Campus plans submitted to Bay building board

The Whitefish Bay Plan Commission Tuesday advanced the process of evaluating the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s plans for the Karl Jewish Community Campus a step closer to completion.

The commission sent the MJF petition to the village Building Board for “review and recommendation.” With that action, the Plan Commission now has 120 days in which to complete its work and make its recommendation to the Village Board.

Moreover, village trustee and commission member Ted Matkom, who acted as chair for absent village president Kathleen Pritchard, set out a timetable that if followed could result in the commission completing its work well before the 120-day deadline is reached.

That timetable calls for: commission meetings on Oct. 15 and 29 to discuss issues including storm water management and security; a public hearing before the commission and village board on Nov. 5; and possible commission recommendation one or two weeks thereafter.

Earlier in the meeting, Jay Roth, executive vice president of the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center, the largest single Jewish agency housed on the campus, gave a presentation about the improvements and additions the JCC and MJF want to make to the campus’ south building.

During his presentation and in response to questions and comments from commissioners and members of the audience of about 50, Roth emphasized that the JCC and other campus agencies’ are able to control the numbers of people on the campus, keeping them under the village ordinance cap of 1,231 — and would be able to do so with the addition of the proposed outdoor swimming pool. He also said that the JCC is seeking to bring its membership back up to the level it previously had in the mid-1990s.

The MJF also submitted to the board measurements of the noise from the Cedarburg municipal pool, done by Yerges Acoustics, a consulting firm hired by the MJF.

According to Bruce Block, attorney for the MJF, Yerges found that noise levels from that pool were lower than those it projected would come from the proposed pool.

Matkom attempted to lead discussion of the traffic and swimming pool information that the commission had. However, only five of the seven members of the commission attended the meeting; and two of those present said they were feeling ill, so discussion was cut short.