Back in April, Mayor Taylor called a special Common Council meeting to discuss the future of the 27th Street corridor, in particular the 27th Street Steering Committee. Back then, discussion amongst the council members included several options:
- Keep the current status-quo with the committee in place and keep trudging forward
- Eliminate the committee and create a new entity that will have more oversight and attention to the development of the corridor
- Modify the committee and possibly its membership
At that time, option #2 seemed to really have support from the mayor and Common Council President, and was strongly opposed by the current Chairman of the committee, Alderman Steve Olson. The council at that time debated the issue, to which Alderman Sohns proposed a motion to "determine which members of the Common Council are willing to delegate their authority, including control over the money that is available to spend, for the implementation of the development of the 27th Street Corridor area to a separate entity." All voted YES to that motion. However, nothing came of it. That is, until now.
I attended last week's Community Development Authority (CDA) meeting. While in the past I've frowned upon our current situations with commissions, I'm glad to see Mayor Taylor is making some improvements on the CDA with Jim Mullarkey and newest member Steve Bartels taking seats on it. Apparently a refreshed CDA also means more interesting discussion at meetings, for Mayor Taylor put on the agenda recent cooperation between the cities of Greenfield and Milwaukee for their portion of 27th Street.
With the mayor making this a topic, Alderman Olson and former Steering Committee Chairman Ted Grintjes were present. The mayor noted that the agreements between Greenfield and Milwaukee are similar to what Franklin and Oak Creek currently share. The mayor also noted that the two cities plan on having a "merchants association" oversee much of the redevelopment and enhancement of the corridor, and that they plan to seek a historic designation from the federal government. For Greenfield and Milwaukee, 27th Street is simply "Historic US 41".
As a sidenote, Historic US 41 sounds a heckuva lot better than "Boomgaard District", which was the name our Steering Committee chose after a very pricey search for commercial district names via Zizzo Group. (For more on this, check out Boomgaardmania)
All of that said and done, I picked up the sense that Mayor Taylor wants to bring back discussion relating to what he was pushing for back in April - the independent entity that directly oversees development and corridor promotion for, at minimum, the City of Franklin. I believe this is why the current and former chairmen of the Steering Committee were present, because they were quick to shoot down any hints or thoughts or suggestions on the topic, indicating that the corridor is nowhere near that stage to require more in-depth oversight. It was labeled as premature. It was also said that the corridor's development still needs another 25-30 years.
Very interesting stuff, indeed. I suppose we shall see what Mayor Taylor is thinking of in the coming weeks and months.
