In a special committee-of-the-whole meeting Monday, Whitefish Bay Village Board members expressed the desire to reach a compromise over the proposed plans for expansion and renovation of the Karl Jewish Community Campus and listed issues on which they wanted more information.
Bruce Block, attorney for the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, which owns the 26-acre campus, particularly complimented a statement by village president Kathleen Pritchard, who “said well” that “a smaller scope of issues” have been identified from those studied by the village’s Plan Commission during the past summer and autumn.
Jay Roth, executive vice president of the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center, the largest of seven agencies on the campus, added that “it is appropriate” for the board to be raising questions and “it is our job to respond.”
Block and Roth lauded the various trustees’ expression of desire to find a resolution to the controversy over the plans, which has roiled the village for nearly two years. “I thought that was an important message,” said Block.
Concerns expressed by the various trustees included:
• The proposed outdoor swimming pool. As trustee Raymond Krueger said, this has become a “lightning rod” for the project. Views ranged from Krueger, who said he was “open-minded” but concerned about the proposed water slide, to trustee Ted Matkom, who said the pool would pose “a real risk to the village” because of car traffic and noise it would generate.
• The community hall. Trustee Kenneth Berg and others said they wanted to investigate further the proposed expanded community hall, which would accommodate 400 people (current capacity is 336), and especially the type and number of “special events” that would occur there.
• Parking and traffic. Trustees Thomas Schmid and Scott Beightol said the traffic studies to date did not provide them enough information about effects of the campus plans on area traffic flow and pedestrian safety. Krueger urged reconsideration of construction of underground parking at the site to minimize need for surface lots.
• Finding a balance between preserving the residential character of the neighborhood while allowing needed improvements to the campus, which trustee Joseph Rice and others said they believed is doable.
Board members asked village manager James Grassman to ask village staff to begin gathering the information needed. Grassman said he will rank the issues in priority order and will bring an “action plan” to the next village board meeting Monday.
In other news, the Fox Point Village Board, which has jurisdiction over 3.4 acres of the campus, unanimously approved a motion — proposed by Sandy Garmer and amended by Dave Rolston — to send a message to Whitefish Bay saying that at the board members’ current state of knowledge, they want the pool moved away from both proposed sites at the northwest corner of the campus near the Fox Point border.
It also approved unanimously a motion by Louise Petering for Fox Point to communicate to Whitefish Bay that the area near the proposed pool sites should be evaluated as a possible wetland by the Department of Natural Resources or other appropriate agency.
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