Sprawled Out: The Search for Community in the American Suburb

"NOW" newspapers: Is it any wonder dead-tree news is on its way out?

What's wrong with this picture? The answer tomorrow. (Don't worry, Mr. Fischer; though the infraction is by no means minor - - and has nothing to do with the Samson Stomp picture at right - - you are merely incidental to the offense.)

Is Franklin too snooty for Golden Corral?

The 27th Street dream runs into mundane reality.

Excellent distillation by Greg Kowalski of Franklinnow of last night's plan commission meeting and a conflict regarding a proposed GOLDEN CORRAL restaurant on 27th street in front of Gander Mountain (the photo above is of a random franchise location). The developer is Paul Bouraxis.

The Golden Corral petitioner summoned the chutzpah mention developer Bouraxis's other major Franklin project, the Lowe's, 2-strip-malls, Omega, Goodwill, Gander Mountain, Indian Creek condominiums "mixed-use complex."

You'll find a picture of that "complex" in the city planning encyclopedia, illustrating the term "Utterly Crapulent Development."

In 2000, Bouraxis proposed a "mixed-use commercial and residential development" on the property that was the 41 Twin and is now Northwestern Mutual. Dodged a bullet there, evidently.

That last half mile is a doozy....

Via James Rowen's The Political Environment: Brookfield can't seem to finish the last HALF MILE of their road project.

After listing multi-million and multi-billion dollar road projects currently under way, Rowen notes:

That's where the money is going, folks. Not for transit. Not for local projects that need a relative pittance.

The big bucks are going for what they call in the industry "The Majors," and in southeastern Wisconsin, it's The Road To Sprawlville.

Read the rest of Rowen's entry,  The Road To Sprawlville, Chapter XII: Dead End In Brookfield.

While you're at it, see Gretchen Schuldt's commentary on an "event-only" interchange(!) Kohler would like us to pay for.

Oh - the event isn't weekly or monthly, by the way. It's a golf tournament scheduled for 2010, 2015 and 2020.

Won't we be hitting par 3 1200-yarders on the Moon by 2020? Oops - wrong illusion ....

27th Street news

"It won't be long now," I said to myself when I took this picture of 27th and Drexel... in 2006.

Two bits from Franklinnow regarding 27th street. It will bear watching whether or not the Franklin Medical Center Campus toes the line on building heights as dictated by 27th street zoning.

One of the important factors in successful zoning standards is an easy-to-understand, graphic architectural code that developers can follow without confusion. It appears that the 27th Street effort has stumbled a bit coming out of the blocks - let's hope the streetscape manual, produced by the HNTB Corp., is sufficient to the task.

Plans for a $70 million Franklin Medical Center campus near South 27th Street do not meet the city's zoning code

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 6, 2008, 9:21 a.m.
By John Neville

A rendering prepared by Chicago-based development group Ryan Cos. included some one-story buildings on the proposed 11-building campus. There is a two-story building height minimum for the area.

City officials noticed the building height violation after the developer announced plans for the campus in late January. Developers did not confer with Franklin officials before announcing their plan, said Ted Grintjes, Franklin Community Development Agency chairman and member of the Franklin-Oak Creek Joint 27th Street Steering Committee.

"From the rendering, it's clear there's a misunderstanding about what can or cannot go on 27th Street," Grintjes said. "We need to get together with them. We need to talk about what our expectations are."

The committee will discuss the zoning with Ryan executives Friday, Feb. 8.

Ryan Cos. wants to construct the campus on 28 acres near 27th Street and Oakwood Road. The site plan includes 180,000 square feet of medical offices and 50,000 square feet of retail space. It would be built near the soon-to-open $90 million Wheaton-Franciscan Health Care hospital.

27th St. streetscape plan approved

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 6, 2008, 1:21 a.m.
By John Neville

The Franklin Common Council unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday night adopting a streetscape manual for the South 27th Street corridor.

Franklin and Oak Creek are seeking a long-range, ambitious multi-billion dollar development plan for the border both communities share.

The streetscape manual will help provide zoning guidelines for commercial, residential and other types of development along the corridor for both cities.

