In the continuing battle over the proposed expansion of the Karl Jewish Community Campus, an estimated 150 Whitefish Bay opponents of the plan placed signs on their lawns saying “Stop JCC Expansion; Village Neighborhoods in Jeopardy,” and in some cases “House for Sale.”
The signs were placed at least a week before the Whitefish Bay Plan Commission was to decide on a pre-petition regarding the project last Tuesday evening. The commission gave the petition preliminary approval (see story above).
The homes, however, are not really for sale — though when this reporter inquired about purchasing one of them, one resident on Bay Ridge Ave. said she would sell her house if the project received village government approval. She claimed many other residents would sell as well.
Glendale resident Glen Jeansonne had been thinking of moving to the area when he noticed the protest signs while taking his two children to school at Hillel Academy, located in the campus’ north building.
“Since I was looking for a bigger house, I drove back later in the afternoon … and rang a doorbell at a home,” said Jeansonne. “The woman said the houses weren’t really for sale but that they were trying to make a point that the JCC had these vast plans for expansion that would ruin the neighborhood. She said they were building a huge hall that would fit 450 people and a water park.”
Jeansonne said he later met with officials at the JCC who showed him the expansion plans. “The plans were a lot more modest than the woman made them sound. What she called a ‘water park’ [amounted] to a slide at the outdoor pool,” he said. Officials also told him that the community hall’s capacity is 400 people.
While it is not illegal to place phony “For Sale” signs in front of one’s home, the ethics of the ploy are questionable, according to some local realtors.
Said Shel Gendelman, a realtor who lives in Whitefish Bay: “There is no law against putting up fake for sale signs, but it’s definitely unethical. It’s a subterfuge, just like the complaints about the traffic issue and car lights. I can’t believe educated people living in Whitefish Bay resort to this kind of tactic. They are using subterfuge to try to kill the whole project.”
Mike Wallace, a realtor for Realty Executives, has been trying to sell a home located on Santa Monica Blvd. near the campus. He said the protest signs had “some negative impact” on his efforts to sell homes in the area.
“To be honest with you, I don’t know what all is planned as far as the expansion, but I do feel that all the signs are not contributing to my effort,” Wallace said.
“It is like a self-fulfilling prophecy,” said Jay Roth, executive vice president of the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center, the largest agency on the campus. “If you keep knocking the area you live in, you are diminishing the quality of life in your neighborhood by saying ‘This is not a nice neighborhood.’
“We have documented in the past and now through independent studies that the fear of property values decreasing as a result of the JCC is unfounded. Our opponents said the same thing in 1985 … and in 1991, and their fears have not been borne out.”
The JCC conducted major “renovations” to the south building in 1987 and added the Rubenstein Building on the south side of the north building in 1991, according to Bert Bilsky, associate executive vice president of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, which owns the campus.
“We bought the property in 1985,” said Bilsky. “Now we need to make changes because times have changed. It’s not like we have been making changes every year. The last time we [made major renovations was] ten years ago. [This time] we are not increasing the amount of traffic or [number of] people that are being allowed to come to the site.”
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