Sprawled Out: The Search for Community in the American Suburb

Shops at Wyndham Village revealed: AWFUL

I was one of the optimists early on when developer Mark Carstensen announced an "upscale commercial lifestyle center" at the corner of Hwy. 100 and Drexel. Sure, it's in an odd spot, but I still felt there was a very good chance that Franklin would finally see a real community gathering point take root. I had high hopes for a well thought-out combination of buildings, sidewalks and natural features that would make The Shops a real jewel.

Then Target was announced as an anchor store. Well, I thought, perhaps if they really nail the details things could still work out.

No such luck, evidently.

The map below is on file with the DNR, and it is utterly flabbergasting; a truly craptacular ocean of asphalt surrounded by typical strip mall-type buildings on setbacks. That's right - - passersby will be treated to the sight of parking lots.

The Heritage Oaks woods is utterly disregarded and will be swept aside by Sendik's as if the planners were incapable of creating any shape other than a rectangle. The "water feature" is arbitrary, and, yes, that HUGE area marked "Asphalt" is indeed just that. Lots of it. This thing is practically retro - - it could have been proposed in 1975.

So here's the question: Is there no one on the common council or plan commission who will stand up and hold Mr. Carstensen to a higher standard?

Or, is this strip mall all that the city of Franklin deserves?

UPDATE:

Additional environmental concerns contributed by Cheryl via comments:

This project is expected to cause significant destruction of wetland resources and environmental corridor tributary to the Root River, and negatively affect several plant species of Special Concern and the Lake Chubsucker (fish of special concern). While everyone supports sound economic development, we should not support the takings of important natural resources in the process.

The present design will impact an environmental corridor of significant historical value including wetlands that filter water prior to reaching the Root River. This 38.7 acre development project has enough acreage (and open farm fields) to allow business development if properly designed so that the proposed Sendiks and Target are not placed on top of existing wetlands and habitat for species of concern. We can and must do better! Franklin should also encourage development that encourages infiltration and treatment of runoff through pervious pavement, bioretention facilities, and vegetated swales to minimize impacts to the water quality and wildlife of the Root River.

Thank you, Mr. Fischer

I happened to stumble across Republican operative Kevin Fischer on WISN yesterday as he substituted for an under-the-weather Mark Belling. Fortunately, the show will likely be preserved for the ages: I urge everyone to listen to the podcast at the belling.com website (click on the March 27th show).

You'll have to scroll into the show an hour or so, but do so - it's worth it. Mr. Fischer takes calls regarding the two Franklin School District referendum questions and is buffeted rather soundly by supporters of the referenda who somehow got through the call screener. He could not rise above his one-note response to the issue and came very close to self-parody in the face of thoughtful (though constantly interrupted) observations by the pro-referenda callers. I could put a bunch of amusing (and out of context) quotes here, but it's more instructive  - - and revealing - - to hear the whole thing.

Once again, my wife is a teacher, so take my viewpoint with a grain of salt. However, if you feel the need to sway someone who's on the fence regarding the referendum questions, have Kevin Fischer's March 27th show on your iPod ready to play back. It's sure to make an "undecided" into a "yes."

Once again, listen to the podcast at the belling.com website (click on the March 27th show).

UPDATE: Unfortunately (and to Mr. Fischer's relief) belling.com does not keep more than one broadcast archived. However, the dogma marches on at his blog.

The "third place," pt II: Coming out of our shells

Suburbs trying to create a sense of community

By BETSY TAYLOR
Associated Press

Posted: March 24, 2007

Dardenne Prairie, Mo. - Right now, City Hall is in a doublewide trailer where the power just went out.

But if Mayor Pam Fogarty has her way, a new municipal building, still on the drawing boards, - or, really, still in her imagination - will become part of a new chapter in this growing town's story.

The mayor and other supporters, with design help from a firm known for pioneering the New Urbanism movement in architecture, are planning a place to bring people together, where they can walk the streets and pass time, and where a sense of community can flourish.

Dardenne Prairie is getting a downtown.

Once an agricultural community with fields of corn, wheat and soybeans and the occasional cattle farm dotting the landscape, Dardenne Prairie is located about 35 miles west of St. Louis.

It is a stone's throw from the two Missouri cities that are growing most rapidly, Wentzville and O'Fallon.

