The Plan Commission meeting tonight (7pm at the Franklin Taj Mahal
Law Enforcement Center) has the Shoppes at Wyndham Village on the agenda - hence the bigger venue.
How the meeting plays out will be very revealing. How many people will the Carstensen organization bring to speak in support of his development, no matter what form it's in? Many would be my guess.
Will the public have an opportunity to speak? That's in Mayor Taylor's hands, according to the rules.
How many times will the word "berm" be used?
How demanding will the Plan Commission membership be in terms of asking the hard questions and making sure the right choices are made? Will it be anything like the line of inquiry at the Shoppes at Legend Creek meeting? (For instance, Alderman Steve Olson at the Legend Creek meeting - - not a member of the commission, but tossing in his 2 cents nonetheless: "We're looking for something that is unique to Franklin. If there's a store that already exists in Franklin, we don't need another one." Will he pursue that logic tonight with a redundant Sendik's on the docket?)
One Plan Commission member has already months ago sent a letter of support for the project to a state agency on Milwaukee County letterhead; he didn't even need to see a site plan. Will he simply wink at Mr. Carstensen when "Shoppes" comes up before the commission?
There is an entire contingent of folks with legitimate environmental concerns about the site plan (concerns shared by the DNR). Will they be heard?
Does Target exert so much influence as anchor that Mr. Carstensen is simply unable to make changes to the site plan to better conform to city civic center district guidelines?
In that case, whose guidelines win out - Target's or Franklin's?
This is why they invented Tivo - - watch that The Office rerun tomorrow and watch something really intriguing tonight.
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