For the past several years, the 27th Street Corridor has been the site of tons of activity in terms of commercial development. This has been courtesy of several TIF (tax-incremental financing) district set-up along the corridor on both sides of the street. Franklin and Oak Creek are supposedly working jointly on this endeavor; it remains to be seen, however, as to how much Franklin will allow Oak Creek's vacuum cleaner to suck in terms of taxpayer dollars. A prime example of this? The Drexel Interchange.
It has been argued by many elected officials at City Hall that Franklin has not contributed one penny towards the proposed interchange at I-94 & Drexel Avenue. Unfortunately, as resident Scott Thinnes tried to point out several times, Oak Creek and several state representatives got the upper hand on us back in June.
While there was already a Memorandum of Understanding between the two communities with regards to funding for street improvements and enhancements along the corridor, a newer one was drafted and presented to the councils for approval. Franklin approved the MOU at the June 16th, 2009 council meeting, while Oak Creek hesitated and held off until June 29th, citing difficulty of understanding the document and needing more time. On the 29th, Oak Creek approved it.
I believe Franklin's leaders should have done the same in terms of holding off for further review.
In the document, if you go all the way down to the bottom is an item that, according to my conversations with Thinnes, was inserted at the last minute. The last item (Item VI) dictates that, as of right now, both Franklin and Oak Creek have ponied up $500,000 a-piece to the State of Wisconsin to cover 100% of the state's committed funding of the 27th Street Corridor's streetscaping (landscaping, lighting, etc). The item further notes that if the State of Wisconsin decides to ultimately fund their full share of the Drexel Interchange, the state will essentially give back the funds to the communities and go about business like this MOU never existed. Essentially, because Franklin and Oak Creek took up the state's $1 million share on 27th Street, good results are expected from Madison on the Drexel Interchange.
Thanks to some key state representatives, Franklin leaders voted on a MOU that basically commits Franklin tax dollars towards a project where the majority of taxpayers didn't want a penny committed. The Common Council voted unanimously for the MOU.
Last but not least, perhaps it should be known that both communities are now putting up $1 million a-piece for the 27th Street Corridor for streetscaping, rather than $500,000. This was made known at the Oak Creek Common Council meeting on June 29th, where Alderman Toman said the following:
See the following attachments, including the June 29th Common Council meeting which has some highlighted portions of interest that ALL Franklin residents should read.