Mayor Pam Fogarty envisions a downtown area with a proper City Hall, perhaps with a front porch where residents can gather. The new district will give the community a place where people can have "cookies with Santa and the Fourth of July parade," she says, envisioning a walking district filled with shops, offices and living space. By Tom Gannam, AP

Today, bedroom communities have sprouted in Dardenne Prairie's pastures, and franchise stores line the roads into and out of town.

Its population has expanded by about three-fourths, from about 4,000 people at the start of this decade to nearly 7,000 in 2005, according to U.S. Census figures.

But, Fogarty says, her little city is missing something.

"Everybody wants a third place. You have your work. You have your home, but everybody wants a gathering place," says Fogarty, a mother of five.

Her reference is a nod to sociologist Ray Oldenburg who defines the third place as "a setting beyond home and work (the 'first' and 'second' places respectively) in which people relax in good company and do so on a regular basis."

Fogarty's vision for her town: This third place will include a proper City Hall building, perhaps with a front porch where residents can gather.

The new district will give the community a place where people can have "cookies with Santa and the Fourth of July parade," she says, envisioning a walking district filled with shops, offices and living space.

"When you have a downtown, people say, 'There's Dardenne Prairie,'" the mayor says.

And she knows exactly where they'll be when they say that. The would-be downtown is 80 acres, part of it occupied by a baseball diamond that will remain, the rest open fields and a few privately owned houses. Several are rental properties whose owners are interested in selling, Fogarty said.

The site's transformation into a downtown begins with town meetings in April.

Dardenne Prairie isn't the only community seeking to establish a sense of place by designing it.

In Storrs, Conn., the University of Connecticut has drawn notice for a plan to essentially build itself a college town, with shops, restaurants, apartments, and even a traditional New England town green. UConn officials have said they don't know of another university that has attempted the same thing.

The belief that aspects of traditional neighborhoods can enhance communities has been growing with certain architects in recent years.

After World War II, suburbs flourished. As many commuters moved farther from cities into housing subdivisions, their lives became more separate from one another. Homes were no longer down the block from the corner store. Offices sprung up in business parks. It became yet another drive to get to church or school.

Inspired by small towns

In their book, "Suburban Nation, The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream," Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and Jeff Speck criticize suburban sprawl and related development that appear to have only one goal: "making cars happy."

Duany and Plater-Zyberk are among about a dozen people credited with the New Urbanism movement. They drew much attention after developer Robert Davis asked them in 1979 to design Seaside, Fla., which was inspired by aspects of small-town life.

Now Dardenne Prairie has hired their firm, Miami-based Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co., to help shape its downtown and its future.

Not far from Dardenne Prairie, a made-from-scratch community with the fitting name New Town is rising from fields that were mainly used for growing sod.

The 750-acre development, whose full name is The New Town at St. Charles, drew from classic city architecture, with detached garages in back of homes and a church, a bookstore, a market and other shops with more on the way.

Residents can swim, kayak and fish in manmade lakes with fountains and canals that are a storm water system.

Wide front porches and parks are intended to encourage neighbors to get to know one another.

New Town is pitched by its creators as "a return to the towns of yesterday."

Developer Greg Whittaker said he wanted to build a community where, "once you park your car, you don't have to get back into it."

In all, 5,700 homes could be built in the instant community. Residents pick up their mail at a mail center, a decision made in part to get people socializing and out of their homes, Whittaker said.

Several residents said they've found just what they were looking for in New Town.

Peggy Riley, 56, recently had lunch at the Prancing Pony bookstore with her grandson, Will Statler, 3, before heading to a meeting with a couple of women from St. Charles Christian Church.

She said her family is related to eight other families that have moved to New Town.

She loves how the community looks, but more importantly she's fond of the other residents.

To many of them family is important, she said, and they like to stay active, taking part in church and social gatherings.

New Town was planned by DPZ, the same firm that Dardenne Prairie is going to use for its downtown.

A DPZ team plans to come to Dardenne Prairie in late April to talk with residents, business owners and other decision-makers and sketch ideas about their hopes for the new downtown.

To help fund the more traditional downtown it is seeking, the town used an unusual approach to development, first drawing some big-box retailers to generate tax revenue.

