City Councils and Village Boards have enormous impact on your quality of life.
Updates on Strauss Brands slaughterhouse in Franklin and Kohler-Andrae golf course development
It is comforting to assume that municipal governments, being the most “local,” are the most keenly responsive to the will of their constituents. But municipal politicians – members of city councils and county and village boards – are highly susceptible to pressure from the business community, often because they have close ties with local businesses and are themselves business owners.
Residents in the Milwaukee County suburb of Franklin are fighting a battle with their Common Council over Strauss Brands’ bid to construct a 152,035-square-foot meatpacking plant at West Loomis Road and Monarch Drive, next to the proposed Ryan Meadows subdivision.
The site now includes wetlands and is adjacent to a conservancy area; bald eagles are routinely sighted there.
Last October, the Franklin Common Council voted down Strauss Brands’ bid to construct the plant. Strauss had earlier dropped its bid to locate at Milwaukee’s Century City business park due to local opposition. But the company appears to be doubling down when it comes to Franklin.
In November, the Franklin Common Council reversed its decision, with Mayor Steve Olsen providing a tie-breaking vote in favor of the project. It all came down to Ald. Shari Hanneman, who brought the motion up for reconsideration and changed her vote because, she told MJS, she “got taken to the woodshed” by constituents. Those “constituents” were likely members of the Franklin Business Consortium, who said in an open letter that public meetings on the development were “detrimental to the health and future of Franklin businesses and thus the citizens of Franklin.” The letter further threatened that some businesses considering expansion in Franklin were now “questioning our trust in the city.”
According to a complaint filed in December by Franklin Community Advocates, the proposed slaughterhouse raises zoning concerns because of its proximity to a residential neighborhood. The complaint also alleges that Strauss Brands representatives engaged in a “vigorous” lobbying campaign with city politicians and even “met in secret” with Mayor Olsen, resulting in open meetings violations.
Residents in Franklin opposing the slaughterhouse formed Franklin Community Advocates. The group has gathered more than 5,000 signatures of residents opposed to the project, according to the debut issue of its newsletter.
In that same issue, some interesting facts about the proposed project came to light. The Franklin Common Council approved the construction of a 152,035-square-foot facility. But FCA says that Strauss already has plans for an expansion that would enlarge the facility to 311,035 square feet, “in excess of 7 acres of buildings.”
The “massive new facility” the newsletter says, is “designed to slaughter initially up to 500 head of live cattle per day, near upscale residential areas, with wetlands and several significant watersheds nearby.”
To date, the newsletters says, “there has not been a single formal impact study provided by Strauss, or required by the City of Franklin, before giving approval of this project to move forward.”
Why the rush, City of Franklin? Surely the taxpayers have the right to know what’s going on?
A similar undue sense of haste applies in the City of Sheboygan. On December 15, the Sheboygan Plan Commission hastily approved a CUP for Kohler Company to build a controversial golf course on 247 acres of heavily eroded land that now contains a rare wetland and old growth beech forest, not to mention being an important stopover site for 10,000 migratory birds and home to 11 endangered, threatened, and species of concern.
Citizens were given only 30 days to file court documents objecting to the plan commissions hasty action – which was conditional on Kohler’s resolving all on-going litigation related to the proposed development. The Supreme Court of Wisconsin has not yet announced whether it will hear oral arguments on the suit Kohler brought against Friends of the Black River Forest for standing in the way of a plan that also includes the seizure of 4 acres of Kohler-Andrae State Park to build an entrance to the golf course and a maintenance facility for storing equipment and chemicals.
This and other controversies around the state are a clear indication of the importance of knowing your local politicians and paying a great deal of attention to spring elections. Too often, the desires of business are in direct opposition to environmental and quality of life issues that are important to local residents.
Very often, residents are promised tax breaks for doing the bidding of business. But homeowners in the Town of Mosel, where Kohler Company’s Whistling Straits golf course is located, saw their property taxes increased by 18% when Kohler declared the course to be less profitable than anticipated.
And then there’s the Foxconn con. In 2017, then-President Donald Trump, former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, and ex-Governor Scott Walker held a groundbreaking ceremony in Mount Pleasant to tout the company’s lavish promises of 13,000 high-paying manufacturing jobs coming to Wisconsin. But it was the Mount Pleasant Village Board that coerced local property owners into selling their homes and even threatened the use of eminent domain, which is normally only used for public projects.
The new year has dawned with plenty of riveting national controversies that deserve our attention. Members of President Biden’s transition team have said that the Trump administration’s impact on the EPA – and a host of issues related to climate change and clean air and water – was even worse than anticipated. It’s going to take a while to undue all those executive orders.
In the meantime, the Great Waters Group political committee urges you to pay close attention to your local politicians. Know who is running and what they intend to do with your vote. And please check in with us and let us know what’s happening, especially if your town falls within Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Waukesha, and Washington Counties. GWG has adopted Kohler-Andrae because there is currently no active Sierra Club group in Sheboygan, but we will always try to direct you to your local team whenever possible.
RT Both, GWG Political Chair, rtboth@gmail.com