South Milwaukee Blog

Update: Check out coverage from Fox 6, WISN 12 and CBS 58. There is also coverage in the Journal Sentinel and New Kid’s View blog.

Walmart got final South Milwaukee City Council approval Tuesday night.

Specifically, the council gave its final backing to rezoning the land at 222 N. Chicago Avenue, the drawing of a new certified survey map for the area and the vacation and discontinuance of 11^th Avenue between Carroll and Davis Avenues.

The vote was 6-2 on all issues, with 1^st District Aldermen Frank Van Dusen III and Craig Maass voting no. Here is why I voted yes …

First, I think the majority of residents in the 4^th District support the project. It’s not a big majority, but I feel confident it’s a majority. I believed this to be the case in the weeks leading up to the vote through various and countless conversations around the district, emails and phone messages received, feedback on this blog and other sources. And I confirmed this with some leg work over the weekend, when I spent a number of hours taking an informal survey of all homeowners in the three-block radius bounded by 17^th and 18^th Avenues and Maple and Chestnut Streets.

I simply asked people at each home where they stood on Walmart – without giving them any inkling where I stood, unless asked. In other words, no “push polling.” The results? Support, by a more than 2-to-1 margin. Now, this poll was not even close to scientific, and I do think the gap between supporters and opponents in my district is closer than 2-to-1. But I do believe more than ever there are more supporters than opponents in my district.

Secondly, I personally think the project will be good for the city – specifically when it comes to the tax increment Walmart will provide. Simply put, I couldn’t get past the fact that this is a minimum $12 million development going on a contaminated piece of land that I suspect would otherwise stay vacant for a decade or more without this project moving ahead. For a city in need of revenue to maintain valuable services – and for a city and its taxpayers in need of a more diversified tax base – this is easily the most compelling argument on this issue.

That said, there were a number of valid concerns raised against the project, including many that I agreed with, including issues like traffic, impact on local businesses and a lack of formal public comment until recent weeks.

However, I also supported the project because none of these concerns, nor others I heard, was a dealbreaker on its face.

You can learn more about my position in my previous post on this.

I should also say that, in the end, I did not consider the “how Walmart does business” arguments in this case – concerns raised about how much Walmart pays its employees, or what type of benefits they provide, or from where they source their products. I don’t think these should be part of the debate for this project. Am I concerned about all of these issues? Absolutely. But these are debates that should be happening at the macroeconomic level – not among aldermen as they ponder whether or not to allow construction of a single new store.

On that point, this is a slippery slope argument for me. For if we must consider these factors with Walmart, must the City Council ask the same questions of every employer in town? And what if we don’t like how much Pick n’ Save or Walgreens or Milwaukee Avenue Mom and Pop Shop X pays its employees? What if we’re not happy with the benefits workers at Ace Hardware or Advance Auto Parts employees get?

You can see how troubling that gets … and why I put those concerns out of my mind.

Indeed, these are all points I tried to make at Tuesday’s council meeting, but was shouted down too often to make many of them. I was frankly disappointed, and saddened, with the tone of the meeting. Simply, it got ugly, much uglier than I thought it would.

I hoped for a reasonable, rational debate about the development and its impacts. Instead, we got an angry shouting match, and I left the meeting scared for my safety.

I hope readers of this blog come to realize how difficult a decision this was for me, and recognize how much time, energy, effort and thought went into this process over the last several months. I suspect I will never take a harder, more gut-wrenching vote.

In the end, however, my vote all came back to constituent support, economic development and taxes.  Those were my tipping point considerations, and I acted accordingly. I am willing to live with the consequences.

Of course, you are welcome to post your comments below. Please keep them constructive.

The City Council is expected to vote on three items related to the Walmart development at its meeting Tuesday night.

• The first is related to rezoning necessary for the development to move ahead.
• The second is consideration of resolution to approve a certified survey map to redivide the property.
• The last item is adoption of a resolution vacating and discontinuing 11th Avenue to make way for the store.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. at City Hall. Here is the agenda.

I expect another large crowd at the meeting, and all I ask is that the debate be constructive, rationale and respectful, much like it’s been on this blog. I continue to thank you all for that.

And here are a few other notes related to the Walmart development:

• The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had a story over the weekend on property value “guarantees” developers are providing local communities for projects. In South Milwauke, for example, Walmart is promising that it will pay property taxes on a  minimum $12 million property value through at least 2027. Check out the story here.
• While I am happy to discuss the issue, questions about project specifics can also be directed to South Milwaukee Economic Development Director Danielle Devlin (414-762-4114, or ddevlin@bizwi.rr.com) or City Engineer Kyle Vandercar (414-762-2222 or vandercar@ci.south-milwaukee.wi.us).
• Finally, the Friends of South Milwaukee group, organized to fight the Walmart, has launched a website. Check it out here. For balance sake, I also encourage you to read the information materials provided by the city here. And here is a good summary of tax incremental financing from Danielle.

Update: Here is a story about the Wednesday meeting on the New Kid’s View blog.

WISN 12 was in South Milwaukee to cover Wednesday’s meeting of Walmart opponents.

Check out the story and video here.

It was a fair and balanced piece that showed clearly the emotions surrounding this issue — sentiments I absolutely respect and, in some caes, agree with.

I expect to hear similar sentiments at Tuesday’s City Council meeting at 7 p.m. at City Hall. And I welcome the continued feedback.

On a related note, I want to thank readers of this blog for the tone of the ongoing dialog about the Walmart project. I appreciate the rational and intelligent nature of the debate on these pages. Dozens of people have posted comments here in the last few weeks, easily pushing blog traffic to an all-time high, and I have yet to see anything inappropriate.

It is much appreciated. I want this blog to be a respected forum for debating important community business, and readers are delivering on that promise. Thank you.

A group of residents opposed to the Walmart project is holding a public meeting at 6:30 p.m. tonight at the Knights of Columbus.

Learn more in this Journal Sentinel story.

While I favor the project — I laid out the reasons why in a previous blog post — I feel an obligation to keep people informed on key issues and events like this. And I respect the issues raised against the development, and the people raising them.

The Knights of Columbus is at 732 Badger Ave.