I attended last night's Parks Commission meeting, which I felt was going to have a little more energy than what was encountered relating to the Crystal Ridge site. Also at the meeting were concerned residents Jan Coenen and Kevin Klein, developer Jim O'Malley, community writer John Michlig, School Board candidate Hugo Nguyen, and Plan Commissioner/Trails Committee Chairman Dave Fowler. At issue was Crystal Ridge's special use permit.
The residents who spoke mentioned the need for improvement at Crystal Ridge, especially given the fact that the site, if fully utilized, can hold major sporting events for the region in areas such as soccer and youth football. A desire to see a year-round facility topped the remarks made by Mayor Taylor, noting that the Hampton Inn & Suites project for land north of the Citgo station on 76th & Rawson is still moving forward. The mayor noted that if the hotel opened today, guests wouldn't see one of Franklin's finest pieces of land out their windows. That view will either encourage guests to either come back to Franklin or find someplace else to stay. I'll kindly assume the mayor is believing the latter with the current state of Crystal Ridge.
At issue is the need for an additional several inches of top soil to be placed on the site. This soil would then be seeded with grass with the end result being an area that has a huge potential for various sports during the Spring-Fall months. There was also a desire to not only keep the current ski hill, but to also enhance it. The need right now is to place several more inches of top soil on the site so such activities can take place. Apparently this was the reason why the special use permit is being brought up; the owner (Milwaukee County) and/or operator/lessee was supposed to put down the top soil in a timely fashion. From what I'm hearing, this has not been done yet.
At the end of the discussion, several Parks Commission members made remarks citing the need to look at the future of Crystal Ridge, and passed a motion recommending the Common Council to actively seek a dialogue with Milwaukee County about the site's future. In my opinion, this tells me that the discussion is aiming more towards a potential collaborative effort between the City of Franklin and Village of Greendale to effectively takeover the site and "rehab" it.
