown Chicago is about 60 miles and 76 minutes. O'Hare is about 57 miles and 87 minutes. Downtown Milwaukee is about 34 miles and 43 minutes, and Milwaukee's airport about 28 miles and 34 minutes.

Closer in, Union Grove is about 6 miles and 10 minutes, downtown Kenosha about 11 miles and 21 minutes, Burlington about 15 miles and 22 minutes, and Lake Geneva about 27 miles and 41 minutes.

For Lake County, Illinois buyers, that puts Paris at about the same free-flow distance from Vernon Hills as from downtown Milwaukee, closer to both than most of western Kenosha County. The trade is that I-94 is the route for both, and construction or a Friday afternoon can change any of these numbers.

Paris has no rail service. I counted trains in Metra's GTFS schedule data for the week of October 12, 2026, and in Amtrak's schedule data for Tuesday, October 13, 2026.

Kenosha, the end of Metra's Union Pacific North line, is about 11 road miles and 21 minutes from the Town Hall by the same free-flow router. It had 10 weekday trains to Ogilvie and 9 back, with rides of 92 to 102 minutes, plus 8 each way on Saturdays and on Sundays.

Amtrak's Sturtevant station is about 13 road miles and 18 minutes north. On a Tuesday it had 6 Hiawatha trains in each direction between Chicago and Milwaukee, with most rides to Chicago Union Station listed at about 76 minutes. Antioch, on Metra's North Central Service, is about 15 road miles and 23 minutes, with 7 weekday trains each way and no weekend service.

A train commute to the Loop from Paris runs about two hours door to door. For a hybrid schedule, the Hiawatha from Sturtevant is the faster ride.

Paris is working farmland, so its attractions are a short list and mostly along its edges.

Great Lakes Dragaway on County KR has run since 1955, according to Wikipedia, and hosts public "test and tune" racing, bracket events and multi-day shows. If you are looking at a house nearby, go on a race night and listen.

The town's Learn More page lists Mars Cheese Castle and Bobby Nelson's Cheese Market along I-94 as long-running draws for visitors, and the Civil War monument at the Town Hall is lit every night. The town also runs a community garden and a memorial brick walk around the monument.

For parks and golf, the nearest big amenities are in the Town of Brighton to the west: Richard Bong State Recreation Area and Kenosha County's 45-hole Brighton Dale Links. The Kenosha Public Museum, which displays the Schaefer mammoth found on a Paris farm, is about 11 miles east in downtown Kenosha.

Most of the change in Paris is coming from outside its control. The Red Oak Ridge decision belongs to the PSC, whose September 18, 2026 decision matrix asked parties to file their positions by October 1, 2026. The growth areas move into Kenosha and Somers under the 2017 plan as they develop, and Microsoft's planned 240-acre data center sits in the City of Kenosha. The interstate pipeline is before federal regulators, and the We Energies gas extension is scheduled for 2028.

Inside the town, the Plan Commission and Town Board meet monthly at the Safety Building, and the town posts agendas and project updates on its news page. A September 21, 2026 Plan Commission agenda, for example, included a public hearing on a property on 136th Avenue. Budget workshops for 2027 began in September 2026, with a public hearing and adoption in November.

For a buyer, the practical step is a map check. Before an offer, I would locate the parcel against the 2017 growth-area map, the solar and battery park, the Paris Generating Station, the 172nd Avenue alternative site, and the pipeline and gas extension routes the town has posted. A house a mile from all of them and a house across the road from one are different purchases.

The Town of Paris does not list a police department of its own; law enforcement in Kenosha County's unincorporated towns comes from the Kenosha County Sheriff's Department. Fire and rescue come from the town's own Paris Fire & Rescue Department on Burlington Road, described on its department page. I don't characterize the safety of any town or neighborhood. If you want the data, ask the Sheriff's Department, or look up any agency on the FBI's Crime Data Explorer.

Its 0.431% effective tax rate is the lowest in Kenosha County.

The trade-offs are just as specific. The town hosts a large solar and battery park, a gas plant under construction and a proposed 1,210-megawatt gas plant, with gas lines to follow. Land on the east side is moving into Kenosha and Somers and will change from farm fields to development. The low tax rate rests on town revenue and annual budgets rather than on a statute. Homes are on wells and septic, the housing stock is older than the county's, and few homes are listed at any one time.

The one thing I would never skip here is the map check: growth area, energy sites and pipeline routes, plus the tax bill for the exact parcel.