Sprawled Out: The Search for Community in the American Suburb

Fountains of Franklin Sendik's Groundbreaking Scheduled for FRIDAY at NOON

... Despite some blatant ankle-biting at last week's Plan Commission Common Council meeting by aldermen from outside this particular district.

Think there's not a race between Shoppes at Wyndham Village and Fountains of Franklin? Think again. And it's pretty obvious who is rooting for who.

Commercial Site Plan: The Three Rules (or, SITE PLAN TRUMPS ARCHITECTURE!)

Many of the principals of good site plan as executed in successful suburban "city center"-type commercial developments are based on old urban concepts. Simply stated, when it comes to creating public spaces, in most cases the suburban model of "single story building surrounded by asphalt" is absolute death. It's unsafe, unattractive, accessible only by vehicle, promotes isolation, non-relational to its neighboring amenities (if any), brings down surrounding property values, promotes noise and traffic, etc.

Good commercial site design, on the other hand, spurs continued desirable development, creates a vibrant (and profitable) public space, lowers noise and vehicle emissions by promoting "one trip-many stops" behavior, spreads prosperity to adjacent commercial entities, makes it possible for the elderly and disabled to move among amenities easily, fosters a sense of community, embraces nearby natural features, etc. A group of haphazardly arranged buildings, no matter how nifty each of them looks individually, won't accomplish any of this.

In short: Site plan trumps architecture.

At a great blog called CITY COMFORTS you can download a pdf chapter of City Comforts: How to Build an Urban Village by the blogger, Davis Sucher. Though he concerns himself mainly with city living, his insights into how to create and maintain interesting, useful public spaces are more than relevant in any discussion of a city center district like the one Franklin is trying to develop.

Of course, "The Three Rules" don't apply universally to all aspects of the suburban environment, but they certainly do apply in any portion of town that aspires to be the "city center" or "downtown." That means Shoppes at Wyndham Village, Fountains of Franklin, Legend Creek, etc.

Here's a short excerpt from the chapter, with emphasis and photos added by me.

THE THREE RULES

This is the most important chapter in this book. If the problem is to create a walkable, pedestrian-oriented neighborhood, much of the answer is architectural. Actually, it is not so much “architectural” in the usual sense of the word, for it ignores style. Site plan trumps architecture. That means the basic arrangement of the building on the site is far more important than what usually passes for architecture: the exterior appearance and “envelope” of the structure.

This chapter explains the Three Rules for creating such places. Let’s assume that we agree that the goal is to create this mythical urban village. How do we do it?

The key decision is the position of the building with respect to the sidewalk. This decision determines whether you have a city or a suburb.

1. Build to the sidewalk (i.e., property line).
2. Make the building front “permeable” (i.e., no blank walls).
3. Prohibit parking lots in front of the building.

The decision is a very simple one: place the building alongside the sidewalk. That’s it. Don’t make it complicated. Simply bring the building to the sidewalk. The banal and all too typical strip center below could have contributed to a pedestrian neighborhood had it been designed to work with the Rules rather than
against them.

Where do you want to shop?
TOP: Retail Hell in Minnesota.
MIDDLE and BOTTOM: Nice places to stroll and shop - old and new - in Wausau, Wisconsin. The parking is mainly BEHIND the buildings and in a central ramp, augmented by on-street parking.

If you question this, consider the places that most people like to go on vacation: New York, Paris, London, Aspen, Carmel, Nantucket, Park City, Friday Harbor, and even Disneyland. Every last one of them is built so that the building walls are right next to the sidewalk.

Historically, with only human and animal power to move goods, and with market forces in charge, it made sense to bring the building close to the street in the effort to maximize profit, creating, ironically for modern, often anticapitalist preservationists, the most charming streets.

The Rules are only a start

The Three Rules will emerge over and over again in this book. Their importance cannot be overemphasized; they are the common denominator and leit-motiv of comfortable urban spaces. They are an absolute necessity and precursor to creating pedestrian-oriented communities. But by themselves they are insufficient. There are unhealthy, inner-city neighborhoods that follow them. There are auto-dominated — but healthy — suburbs that don’t. But as a general rule the Three Rules are essential to create human settlements that have any real sense of interpersonal community.

- Excerpt from City Comforts: How to Build an Urban Village

Shoppes at Wyndham Village: Part 2 - The issue of site design

Part 2 of my analysis of the special Plan Commission meeting of last week was supposed to deal with the Plan Staff's recommendations and the group referred to euphemistically as "our neighbors to the North." A seemingly inconsequential motion that was passed at this Tuesday's Common Council Meeting has prompted me to change the order somewhat.

Most (if not all) of my personal criticism of Shoppes at Wyndham Village has had nothing to do with the content of the development, contrary to the meanderings of local bloggers who are almost comically fulfilling marching orders handed out in smoke-filled rooms via desperate, adolescent-level taunts and strange innuendo.

No, the problem is SITE PLAN - - - in other words: the relationship of the individual structures in a development with one another and the surrounding natural features; accessibility and usability by elderly and physically challenged people; integration into present and planned surrounding amenities and systems, etc.

