Toward More Transparent Community Development

With all due respect to Franklin's over-worked, under-staffed Planning Staff, I'll be frank; keeping up on just a few developments here in Franklin is anything but easy. While materials are provided when I ask through an open records request, there is definitely a "if you don't ask we can't/won't tell" vibe. I can't, for example, simply "subscribe" to any and all new documents pertaining to Fountains of Franklin or Shoppes at Wyndham Village; I have to ask for each document specifically. How do you find out that a new site plan or document exists or was generated? Good question.

Want to attend any and all meetings wherein a certain project is discussed? You have to try to nab meeting agendas from multiple commissions to determine whether a project you're interested in will be discussed (Common Council, Plan Commission, Economic Development, etc.).

Take a look at how the city of DAVIS, CALIFORNIA presents ongoing development issues on its web page, in this case pertaining to a planned Target Store.

This is the way to do it. Each project has its own dedicated page (see the nicely designed Projects Page). Every development page has easily accessible and well-organized pdfs of all documents and site plans (under "Documents" and "Environmental Review" tabs), meeting schedules, updates and recaps, and a city staff contact.

Imagine this kind of online access to site plan material:

Simply outstanding and a model for all communities.

Certainly a model for Franklin, Wisconsin, where information is not so freely and easily shared.

An interesting passage on Franklin Alderman Steve Olson's website regarding site plans:

There are bloggers in our community that may receive drawings through other channels. Be aware that those drawings may not be official submittals.

What an interesting thing to say.

For the record, everything posted on Sprawled Out comes from the Franklin Plan Staff via requests made through Wisconsin's Open Records statute unless otherwise explicitly noted. Anyone can make such a request.

As for Alderman Olson's veiled accusation: There are, as far as I can see, two blogs in Franklin, Wisconsin that post site plans; mine and Franklinnow.com's Greg Kowalski. Alderman Olson should go ahead and be specific about who might be posting "nonofficial" site plans if he feels that is happening.

A person who has occasion to work with Franklin officials on a regular basis made this observation to me, completely unsolicited:  There is a small cadre of persons involved in Franklin administration and politics who would just as soon get everything done behind closed doors without input from the public or other administrative bodies (the Environmental Commission, for example, is now entirely toothless; the planning staff reports to economic development, etc.). This person works with the administrations of other communities as well and feels Franklin is unique in this way.

It's been this way for quite a while. From The Milwaukee Journal, Nov. 4, 2004 (regarding the Franklin Economic Development Commission's request to rezone land on the east side of W. Loomis Road from R-6 residential to B-3 Community Business District):

The zoning request sparked controversy in September when [Alderman] Sohns and Mayor Fred Klimetz suggested at a Plan Commission meeting that it was being sought for an anonymous developer so he would not have to face the opposition Wal-Mart encountered when it proposed a Supercenter in summer about two miles away.

Sohns and [Commission Vice Chairman Sandy] Adam insisted Thursday that there is no developer and that newspaper stories to that effect were false.

That contradicts comments made by Sohns and Ald. Steve Olson in interviews after the Sept. 23 Plan Commission meeting.

"There is a development. I'm not sure who is working on it. I'm not part of the ongoing discussions," Olson said at the time, adding:

"I don't like doing it in secret. But I think it's necessary in this case."

Asked if granting anonymity would set a bad precedent for the city, [Alderman] Sohns said, "You're not so naive to expect that everything is done in public. . . . Much is done with developers behind the scene."

Doesn't engender a great deal of confidence, does it? The commercial development resulting from the proposed zone change could have been, by the way, just the sort of thing the city needed. As it was, secrecy and double-talk bred mistrust and the zone change was denied.

Another interesting and prescient line in the story, given the current Shoppes at Wyndham Village situation:

Adam challenged residents' opposition, suggesting that the creation of design standards as part of the zoning change request is their best protection against mediocre development.

The residents of Wyndham Hills subdivision will enjoy re-reading that empty assurance from the past as they watch a profoundly mediocre Target store emerge across the street from their neighborhood in what is supposed to zoned as the city's City Civic Center District, complete with design standards.

One result of this "we know better - you'll know later" attitude: By the time the public sees what a developer has planned, it's far too late to object to elements of the project.

Sendik's on 51st and Rawson is another good example: The site plan faced its loading dock and a bare-brick wall toward the residential neighborhood right behind it. Too late to suggest actually incorporating the neighborhood into its design (and making the store a terrific amenity for the area), the subdivision now rallies for berms and trees to minimize the sights and sounds of a grocery store loading dock.

Franklin is filled with example after example of poorly conceived and executed projects as well as missed opportunities, and the city has quite a history of acrimony over the planning process. Something has to change, and more transparency would be a positive first step.