Link: JS Online: Suburbs trying to create a sense of community

"Are we turning into self-absorbed silos with little to no time to care about others?" Getting back "the third place"

Two community columnists commented in today's Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel about a dwindling sense of community in today's society:

Many people miss the community atmosphere they experienced growing up. We didn't drive or bus our kids to school or drive several miles to church. Church and school contributed to centers of community, along with neighborhood groceries and drugstores. Milwaukee used to have these types of neighborhoods. Now human contact, even telephone conversation, is declining. If yes, press one; if no, press two. We live in a technical culture, less courteous and with less human contact except for the joy of viewing one or more fingers in the rearview mirror.

Joseph F. Mangiamele, Shorewood

Recently I read about a 70-year-old man who was found dead in his recliner. He had been sitting there "watching" TV for a year. It is safe to say that were it not for the ruptured pipes in his home, he could have watched TV for another year. It is inconceivable to me is that no one missed this person and neighbors assumed he was in a nursing home. Have the days of community and neighbors looking out for neighbors become a thing of the past? Are we turning into self-absorbed silos with little to no time to care about others?

Marisa Rivera, Wauwatosa

"Are we turning into self-absorbed silos with little to no time to care about others?"

The answer is yes. Just read what passes for discourse in the "community blog" of a certain employee of a Republican state senator; someone takes time to compose a reasoned case for passing two school referendum questions, and the best answer this man can muster is, "You’ve never paid a property tax bill, have you?"

As we become more and more isolated with sprawled McHomes in connection-less cul-de-sacs, it becomes harder and harder to see beyond our own noses and appreciate steps that create a better whole. Thoughtful discussion be damned - - everything becomes all about our own personal property tax bill - - never mind that we have to cut library hours and can't clear recreational trails.

We live in suburbs that don't even bother to put sidewalks in neighborhoods, or finish sidewalks that are started.

Developers think nothing of building roads to nowhere with a big, ugly, orange-striped "no thruway" sign at the end (and blithely leaving it that way, in the case below, for three years and counting).

Where's the sense of pride in place? With such a bleak landscape "out there," it's no wonder we contain ourselves and our concerns in the confines of our own homes.

Something lacking in sprawling suburbs like Franklin is what's being called "the third place." If home is first, work is second, then a communal gathering point in a city or town is "the third place" - - and the place that is almost wholly missing in today's car-centric suburbs.

In the words of Ray Oldenburg, an urban sociologist from Florida who writes about the importance of informal public gathering places, "Houses alone do not a community make, and the typical subdivision proved hostile to the emergence of any structure or space utilization beyond the uniform houses and streets that characterized it." Oldenberg argues that "third places" are central to local democracy and community vitality.

From the preface to his book, The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community:

Because of the void that the absence of informal public life has created, we have become slaves to consumerism more than we even can conceive. There is such an important element in the informal public gathering spot to relieve stress and makes our life so much more enjoyable.

In the absence of an informal public life, living becomes more expensive. Where the means and facilities for relaxation and leisure are not publicly shared, they become objects of private ownership. Boredom is constant. The American spends much time relieving that boredom by re-decorating their homes. They depend on new wall coverings or furniture arrangements to add zest to their lives. Like the bored and idle rich, they look to new clothing fashions for the same purpose and buy new wardrobes well before the old ones are past service.

A lively round of after-dinner conversation isn't as simple as a walk to the corner cafe (if they can find one) --one has to Host the dinner. The home entertainment industry thrives in the death of informal public life and the demand for new vcr's sound systems, video rental stores, and new cable connections are satisfying the social exiled. This problem in America manifests itself in a sorely deficient informal public life. The structure of shared experience beyond that offered by family, job, and passive consumerism is small and dwindling.

In other words: How can we think of the "greater good" when our horizon doesn't extend beyond the plasma TV and hot tub? It all becomes about our property taxes, indeed.

Journalist Max Lerner is quoted in Oldenburg's book:

A number of recent American writings indicate that the nostalgia for the small town need not be constructed as directed toward the town itself: it is rather a "quest for community" (as Robert Nisbet puts it)--a nostalgia for a compassable and integral living unit. The critical question is not whether the small town can be rehabilitated in the image of its earlier strength and growth --- for clearly it cannot---but whether American life will be able to evolve any other integral community to replace it. This is what I call the problem of place in America, and unless it is somehow resolved, American personality will continue to be quiet and unfulfilled.

Lerner wrote that in 1957! He has certainly been proven a prophet.

Lack of contact in public space has cost us our senses of civility and empathy. The crass talk-radio mentality we endure today is nurtured by the anonymous nature of our interactions. Other people are mere speed bumps in our day - -  especially while driving, which we do more and more and more as suburbs abandon all pretense of walkability.

