Updated March 4 at 2:31 p.m. CDT
Thursday evening, the Wauwatosa Design Review Board affirmed its earlier approval of the Drew Tower project. The neighborhood association says it's "reviewing the process to further appeal to the City's Board of Appeals or otherwise."
Original story:
The fate of the proposed tallest building in the Milwaukee area, outside of what's in downtown Milwaukee, may become clearer Thursday night. A Wauwatosa committee is scheduled to take a second look at a controversial 28-story office and apartment tower planned for near the Milwaukee County Zoo.
It's also a case study of high-rises in the suburbs.
Much of the dispute is along W. Mount Vernon Ave., just south of Bluemound Rd. and west of Highway 100, or Mayfair Rd. /108th St. There's a residential neighborhood here of dozens of houses, where many people are upset at the idea of a very tall new neighbor that would be seen for miles.
Resident Indy Stluka is with the grassroots group Still a Suburb-Wauwatosa. He says Drew Tower, the name of the 28-story complex planned for the now-vacant lot, would be way too tall.
"We're not afraid of height. We just want reasonable height, where we don't have a building that blocks out the sun, blocks our view or just towers over us," Stluka tells WUWM.
A development group led by local restaurant owner John Vassallo is proposing Drew Tower, which in earlier plans had more apartment units, but fewer stories. Vassallo's attorney Brian Randall says design changes have been made over the last year that will move the tower toward the northeast edge of the vacant property and lessen the shadow on the neighborhood.
"The tower is very slender. It's right on the far corner. And the way the sun moves in this particular area, [the shadow] really goes to the north across the intersection. Mr. Vassallo actually owns properties to the north, so his own properties, to the extent there are concerns about shadows, would be impacting him. But the sun moves, as we all know, constantly throughout the day. So, a shadow is during one ten-minute interval, then moves away," Randall says.
But the way the tower's promoters have brought the plan back to life also has some people complaining about democracy being left in the dark. Wauwatosa leaders rejected the project about a year ago. But after the design changes, the plan no longer needed approval from the common council. Instead the city's Design Review Board, made up of eight local architects or designers but no elected officials, OKed the revised Drew Tower plans in January.
Randall says the project is just following the city's rules for commercial corridors. "There are requirements for projects that if they meet all of those requirements, they are what's known as a permitted use. And a permitted use does not need to go to the common council for a vote or approval from the mayor. And frankly, if every use out there had to go through a vote, government would be having 24-hour meetings, seven days a week," he says.
But Still a Suburb-Wauwatosa spokesperson Stluka has a different interpretation of a Wauwatosa ordinance spelling out powers of the Design Review Board.
"It says that they are able to review site location and appropriateness into the neighborhood. We already had the plan commission, which reviews the appropriateness against the comprehensive plan, and they already said a 25-story and a 20- story building is not compatible. How does a 28-story become compatible?" Stluka asks.
The Design Review Board's vote in January was 4 -2. Stluka says he hopes all eight members attend Thursday night's revisiting of that decision. But developer attorney Randall sent Wauwatosa officials a letter Wednesday arguing that only the six people who voted the first time can review the matter.
The controversy in Wauwatosa is at least the second local dispute over proposed high-rise suburban buildings in recent years. A proposed 30-story building that critics called the Bayside Skyscraper was eventually rejected.
UW-Milwaukee Professor Carolyn Esswein of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning says it's clear some developers see a market for building tall in the suburbs. But she says the battles there are different from more traditional ones downtown.
"If you think of downtown, you're not the only tall building. When you talk about downtown height, it's about are you blocking the view of another tall building, right? Are you changing their value and perspectives? We're not talking about blocking views at the intersection of Mayfair Road and Bluemound. But what we're talking about is the shadow and impact it creates for all the adjacent landowners," Esswein says.
Esswein says taller suburban development will likely continue near other amenities like shopping areas and parkways.
Whether there are more 28-story structures may depend on what's eventually allowed for Drew Tower in Wauwatosa. The neighbors say the Design Review Board may not be the last venue at which they challenge the project.
