From Community Papers:
West Drexel Avenue from West Loomis Road (State Highway 36) to U.S. 45/State Highway 100 will be a four-lane configuration providing access to the Shoppes at Wyndham Village. This project will be designed and reviewed at City Hall this year with construction coming in summer 2008. Estimated project cost is $1.5 million.
A portion will be paid for by project developer Mark Carstensen with the remainder coming from property taxes.
This is just one reason the Shoppes at Wyndham Village project - - which I strongly support if executed with imagination and resolve - - is so crucial: the simple fact that there absolutely has to be a safe and pedestrian-friendly connection between the Shoppes and Wyndham Village and Franklin's well-used library and park in order to create an effective, attractive, and lucrative city center.
This means a road, complete with bike lane and sidewalk, that SLOWS between Loomis and Hwy. 100, aided by traffic-calming measures like roadside trees and on-street parking on at least one side of the street. If this is done incorrectly, Franklin misses another opportunity; if done correctly, the right road will attract additional attractive commercial development along that portion of Drexel and nurture "Shoppes" as well. Everyone wins.
Simple economics tells us that a commercial developer will understandably try to do the work as inexpensively as possible. That's his responsibility to his business, and no one can blame him for watching the bottom line. It's up to the Franklin Plan Commission and Common Council to ensure that whatever is proposed and created is consistent with an overall long-term vision for the city. That's the "checks and balances" formula, and Franklin has an EXCELLENT city plan staff at its disposal.
However, there are a couple of issues that make me wonder how much influence city plan staff can exert on the project:
A) The engineering firm for the project has evidently already been picked - - and it happens to be the same firm working for Mark Carstensen, the "Shoppes" developer. As I noted in an earlier post: At the April 2nd Franklin Common Council Meeting, city engineer John Bennett reported that he'd been directed by the Common Council - - a mere week earlier - - to negotiate under deadline an engineering contract for reconstruction of the stretch of Drexel Avenue between Loomis and Hwy. 100. Given the short time he had to assess applicants, Bennett recommended awarding the contract to McClure Engineering, which also works for Carstensen.
Ironically, Bennett then said: "This is a city project, and should be a city project. We've had developers build roads that they turned over to the city, they were on farm fields; when they did it, they didn't have to deal with the public like we're gonna have to deal with the public. And I think this should be a contractor that answers to the city where we have at least some control."
But then: “We have a price for doing it.”
The question is: How can "we have a price for doing it"? Is Drexel's configuration already decided, and it's already too late to ensure that this road useful for moving people as well as vehicles?
B) As noted in a recent Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel story, Milwaukee County Director of Transportation and Public Works George Torres, who sits on Franklin's Plan Commission, wrote a letter to the state Department of Transportation on county letterhead urging support of the "Shoppes" project. (Perhaps part of a coordinated effort; his letter was dated January 2, 2007, which is the same date on a letter of support for "Shoppes" written by State Senator Mary Lazich.)
There's nothing illegal about Mr. Torres' letter, to my knowledge, and no one is arguing against the reasons we should support additional commercial development (lessen tax load on homeowners, etc.). But how effective can someone be as a plan commissioner facing a developer and his site plan if he's already blessed the project prior to seeing how the myriad site plan issues - - and Drexel Road issues - - are being addressed?
Bottom line: Is the desire for commercial development so strong that communities like Franklin overlook important long-term and community-building considerations in the process? The past would tend to support that unfortunate assessment.
Comments