Coffee shops and book stores have become de facto "third places" - - certainly for a people like myself who work at home and need to "get out" now and then - - but they are no substitute, designed as they are to maintain a certain "contact bubble" around the people there; an open laptop or book is a visual "do not disturb" sign.

Here in Franklin we anticipate two commercial developments, Fountains of Franklin and Shops at Wyndham Village, that hold out the promise of mitigating Franklin's lack of a town square by creating a "park once" walkable environment that could encourage a main street feel. Unfortunately, as I'll illustrate in future postings, both developments face obstacles that may hobble them and create two more glorified strip malls.

We can only hope someone somewhere in Franklin's city planning structure can recognize that we deserve better and go the extra mile --- beyond explaining to us after the fact why "it couldn't be done."

More funding needed for English classes

When you write enough, you're sure to make a few errors that go public now and then; it happens to all of us ink-stained wretches and could very well occur in this posting (my high school Composition 200 teacher might have issues with that comma and  that semicolon back there, in fact). I have almost 200 postings archived here that could yield some whoppers.

However, in light of a schoolyard-taunt filled email I received recently from Republican operative Kevin Fischer, I particularly enjoy the blurb - - with his picture right beside it - - on page three of this week's Franklin Community Newspaper. I'll risk the wrath of writer's Karma (and possibly another bout of name-calling via email from Mr. Fischer) by pointing it out:

"Our schools will be just fine if the referendum questions fail. The same cannot be said about your personal finances." - Kevin Fischer, "This Just In..."

Maybe it was the fault of an editor who changed or truncated his text, but forgive me if I enjoy the fact that the sentence above clearly warns that your "personal finances" will not be fine if the Franklin School District referendum questions fail. (I think, in his defense, he meant to tack on to the end "... if the referendum questions pass.")

And it's always humorous to hear a professional political operative - Democrat or Republican - attempt to tell us about our "personal finances."

Also fascinating is a choice made by Community Newspapers in a story on page nine called "Referendum has its opponents." At first mention in the story, Kevin Fischer is identified simply as "Franklin resident."  It's not until the seventh paragraph that he is more accurately described as an employee of Republican representative Mary Lazich.

Interesting choice. As I've noted before, context is very important. So sayeth the husband of a teacher (and there's your giant grain of salt to take into account when weighing my opinion on any school referendum).

Kevin Fischer gets his talking points from the hand that feeds him

Kudos to Republican spokesperson Kevin Fischer for remaining consistent with his right wing cohorts (like Patrick McIlheran) in citing studies by fine, upstanding organizations with really mainstream sounding names like "The American Legislative Council."

Mr. Fischer would like you to vote no on the two Franklin School District referendum questions up for vote on April 3rd, and reports with urgency in his March 18th blog entry at Franklinnow.com:

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) reported in its last Report Card on American Education that “the conventional wisdom that primary and secondary education in the United States can be improved by spending more money, creating more school districts, increasing teacher salaries, and spending more resources per pupil is ineffective.”

Wow. That sounds serious and official.

Understand this: "The American Legislative Exchange Council"  is a right wing organization funded by over three hundred corporate sponsors. Some corporations and trade groups that have supported ALEC include: American Nuclear Energy Council, American Petroleum Institute, Coors Brewing Company, Texaco, Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America, Phillip Morris, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, the Church of Scientology, Exxon Mobil, the National Rifle Association, and Amway, just to name a few. They pay enormous amounts of money to ALEC to make sure the Republicans they helped elect toe the corporate line, and Republican operatives like Mr. Fischer regurgitate their talking points in the line of duty to the party.

Are these the people from whom you want advice regarding education?

You can read more about this sham organization here and here.

"Make it a Mall of Fame"

An excellent column by Mike Vickery from the... is it called the "Oak Creek/Franklin/Greendale/Hales Corners Now"? Anyway, the CSI community newspaper that replaced The Franklin Hub:

(Below: an overhead map of Southridge Mall's veritable ocean of parking)

Make it a Mall of Fame

By Mike Vickery
Correspondent

Dear Simon Property Group: Congrats on your pending purchase of Mills Corp.

