Tosa Plan Commission Vote Shows TIF Likely To Happen

The early signs from the Wauwatosa Plan Commission, based on Monday's meeting, suggest the $12 million taxpayer-subsidized loan for UWM's Innovation Center on County Grounds acreage will win approval in a month or so.

We've seen this pattern before in highway planning - - private sector and public sector leaders get together, produce a plan and bring it to the public - - which says "no" - - and the plan moves forward, regardless.

It's tough to fight City Hall - - even Waukesha Mayor Jeff Scrima is finding that to be true when it comes to water planning - - and he's the Mayor.

Tosa leaders are betting the farm with this loan: it only works if the legislature, UWM and private donors come through down the line.

So residents and activists who asked all the right questions about the financing and the land and the development plan have got to continue asking them of their elected officials.

Cheryl Nenn at Milwaukee Riverkeeper offered outstanding comments to Tosa officials, and they are worth repeating and re-reading, below:

City of Wauwatosa Plan Commission

Public Hearing on UWM TIF for the County Grounds

Monday August 9, 2010

7 PM, Wauwatosa City Hall

My name is Cheryl Nenn, and I am speaking on behalf of Milwaukee Riverkeeper, formerly Friends of Milwaukee’s Rivers about the proposed $12 Million TIF for UWM to enable development of an 88.5 acre parcel that they are proposing to buy from Milwaukee County.

We are against the TIF as currently proposed, as there is no clear information about the timing of public and private development on this parcel, the phasing of infrastructure improvements, or information pertaining to how taxpayer funds will actually be used. As was written in the local paper, this TIF requires a HUGE leap of faith, and is incredibly risky, and it’s prudent that the City of Wauwatosa take its time to get this right and to protect both our natural resources and the public interest. While the $12 Million investment has the potential to bring in $81 million in the next 27 years, it also has the potential to bring in far less than that.

Our concerns are as follows:

1. The feasibility study recently completed for the City by Springsted, Inc. was based on its own admission on information provided to it by the UWM Real Estate Foundation. Before investing a huge sum of taxpayer funds into this project, the City should commission an independent feasibility study to determine whether the anticipated benefits of this project justify the costs, and not relying solely on data from parties that have a huge financial interest in the TIF passing.
2. TIF districts are usually used to help spur development of blighted areas and can be very powerful tools for revitalizing our cities. Good local examples would include the Park East Corridor, and the 30^th Street Industrial Corridor. However, using public taxpayer funds to spur private development of a high quality natural area used by wildlife and people alike seems a highly inappropriate use of a TIF and is frankly a bitter pill to swallow.
3. This TIF will support 475,000 square feet of office/retail development and 113,000 square feet of retail space. When this project started out, there was talk of an Engineering Campus and dorms—of using public lands for a public purpose. That then changed to a few UWM buildings, and some private condo development. Now we are hearing about one incubator building, some condos, and now we hear “retail” for the first time? What are our taxes being used to pay for exactly? Is this retail going to require larger parking lots or increases in the agreed upon square footage as part of the business planned development district?
4. It’s also important to note that UWM Foundation still has not purchased this property. This seems to be a chicken and the egg process, as they claim to be waiting for the TIF to pass. However, they have delayed purchasing this property twice, and are also spread really thin with other campus development projects for the Freshwater Sciences School and School of Public Health. In addition, the UW Board of Regents has not allocated any funds for this project nor given their support of it. The way I see it, this campus is third on their list of priorities.
5. Let’s state the obvious, the economy is awful. Private condo development in particular has stalled everywhere. There are at least 4 condo projects currently stalled on the Milwaukee River alone that involve many of the developers that presumably would be interested in the Eschweiler Buildings. Some stats claim there is currently a 35% vacancy rate of local condos in Milwaukee. Is development of significant new square footage of residential units on the County Grounds—both new condos and redevelopment of the Eschweiler Buildings-even realistic?? You can drive to many examples regionally of natural areas that have been destroyed with roads, sewers, and street lamps and remain largely or completely empty of development. This is a lose-lose situation, as we lose the habitat value and ecosystem services that land used to provide, and infrastructure is now a community liability and eyesore instead of an asset. We fear that the County Grounds could experience the same fate if this TIF is not employed and phased properly.
6. The Research Park across the street still has approx. 20 acres vacant and a Technology Innovation Center that is also largely underutilized. What is the real demand for space for local research facilities? How will the County Grounds location attract businesses that don’t want to go across the street to the research park, which is also close to the Medical Campus?
7. If you approve the TIF, any development should be phased. If the first phase of the UWM project is a Research Incubator building adjacent to Watertown Plank, than all utilities and roads can come off of this existing road corridor or from the adjacent Parks Administration Building. You should not use taxpayer dollars to destroy the high value habitat on the northern portion of this parcel with infrastructure development due to a hypothetical “if you build it they will come” promise from UWM. The Eschweiler Buildings do have an existing access road that could be used in the short term for any assessment work or stabilization work that needs to be done. The Business Planned Development legislation had a provision that no grading, clearing, etc occur until construction is eminent. I think this should be the same case with any infrastructure development on the northern portion of the site, where the wildlife value is higher quality. Again, the worst case scenario in my mind is that UWM builds one Incubator building on Watertown Plank, and the rest of this habitat is divided and destroyed by a road needlessly, at least until the economy picks up again, and who knows how long that is going to take?
8. Natural areas continue to be needlessly destroyed by this chicken and the egg approach to development, where cities put in infrastructure and services via TIFs and other tools to attract private development that often doesn’t materialize. In this case, the UWM public facilities will not even pay taxes. There are also impacts on City budgets/services and opportunity costs of using taxpayer money on a high risk investment instead of fixing existing sewers, funding schools, etc. We request that the TIF be better defined before passage or that you reject it. We request that City officials go slowly, and do your due diligence here to protect our natural resources and the public interest.

Thank you for your consideration of these comments.