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Health & Fitness

What Does "Village Center Redevelopment" Mean? It Means Apartments

Apartments in the Village Center in the parking lot on Parking Street.

What is your “View” of “Village Center Redevelopment”?

If you have not heard in the last few months, the  There are five different plans attached here from the Village of Greendale website to place apartment buildings in the parking lot behind Parking Street where you have experienced Green Markets and Village Days in the past. 

These plans include one to three apartment buildings which appear to be two to three stories tall and could house from 42 to 88 apartments in this small area.  and argued that this would create too much congestion in this small space.  The Village Manager, President and Board members that were at the meeting argued that all parking spaces would be retained and could be moved over to the athletic field of the Middle School.

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The board states that this space is underdeveloped and underused.  If you have visited this area in the past, the parking lot is used for the Green Market, Village Days, 4th of July Celebrations and daily for the Church, Middle School and parking for the shops in the Village. 

What the main point at this meeting seemed to boil down to is that this would add $10 million dollars towards the tax base, but also adds to the tax burden which was not acknowledged at the meeting.  The board argued that the apartments would increase Greendale’s tax base and that these properties would revitalize the Village Center.  The theory is that the residents in these apartments would support the village shops and restaurants and keep more stores from closing.  The Manager also stated that downtowns “all over the nation” are revitalizing with apartments and cited the City of Milwaukee as an example Greendale should use for growth.

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But we are not the City of Milwaukee, if we wanted to live there we would. This is about our historic Village and preserving what is special and unique about us.  To put this in relative terms, the senior living complex just erected in the parking lot has 90 units; one of the proposed plans has 88 units.  Imagine the congestion created by putting such large buildings into such a small space, looming over the Village Center.

According to the most recent census, Greendale has over 14,000 residents and most know about the shops in the village and it is unlikely that occupants of the 88 apartments would create enough revenue to maintain shops when the rest of us have failed to do so.  In a later discussion with President John Hermes, he debated the fact that the Village Center had to add these buildings to become financially viable and that shops had closed because the Village had not done enough to support our shopping center.  I argued the fact that the economy and recession had a large factor in shops closing, Mr. Hermes disagreed that the economy had a sufficient factor in the closing of the recent lost shops in the Village.  We need to have elected officials who will do what is best for the Village and not just what will bring the most money, despite the negative impact in the Village.  We need officials who will listen to the facts and not just argue that their view is the only right view.

Furthermore, the target tenants in this complex are still undefined at the present time.  The Village Manager desires a target renter as a “Young up and coming professionals” but realizes that you cannot discriminate against low income housing.  It was later discussed that it could be restricted to senior housing but that fact has not been finalized at this time.  We must be conscious of what New Berlin just went through when they tried to deny low income housing in a new complex; this matter is still being debated in court.

The planning commission insists that this is a discussion phase of this project and that more people have to speak their opinions on this matter.   Attached is are the five concept possibilities. They can also be viewed at the , and online at the Village website.  Whatever your opinion is on this project, you should let your representatives know.  Attend the village meetings on the first and third Tuesday of each month, right letters, send emails or call your representatives, that is what they are there for.  Make your voice heard before it is too late.  The reaction to the gallery comments was listened to but it felt dismissive of our arguments.   

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Sue Ory, who has lived in the village for 74 years and is one of the few founding residents left, when she heard about the plans said,  ”I am glad I lived here when I did, when they are done ruining it I won’t be here anymore.”

Village President:  John Hermes: (414) 423-2100, jhermes@greendale.org

Village Manager:  Todd Michaels:  (414) 423-2100, tmichaels@greendale.org

Board of Trustees: 

Jim Birmingham:   (414) 421-4661, jbirmingham@greendale.org

Ron Barbian:         (414) 525-1999, rbarbian@greendale.org

Sally Chadwick:     (414) 421-8163, schadwick@greendale.org

Carl Genz:            (414) 421-4444, cgenz@greendale.org

Allan Sikorski:       (414) 421-3854, asikorski@greendale.org

Greg Turay:           (414) 529-8804, gturay@greendale.org        

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