This makes you the new parents of Southridge Mall. Adoption is such a tricky thing. May I be blunt? Your new kid needs help. Southridge is both ripe with flaws and ripe with opportunity. I do believe your payoff will be handsome by accentuating the positive and putting a wrecking ball to the negative.

The positive

Customers are ready to spend. The communities of the Southern Cross (Greendale, Franklin, Hales Corners and Oak Creek) have actual money. Really. Other investors and developers have convinced themselves that we southsiders are content wearing burlap, bought with a coupon. Frankly, we are tired running to Chicago, Brookfield and North Avenue to get our non-burlap attire.

We are not Wauwatosa. In Tosa, you can be 18, you can vote, and you can go to war. But don't even think about shopping at Mayfair. We are just a tad more open and friendly down here in the land of Southridge. Might I suggest an ad campaign welcoming young adults and all their discretionary income?

Parking is a joy. China could come for the Boston Store Leather Spectacular and we would still have ample parking. Our lots would make Mayfair shoppers violently sick with envy. Greendale Village President John Hermes has some good ideas to further "green" up these lots. Give him a call.

Space is wide open. Look at all that space between Edgerton and Grange. Tell me Simon, isn't this a scenario just screaming for a free-standing Cheesecake Factory and an Ikea? I bet Best Buy would leap at the chance to set up shop where more than 12 cars can comfortably park.

The negative

It has the ugliest building in America. The Leath Furniture building has all the warmth and charm of a medium-security correctional facility. Actually, that is an insult to correctional facilities everywhere. Leath Furniture has been going out of business longer than they were in business. Ease their pain. Nothing should die this slow. Buy them, evict them and knock that eyesore off the planet. You will hear a sustained standing ovation.

The view from Grange ain't Grand. You folks at Simon Property Group are the experts, but there is something to "curb-appeal," right? Whoever gave the OK to remodel half of the south side of the mall while ignoring the other half should be executed. Yes, actually blindfolded and shot. I know that sounds a tad Sopranos, but once you see mall from Grange Avenue, you will be loading the pistol. Aesthetically, this end of the mall is a double-wide trailer with a duck-taped attached carport.

The last make-over should be made over. The previous owners forgot that "improvement" should be part of any remodeling project. Draining fountains and adding garish lighting technically was an investment, just ill-advised. It was a remodeling effort similar to that of an owner of a duplex that rents to male college students - their heart was not into it. Fix it up right - we promise not to hold any keggers. Heck, we do not even allow bingo.

Welcome to the neighborhood, Simon Property Group. Make Southridge a true shopping destination and enjoy the profit will certainly follow. That buffing sound you hear is the Southside polishing up the magnetic strip on the back of our Visa cards.

As shoppers, we will be sincerely yours.

 

Mike Vickery can be reached c/o Community Newspapers, P.O. Box 510210, New Berlin, WI 53151, or via e-mail at  [email protected].

Link: GreendaleNOW.com: Make it a Mall of Fame.

School Referendum coverage at Franklinnow.com

Kudos to Franklinnow.com and reporter John Neville for their ongoing coverage on the upcoming school referendum.

Especially informative is a video found here wherein Republican operative Kevin Fischer chimes in with an attitude that is basically, to invert his quote, "anti-school, anti-school district, anti-Franklin, anti-education, anti-teacher, and anti-student."  Anyone who buys his reasoning ("I'm pro-taxpayer") deserves the patchwork school system they'll end up with in five years if the referendum fails. Alternatives? Ideas? Insights? He has none. Just "pro-taxpayer."

Let's hope the politics of self interest are set aside for this particular vote.

"Building a Downtown From the Ground Up": The Shepherd Express on Fountains of Franklin

As Terrence Berres says in his blog, "If the police station, library, post office, and now the new high school, could have been added in, maybe that would be a downtown."

Nonetheless, ink in the downtown weekly  - not particularly insightful ink, at that - is a nice coup for for the Fountains of Franklin developers.

Building a Downtown From the Ground Up
From the Shepherd Express

Franklin has never had a true city center or downtown. But that’s supposed to change within the next year or two with a development called the “Fountains of Franklin.”

Franklin Mayor Tom Taylor expects the high-end development to be the center of activity for Franklin and the rapidly growing suburbs of Oak Creek and Muskego, as well as parts of northern Racine County.

The nearly 500,000-square-foot mixed-use development on 60 acres of land at 51st Street and Rawson Avenue would be second in the region only to the Southridge Shopping Center.

