The Fox Point Village Board Tuesday sent to the village plan commission that part of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s proposals for renovations on the Karl Jewish Community Campus that affect the 3.4 acres of the 27-acre campus that lie in that village.
Among the approximately 25 people who attended were those active in the opposition in Whitefish Bay, where much of the campus is located.
Of the six members of the seven-member board present, five approved referring the matter to the plan commission, with trustee Elizabeth S. K. Garmer dissenting. She contended that Fox Point ought to wait until Whitefish Bay “works through the nuts and bolts on their side.”
She particularly noted that the plans call for reconfiguring the campus’s north parking lot, which she said is “geared toward” construction of a new outdoor swimming pool on Whitefish Bay land in the north part of the campus, which has not yet been approved. (The earlier version of the plans, submitted in 2001, also called for reconfiguring the north lot, and had the pool located near the JCC’s building in the center of the campus.)
Village president Michael West several times reminded audience and board members that the board meeting was not a hearing about the sought rezoning. The plan commission, he said, could meet, schedule a public hearing on the proposal and obtain information from the Bay and the MJF; or could decide to table the matter pending the Bay’s decision.
The board also approved an amendment suggested by a resident requiring notice of future meetings about the campus be mailed to all southern Fox Point residents.
In a telephone interview Monday, Jay Roth, executive vice president of the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center, the largest agency housed on the campus, said the federation and JCC are “starting a process” in Fox Point that will go “concurrently with the effort in Whitefish Bay.”
“We want to start the process so when we are finished in Whitefish Bay, we are close to completing it in Fox Point” and “are addressing the needs of both communities,” Roth said.
Between the board meeting Tuesday and the first plan commission meeting on the subject — which village clerk Constance McHugh said would be at a yet unscheduled time in August — the campus will hold “a community open house and community tours,” to give Fox Point residents and officials “the opportunity to see [the campus’s] north building,” Roth said.
In addition to reconfiguring the north parking lot, the proposed plans call for construction of an addition to the north building, most of which lies in Fox Point and which houses Hillel Academy, the Milwaukee Jewish Day School, the Children’s Lubavitch Living and Learning Center and the Coalition for Jewish Learning, the federation’s education program.
The plans also call for modifying the entrance to the north lot, which faces the intersection of Santa Monica Blvd. and School Rd. Roth said this “will hopefully improve” the traffic situation there, and “we are looking forward to that dialogue.”
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