In its most reductive state, SITE PLAN is simply the arrangement of buildings, sidewalks, streets and parking.

So, you can have the best architecture available, but if you arrange the site plan like a strip mall, it's dismal and it fails. On the other hand, perfectly average looking architecture can be arranged in a well thought-out site plan and you have something that's fantastic.

But, evidently, criticize a poor site plan and you are "against development." Because, after all, "look at how nice the individual buildings look!" This is painfully true at the Fountains of Franklin Sendik's; a wonderful store with a nice looking building that all but bares it's naked butt in defiance and disdain to the neighborhood behind it - - the neighborhood it should serve! TERRIBLE site design.

A reader emailed me to ask, "So, WHY such a poor, vehicle-centric site plan at Shoppes? I mean, who really stands to gain from not breaking up the uninterrupted parking lot in front of Target and Sendik's as long as they keep the same amount of parking stalls?"

Why not position some buildings and landscaped walkways in that huge, forbidding space to make for a safer and more pleasant public space, you ask?

The answer reared up in an unassuming little resolution passed at this past Tuesday's Common Council meeting. It read as follows (and passed without debate):

Resolution conditionally approving a 3-lot Certified Survey Map, being a division of a part of the southeast 1/4 of Section 8, Township 5 North, Range 21 East, in the City of Franklin, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin (MEC Holdings I, LLC, applicant) (approximately 7700 S. Lovers Lane Road).

The resolution describes the plot of land that will be Shoppes at Wyndham Village: 4 parcels become one, and then one gets carved into a strangely-shaped 3 parcels. Note the especially odd geometry of LOT 2:

Wait a minute - that's awfully familiar. Let's pop that shape on a site plan:

Ah-HA! Suddenly that shape is not so arbitrary and strange. The lots have been re-drawn so that the Target strip mall and parking block are perfectly delineated - Target's own little world in a tidy package.

Still wonder why there are no buildings in that yellow zone?

PREDICTION: Though Target starts life at Shoppes on a lease (and thereby controlled to some extent by a local owner, Mark E. Carstensen [MEC] Holdings), MEC will eventually sell the building and lot "package" to Target Corporate and make a great deal of money. The "outbuilding area," Lot 1, will be an ongoing source of lease and rental income for MCE while Target is no longer subject to any oversight by MEC Holdings. Have a complaint about round-the-clock trucking and loading? Get in line at Target corporate in Minneapolis; it won't be MEC Holdings' problem anymore.

What if that self-owned Target suddenly wants to sell more groceries (as is the trend in Targets nationwide, in stores called "Target Greatlands")? Sendik's - with another Sendik's a mere three miles away - won't be able to appeal to the Shoppes owner. 

If I'm right, there is no value judgment being made here; it's just good business and a development company has every right to maximize their return on an investment. But, if I'm right, now you know one of the reasons why good, sound site plan principals - - the kind that promote community, interconnect city amenities, make life easier for the elderly and those with mobility difficulties, incorporate natural features, lessen our dependence on vehicles, and create vibrant, welcoming public spaces - - - are often trumped by the bottom line.

And, as you can see below, the Sendik's facade as created for Shoppes at Wyndham Village (top) is eerily ready-made for eventual assimilation into a monster Target Greatland (bottom). Kind of gives you shivers.

ABOVE: Shoppes at Wyndham Village Sendik's

BELOW: Target Greatland

(Target Greatland photographed by John Reed a few weeks prior to store opening on Oct. 10th, 2004. Taken with a series of photographs using a Canon S410 and later stitched together using Canon PhotoStitch.)

 

Trouble at Fountains of Franklin Sendik's? UPDATE: Not really...

Even as the "Andy's" sign goes up across the street and earth-moving machines begin their work on the Sendik's site, there's this enigmatic news item on the Franklinnow.com web site:

The Franklin Common Council Monday tabled a resolution for a development agreement for Sendik's at Fountains of Franklin at South 51st Street and Rawson Avenue.

Even though the agreement was put on hold, work can begin on the the infrastructure of the store.

In a community where TWO Sendik's stores are competing to see who gets built first, this is very, very interesting. More after I listen to tapes of the meeting and see specifically what issues were raised - - and, more importantly, who raised them ...

UPDATE: Based on my interpretation of what I heard on the meeting tape, the resolution is tabled merely to iron out issues related to median landscaping and responsibility for the retention pond. No big deal - one wonders why Franklinnow.com didn't report a bit more on the relative non-issue rather than post such a provocative fragment.

Fountains of Franklin gains focus: Part 2

Sendik's looks like it's a go for the corner of 51st and Rawson, and that's a good thing. (As soon as my records request is answered, there'll be a site plan here.)

However ...

From FranklinNow's coverage of last week's plan commission meeting:

The [Sendik's] site plan was approved with several conditions. Deliveries will not be allowed between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m.; truck refrigeration units must be shut off during late night and early morning. Outdoor seating will be prohibited at the location. In addition, beefed-up screening - to be approved at a later date by the commission or planning staff - will be added to the north end of the lot to help muffle noise and deflect headlights and other problems for residents in the nearby subdivision.

