To paraphrase John Donne, no institution in a suburb or other residential district is an island, whether it is a Jewish community center or something else. If it wants to develop or expand its facility or operations, neighbors will have concerns that could become opposition to the plans.
Therefore, much of what is currently happening in Whitefish Bay concerning the Karl Jewish Community Campus, and specifically, between the Harry & Rose Samson Family JCC — which wants to expand its facilities and services — and those members of the village citizenry and government who oppose the plans or want them scaled back is not unusual, according to people in the JCC field.
“JCCs are built where Jews live, and that’s in the suburbs,” said Jane Gellman, president of the Milwaukee JCC’s board. “The people most active in JCCs are people who live closest to them. If we want to accomplish our mission, we need to be in the heart of the Jewish community.”
It is also common for such problems and concerns to be successfully addressed and resolved, allowing JCCs not only to thrive but also to become community assets, say JCC professionals.
Leonard Rubin and Alan Mann, senior vice presidents of the Jewish Community Centers Association of North America, told The Chronicle in a recent telephone interview that “lots of JCCs who have built [new or expanded facilities] have experienced” scenarios similar to what is being played out here.
“Generally, anyone who builds a JCC in a suburban area is going to cause more traffic” and neighbors often will object to “the idea of noise and traffic,” said Rubin. Moreover, “sometimes the land on which such a JCC sits is “off the tax rolls,” Rubin added.
Mann said JCCs are “subject to the same scrutiny any developer is subjected to.” Some JCCs and communities are able to resolve issues smoothly, in others the situation is “more stormy,” Mann said.
What usually “wins the day,” said Mann, is the JCC being able to make the case that it provides services to the local community.
Staten Island
Lewis Stolzenberg, who has been in the JCC business some 30 years, 21 of them as executive director of the JCC of Staten Island, N.Y, apparently has been able to make such a case.
“I’ve seen many buildings, built a few myself; and the community has always been delighted with what they’ve gained,” Stolzenberg told The Chronicle.
His JCC is presently “in the midst of getting the final stages of our approvals” for an expansion plan. Right now, he said, the most serious resistance is coming from an environmental group concerned about protecting a species of tree on the property.
These plans are not as “substantial” as those for Milwaukee. For example, the Staten Island JCC already has an outdoor swimming pool, which Milwaukee’s JCC wants to build.
Still, “we’ve built before” and “we’re doing whatever we have to do by government regulations,” said Stolzenberg. “We’re overcoming the objections.”
Stolzenberg said it took “a few years” of working with the community board, but it eventually “voted unanimously” to approve the JCC’s plans. “Sometimes people are threatened by change, rather than looking at all the assets it brings,” he said. “It’s good for a community to sit down with a JCC and work together.”
He said a JCC “makes the value of the land and properties around increase,” and that such issues as traffic and general noise can be overcome. An outdoor pool, for example, “can’t be heard 15 feet away outdoors, especially if it is surrounded properly by bushes and trees that will keep the noise level inside,” Stolzenberg said.
Paula Zucker, director of marketing at the Marcus JCC of Atlanta, went into even more detail about how her JCC worked with neighborhood residents to address their concerns about major expansion and reconfiguration plans.
This JCC is located in the suburb of Dunwoody, which has “a strong neighborhood association…,” said Zucker. “Because of that, we felt it was important to develop relations with them over the course of two-and-a-half to three years.”
She said one of the JCC’s vice presidents was a member of the neighborhood association and acted as liaison. She also said the JCC was prompt to make changes in its operations in response to neighbors’ concerns — such as moving the day camp to the back of the property and having day camp officials communicate with cell phones and walkie-talkies instead of bullhorns, to minimize noise.
Moreover, when neighbors complained about lights from the JCC shining into their homes, Zucker said that contractors and the JCC’s executive director, president and architect visited those homes and took care of the problem.
When the Atlanta JCC wanted to expand and reconfigure, it took an approach similar to the one used by project leaders in Whitefish Bay. “We had meetings with the neighborhood as soon as we had our plans laid out,” said Zucker. “We made it very clear to them that if they had concerns they could call and talk about it.”
“It turned out to be a win-win situation,” Zucker said. “We win knowing the neighborhood is happy. They win knowing they have a community center open to the entire community in their backyard.”
According to comments by Milwaukee Jewish Federation and JCC officials during the presentation of the expansion plans to the Whitefish Bay plan commission on June 19, many of these types of concerns have been addressed, or will be addressed over the next few months as more information on the project is presented.
Gellman said that “It has always been a high priority for the [Milwaukee] JCC and the Milwaukee Jewish Federation [which owns the Karl Jewish Community Campus, location of the JCC and other agencies] to do what it took to get along with the neighbors.”
“One result of that,” she continued, “is that we’ve seen everyone, whether they support the plans or not, saying that we have been good neighbors. It’s important to remember that staying good neighbors will continue to be important.”
Loading ...