The project is estimated to be worth $90 million when completed and is headed by Equitable Development LLC. The plan originally called for a 70,000-square-foot project, but it was greatly expanded when Sendik’s Food Market decided to locate a 62,000-square-foot store at the site and the Franklin Cultural Arts Center decided to build a performing-arts facility at the location. That center would be home to community and school theatrical performances as well as other exhibits, said Don Dorsan, president of the non-profit center.

The project will also include a 60,000-square-foot professional/medical office facility, multiple restaurants, retail stores, a bank and a 24-pump gas station.

Mayor Taylor pointed out that the project remains in the conceptual stage but added that developers would like it to be completed by the spring of 2008—just a year from now. While the city might have to pay for some infrastructure improvements, he said the project would add significantly to the city’s tax base.

The mayor said the area is ready for such a project, since Franklin and Oak Creek are the two fastest-growing communities in the area. “The Southeastern Wisconsin [Regional] Planning Commission estimates that Franklin will grow from 33,000 to 57,000 by the year 2035 and Oak Creek will grow from 33,000 to 65,000 in that same period,” Taylor said.

Fountains of Franklin: An update in Community Papers that bears close reading

Two things jump out at me from the latest article about the Fountains of Franklin development in Community Newspapers:

Although located across the street from the Fountains, Andy's 24-pump Gas Station & Retail will also be an architecturally related feature of the development. Construction is under way and is expected to have a grand opening in May.

Andy's site plan and elevation approvals occurred many months ago. Is the entirity of Fountains of Franklin - - which has NO approvals as of yet - - going to alter its plans to become  "architecturally related" to a corner service station and car wash?

Secondly, given the optimistic headline, it's interesting that the story's writer chose to close with a burst of reality from the mayor:

Franklin Mayor Thomas Taylor said in a March 2 interview that the overall Fountains development has so far only had a concept review at City Hall.

"Right now it's still conceptual," he said. "There's still a lot of things that have to be done - permits, procedures, storm water management. They still have to go before the Plan Commission."

Intriguing, to say the least.

Fountains' fortunes flow

Plans for $90 million project take shape

By John Neville
Staff Writer

Posted: March 7, 2007

Equitable Development LLC announced last week the Fountains of Franklin mixed-use retail development will cost an estimated $90 million as it continues its search for major tenants.

The up-to 495,000-square-foot, 60-acre development near South 51st Street and Rawson Avenue initially began as a 70,000-square-foot commercial proposal. Since then, it has added the likes of Sendik's Food Market and a city-owned cultural center to its list of planned tenants.

The sprawling development will be designed for extensive vehicular and pedestrian traffic, with multiple archway entrances and extensive landscaping, fountains, park benches and outdoor dining areas. When complete, it would be one of the largest retail developments in the region, second only to Southridge Shopping Center.

Developers of the project are Equitable, Devo Properties LLC and Andy Khullar.

Greg Devorkin, managing member of Devo Properties, said the development will also feature a 60,000-square-foot medical office, multiple restaurants and a National Bank branch office.

"We expect to be open for Thanksgiving," Devorkin said. "We've just met with the (city) engineering staff so that we can organize and anticipate what work needs to be done so that we can be open by then."

Top tenants

Equitable Development President David Hintzman said other major tenants for the development will be sought.

"There has been an upscale department store and many fashion retailers not currently found at Southridge that have expressed interest in joining The Fountains," he said.

In January, the developers announced a Sendik's Food Market, owned by Ted Balistreri and several siblings, would be constructed within the Fountains of Franklin, serving as anchor tenant.

Although located across the street from the Fountains, Andy's 24-pump Gas Station & Retail will also be an architecturally related feature of the development. Construction is under way and is expected to have a grand opening in May.

Last month the Common Council voted unanimously to endorse two of three wings of a $20 million Franklin Cultural Arts Center proposed for a site in the development. The panel backed a concept plan Feb. 20 that includes a performance auditorium seating of up to 1,350, plus a banquet hall accommodating several hundred more. The facility would include 65,212 square feet.

Still under development

Franklin Mayor Thomas Taylor said in a March 2 interview that the overall Fountains development has so far only had a concept review at City Hall.

"Right now it's still conceptual," he said. "There's still a lot of things that have to be done - permits, procedures, storm water management. They still have to go before the Plan Commission."

 

Contact reporter John Neville at (262) 317-8572 or  [email protected].