It should be noted that the actual owner/operators of the planned Fountains of Franklin Sendik's were not present when it was decided during the course of the meeting that, for instance, deliveries will not be allowed between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. One imagines a bit of pique when developer Greg Devorkin reports that particular stipulation back to "the boys" (as he referred to the Balestreris).

More odd - - and incredibly indicative of the scourge of sprawl development - - is the fact that the subdivision adjacent to the Sendik's lot had to be "mitigated,"  "shielded" and "screened." The first site plans, evidently, faced bare, unadorned walls and the loading dock toward the neighborhood. It was only after developer Greg Devorkin met with residents of the subdivision that changes were made to deal with (or even acknowledge) the neighborhood's proximity.

But that's the point: Suburban sprawl development practices - - - 481-page unified development ordinance notwithstanding - - - make it a dead-lock certainty that retail establishments will be designed to appeal to the ROAD and literally turn its back to the PEOPLE in a neighborhood for which it could represent a wonderful resource. Since the initial site plan disregarded the needs of the adjacent subdivision, the residents of the nearby neighborhood had no choice but to do the best they could to "wall off" the loading dock and parking lot that faces them. Who wants that stuff staring at them?

Though the Sendik's store will be great to have nearby, it's very, very unfortunate that there seemed at no time to be thought of a store that served the neighborhood as well as the traffic on Rawson. Imagine how wonderful it would have been to see the North and West sides of the site plan open itself to the nearby residents as a place to bike and walk to for coffee, a few groceries, and even outdoor dining within a few minutes walk of their houses. What an outstanding, community-building amenity for any neighborhood!

Forget all that, though: Given the current plan, residents of the nearby Serenity Estates subdivision will have to get into their car and drive to Sendik's like everyone else.

Adding insult to injury to an attractive store facade whose most striking feature is a nifty retractable awning: "Outdoor seating will be prohibited at the location"! I've gone over my nine pages of notes and the recording of the meeting, and I can't for the life of me determine when and how that stipulation entered the process. No relaxing outside with a muffin and a coffee? No monthly farmers market? No possibility of a wonderful, vibrant public area?

I guess there'll be a part 3 to this topic ....

Fountains of Franklin gains focus: Part 1

After some time out of the limelight due to the hubbub surrounding Shoppes at Wyndham Village, The Fountains of Franklin had the Plan Commission stage to themselves at the 5/3/07 meeting. Mark Carstensen's 11th hour request to pull "Shoppes" from the agenda meant Fountains occupied the entire session.

After a flurry of press releases proclaiming enormous square footage, the developers of Fountains came before the Plan Commission with what could be called stage one; a 58,700-square-feet Sendik's grocery store on a 7.1-acre lot that it will  eventually share with a bank.

The mayor was moving briskly to a vote on approval for the site when Aldermen Steve Olson (District 1) and Lyle Sohns (District 5, within which Fountains would be built) agitated for a halt, asking why there would be no public hearing on the matter. A group from the neighborhood adjoining the development were in attendance and obviously expected to be heard.

"I have issues. Mr. Mayor, this is the first time I have ever been to one of these meetings - - in your tenure, in the tenure of Fred Klimetz - - that the public has not been allowed comment," Alderman Olson said, with Alderman Sohns joining in as well. Alderman Olson pressed on, adding that he'd first seen the plans the previous Monday.

The city attorney assured all assembled that no public hearing was needed, and added that he didn't recall public hearings on site plans before the Plan Commission previously.

"Well, can we have one?" Alderman Sohns asked. The mayor then allowed public comment, which mainly revolved around the concerns residents of the Serenity Estates subdivision somewhat adjacent to the planned Sendik's.

More on that and the intriguing implications thereof in Part 2, where I'll take a look at issues of human scale and neighborhood integration into a commercial zone, two facets that are once again being given short shrift at an otherwise positive commercial project.

Plan commission to discuss Fountains and Shoppes on Thursday

The Franklin Plan Commission meets this Thursday at 7pm at the Law Enforcement Center in the Municipal Court Room. Both Fountains of Franklin and Shoppes at Wyndham Village are scheduled to be discussed, which may account for the larger-than-normal venue. This is information from the pre-posted agenda:

Fountains of Franklin

1. (Certified Survey Map) To allow for the reconfiguration of 3 existing lots to 2 new lots and 1 outlot.

2. (Site Plan) To allow an up-scale grocery store called Sendik’s at Fountains of Franklin with approximately 58,700 square feet on approximately 7.1 acres.

Shoppes At Wyndham Village

1. (Certified Survey Map) To allow for the reconfiguration of 4 existing lots to 3 new lots.

2. (Site Plan) To allow an up-scale, retail center called The Shoppes at Wyndham Village with approximately 251,000 square feet of commercial development consisting of eight (8) buildings on approximately 38.7 acres.

Fountains of Franklin: What a difference nearly a year makes

Not much, evidently.

June 7, 2006:

Today:

"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].