Franklin-Oak Creek 27th Street plan: already fraying?

Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare and 27th Street as seen from Fitzsimmons Woods.

From the OakCreekNow.com website:

Planning panel supports 27th Street rezoning
By James Livesey
Staff Writer
Posted: May 9, 2007

The Plan Commission has recommended rezoning three 27th Street properties to a manufacturing planned-unit development that will feature five buildings in a mixed-use setting.

The properties at 9950, 10068 and 10108 S. 27th St. are currently part of a manufacturing zone with a 27th Street Office Overlay District and highway business.

The Common Council will schedule a public hearing before voting on whether to approve the rezoning.

The rezoning was requested by Liberty Property Trust for a development proposed in the newly created tax-incremental financing district No. 7.

Planned uses
The Liberty Corporate Preserve at Oak Creek would be on 31 acres along 27th Street and an extension of Reinhart Drive between Southbranch Boulevard and Oakwood Road.

The development would consist of five buildings totaling 300,000 square feet of space. Building 1 would have 9,700 square feet of retail space; building 2, 44,000 square feet of office space; building 3, 68,500 square feet of office/showroom space; building 4, 172,000 square feet of warehouse space; and building 5, 5,000 square feet of restaurant space.

Liberty Property Trust intends to make the development the first "green" business park in the state. That means the buildings must be environmentally sustainable and have energy-efficient construction and operational practices.

Rezoning issues
The Planning Commission recommended rezoning on a 6-2 vote May 8. The two dissenting votes came from City Engineer Wayne St. John and Alderwoman Dimity Grabowski. Both expressed concern that the rezoning would essentially create a "hole" in the 27th Street Office Overlay District, which calls for future developments to include two-story buildings along 27th Street. Liberty's proposed development would create three one-story buildings along 27th Street.

"I'm confused because I thought that overlay transcended the underlying zoning," St. John said. "We're going to create a hole in the overlay and put it around this parcel."

Grabowski said the development didn't fit the 27th Street Office Overlay District or the 27th Street Corridor Plan.

"This would be quite a deviation from the proposed plan," Grabowski said. "We welcome having Liberty (Property Trust) here, but I don't believe that it's a good fit with what they've brought to the table at this point."

St. John said the rezoning might violate an existing agreement between Oak Creek and the city of Franklin concerning overlay zoning.

Grabowski said Oak Creek should communicate with Franklin's city officials before acting on the proposed rezoning.

"My understanding would be if Franklin is aware of this, I want to know. It is a substantial deviation from the plan," Grabowski said.

City Planner Jeff Fortin said the only binding agreement with Franklin concerned the streetscaping along 27th Street and the costs associated with that project.

Neal Driscoll, the representative for Liberty Property Trust, said his company planned to sell the retail parcel along 27th Street to another developer. Because there was no way to know what that developer would propose for the property, Driscoll said he was unable to tell the commission whether the retail building would eventually be a one- or two-story structure.

Contact reporter James Livesey at (262) 446-6606 or [email protected].