The Oak Creek Common Council approved the manual last month.

The two cities will split the cost of the manual, which will be produced by the HNTB Corp.

Franklin Alderman Alan Hammelman urged high-end development of the corridor, but cautioned against over-development and high-density traffic.

"A word of advice - don't wind up looking like Blue Mound Road," he said.

Franklin Mayor Tom Taylor said he doubted that would happen along South 27th Street because of the cooperation and planning between Franklin and Oak Creek officials.

"I think we've got a golden opportunity here to make something very, very special here," he said.

"Outside" being the key word

Franklinnow reports from the Twilight Zone:

Goat slaughtered outside butcher shop

A goat was slaughtered and removed from a fenced-in area at Franklin Meats, 9431 W. Oakwood Road, before 8:07 a.m. Saturday.

The animal was thrown over a fence after being slaughtered.

Police have no suspects.

Wow - that's interesting on so many levels. And hard to follow.

"Removed from fenced-in area"; "thrown over a fence after being slaughtered."

"Slaughtered outside butcher shop."

Robin, we better get back to the Batcave - - it looks like the work of the Makes No Freaking Sense gang.

ONE WISCONSIN NOW site is spiffed up

ONE WISCONSIN NOW, required daily reading for those not taken in by the neocons, dittoheads, and dogma-spouters, has upgraded and updated their site - be sure to bookmark it if you haven't already.

Time for an audio upgrade at city hall

I often get cassette tapes of city meetings. First thing I do is DIGITIZE them to make them practical - - no one has time to wind through analog linear tape to find that instance when, for instance, developer Mark Carstensen promised two-story buildings in Shoppes at Wyndham Village that are now forbidden by semi-secret agreement with Target .

I've been prodding the Franklin city clerk to make the jump to a digital recorder, thereby eliminating the need to actually pause the proceedings in order to flip the cassette (a familiar ritual at city hearings).

Add to that requisition some additional (and better) microphones.

From Franklinnow.com:

Audio vacancy nearly halts construction plans for hotel

By JOHN NEVILLE
jneville@cninow.com

Posted: Jan. 30, 2008

The Franklin Plan Commission last week averted a construction delay on the city's first upscale hotel.

Foundation work on the $10 million Staybridge Suites extended-stay hotel is scheduled to begin next week in the 9500 block of South 27th Street, but a gap in an audiotape from a fall commission meeting could have put that work on hold.

The issue came to light recently when city planning staff noticed a difference between plans submitted by hotel management firm Bricton Group and a site and architecture plan approved last fall by the commission.

The problems originated from a few missing sentences from a Sept. 20 meeting. Mayor and Plan Commission Chairman Thomas Taylor said the culprit was people not speaking into the microphones, not a malfunctioning recording system.

The missing dialogue concerned brick and stone surfaces as part of the hotel design.

In the original plan, the hotel's outside walls did not have enough brick and stone to meet the zoning "preferred" standards for the South 27th Street overlay district, City Planning Manager Joel Dietl said.

Within its purvey, the Plan Commission allowed those masonry materials to be relocated from the hotel's interior courtyard to north and south walls on the exterior facade.

Although Bricton Senior Vice President P. Michael Cohen and Plan Commissioner Shari Hanneman recalled having a conversation about the switch, it wasn't recorded or transcribed. City Attorney Jesse Wesolowski said there was no record of the conversation.

The issue prompted Bricton representatives to request clarification of the commission's OK of site and architectural plans.

Commissioners initially considered putting the issue on its February meeting agenda so the site plan amendment could be considered, but Cohen said preliminary construction would have to be halted for weeks, putting their projected summer opening in jeopardy.

After about 45 minutes of discussion, the commission unanimously passed a motion to eventually have city building inspectors verify relocation of brick and stone from the courtyard to the hotel's north and south facades to ensure the project is done to the commission's standards.

The commission's action allows an early construction permit to be obtained, but Dietl said Bricton has to prove that it has made the switch before a full-fledged construction permit would be issued, which would allow work on the building to begin.

 

John Neville can be reached at (262) 446-6609.