Officials of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation and the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center welcomed the Whitefish Bay village plan commission’s decision to obtain “additional information from the federation and neighborhood groups,” as village president James Gormley put it, about proposed plans for expanding and renovating the JCC.
Nevertheless, they were “disappointed” with Whitefish Bay village manager James Thomas’ critique of the plans on Tuesday night.
At a commission meeting held in the Whitefish Bay High School Auditorium, MJF and JCC officials and associates and an audience estimated at more than 400 heard Gormley and others on the commission laud the JCC’s cooperation with the village over the 13 years that it has been at the site at N. Santa Monica Blvd.
Commission member and village trustee Ted Matkom said that the JCC has “been a blessing” for the village and said many Bay citizens have told him the JCC has been “an excellent neighbor.”
Nevertheless, in his presentation after MJF and JCC officials and associates outlined the proposed project, Thomas contended:
• That “The village cannot support nor recommend any expansion” of the JCC.
• That the JCC violated many aspects of the village ordinance that created the Karl Jewish Community Campus as a “planned development district” — the only such district in the village.
• That the JCC “needs to address current issues” — including parking, traffic, drainage, noise, safety and security — and “consider renovation, not expansion.”
Stephen Chernof, chair of the MJF steering committee for the project, said after the meeting that the Thomas’ presentation “was inaccurate. I would hope the village would see us as a positive member of the community and an addition to community life.”
Jane Gellman, JCC president, said, “It was unfortunate that [Thomas] made such a strong statement so early in the process,” particularly when full reports on such issues as traffic and drainage had not yet been given to the commission. “I hope we can get past that,” she said.
But Jay Roth, JCC executive vice president, said that nevertheless, MJF and JCC officials “got what we wanted: the right to come back with what we know is a complex issue for the village.” He also said that many issues raised by village officials and citizens “we can address and have already in our material.”
However, Roth also insisted that “We can’t just renovate.” The existing JCC facility “cannot be adapted to meet the needs of the center and the community. We can’t work without added space,” Roth said.
As Gormley stated at the start, the meeting Tuesday was a “pre-application in advance of a petition for rezoning,” and therefore only “the first step” in the process by which the village government would decide whether to allow the changes.
He emphasized that the meeting was intended to be an informational and “working” meeting, not “the public hearing” on whether to grant the rezoning and allow the JCC to proceed.
Nevertheless, backers and opponents of the JCC’s plans mobilized in force for the meeting, seeming to divide the audience nearly in half, to judge from the applause that followed speakers on each side. The JCC arranged bus and van transportation for at least 80 people to the meeting.
Some members of the audience supportive of the JCC used the comments portion of the meeting to point out the JCC’s contributions to the Whitefish Bay community and in their lives. Those opposing the plans more often raised questions on such topics as the safety of children living on the side streets near the site, how long construction would take and potential noise and traffic.
Eric Fine, a Bay resident and JCC advocate, raised the issue of whether anti-Semitism motivated some of the opposition to the JCC’s plans, to boos and hisses from many other audience members.
Whitefish Bay resident Dean Zemel called that reaction a “disgusting” put down of a person for his perceptions, whether or not those perceptions were accurate.
Other JCC advocates raised questions about whether the JCC is being treated fairly in comparison to other village institutions, like schools and churches, and whether the village had considered what would occur if the JCC decided to vacate the property.
When asked about these issues, Chernof said, “The steering committee will consider all the issues raised by the village and the residents over the next few weeks and how to respond to them in an appropriate manner.”
As presented by MJF and JCC officials and associates to the plan commission in the early part of the meeting, the project entails:
• Constructing three additions to the south and north buildings on the Karl Campus, which would expand the JCC’s athletic, community and child-care services and increase classroom space and facilities at Hillel Academy, the Milwaukee Jewish Day School and other agencies in the north building.
• Building an outdoor swimming pool/water park for summer use for which the JCC would offer 250 summer memberships to Bay residents.
• Increasing the number of parking spaces from 372 to 627.
• Building a “loop” road from the Devon/Kent intersection through the site to Santa Monica Blvd., which would no longer serve as the main entrance.
• Increasing maximum number of users permitted at the site at any one time from 1,231 to 1,399; and extend permitted hours of operation.
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