September 11, 2009

West Racine 'work group' gathers input on vacant lot

Three aldermen and two development officials organized a "work group"of eight or nine West Racine residents and business owners (13-14 people in all) to discuss development at the corner of Washington Ave. and West Blvd.

The group quietly met a few times in recent weeks to collect ideas on the property and put together a formal recommendation to the city's Redevelopment Authority, which owns the vacant land. The group originated in response to a proposal to build a 55-unit senior housing development on the site. Neighbors strongly opposed the idea and the project was rejected by the City Council.

Officials hoped to avoid a similar scenario by gathering public input and putting it into a request for proposal for the site that would specifically rule out certain businesses (like a payday loan).

Work group members included: Aldermen Jim Spangenberg, Terry McCarthy and Aron Wisneski, as well as City Development Director Brian O'Connell and Racine County Economic Development Corp's Kristin Niemiec. There was no formal chair of the work group.

The group's work comes at a time when Racine businessman Tom Tousis is ready to propose building a grocery store, restaurant and gas station on the site, as well as maintaining the existing farmer's market. Some officials oppose a gas station on the site.

A draft set of recommendations for the site was sent to RacinePost Thursday, but we were told the list did not reflect the recommendations the group would make to the RDA. The list we acquired, which originated at the meeting, included a list of deed restrictions on the property and a requirement that any development maintain the farmer's market.

The group agreed to scale back the restrictions, in part, because they asked Tousis to hold off on his proposal until after it finalized its recommendations. Allowing the restrictions to go forward ran the risk of the city seeing Tousis' plans, asking him to delay them, and then passing legislation that would, essentially, kill what he hopes to build. We're attempting to obtain the revised list of recommendations from the City Development Department.

Work group members are planning a public meeting (the meetings so far have not been noticed) later this month to unveil the recommendations and solicit public input.

39 comments:

  1. Sharon Bartholomew9/11/2009 6:20 AM

    Look at the people in this so-called "work group." You have three aldermen who, in the past, have not made some wise decisions or don't know all the facts before they speak or go along with the crowd. You have a director of a department who is not looked upon as an effective leader and you have a person from the Racine Economic Development Corp who picks and chooses who she decides can "get in" on something. This is not good management nor is it good decision making. Racine needs better management and better aldermen. Heaven help West Racine.

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  2. Another Tousis plant heard from.

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  3. Ghost of Becker9/11/2009 7:00 AM

    "Racine County Economic Development Corp's Kristin Niemiec." Thinking why her why is she involved how long are we going to work with a group that has brought no jobs to this City?

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  4. In the name of all that is holy and pure, would you people PLEASE start using proper grammar and punctuation? Have you never heard of a run on sentence?

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  5. Dustin, please verify your sources information before you publish it. Using a Tom T. supporter as your only source is poor reporting. Brian and Kristin are not part of this group. They are only there to answer questions. They have no vote. This group never asked Tom T. to postpone his application. Why don't you get a straight answer from Tom T on why he still hasn't submitted his application. The City is trying to do something right and get neighborhood opinions.

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  6. This information is verified. City development did ask Tousis to hold off on submitting his application. Staff may not have had a vote, but they were responsible for shaping the recommendations and played an important role in the discussions.

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  7. Linda Lovelace9/11/2009 9:23 AM

    Farmer's Markets good.
    Gas Stations bad.
    RCEDC ideas (do they have any?) silly.

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  8. Why did the gas station a little further down on Washington Ave. close? Why not build another gas station there?

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  9. Your Farmers Market is just a gravel pit - where's the green space that you speak of? Furhermore no one is taking this space away from the Farmers Market - so quit whining.

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  10. "Work group members are planning a public meeting (the meetings so far have not been noticed) later this month to unveil the recommendations and solicit public input."

    Begs the question if its a goverment group should the meetings not be noticed? If not are they say any different then a bunch of drunks in a bar giving the City ideas?
    Would say RUGN be given a hearing on the subject or any other group?

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  11. I wondering if any minority neighbors were included in this "group"? I highly doubt it.

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  12. Dustin, I would like to see the list that this "group" produced. Is there any way to post it on your site?

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  13. We have a request into the city. Hopefully we'll hear something soon.

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  14. What is this list that you say you acquired from the meeting?

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  15. White folks, white folks everywhere, but not a neighbor to advise.

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  16. I am disgusted with our officials. They created a special "group" in order to advise another "group" that advises another "group". When does it end. Do they represent us anymore.

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  17. Tim the Shrubber9/11/2009 4:33 PM

    "Ghost of Becker said..."

    Heh. Why does this make me thing of the line "I'm not dead yet."

    I watch too much Monty Python.

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  18. How muich did Tom pay for all this advertising?

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  19. Creepy politicians. Secret Meetings. What a town I live in. For now!

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  20. Where is the draft set of recommendations?

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  21. How about changing the name of this article to:

    West Racine "secret society" makes decisions for government bodies by making rules as they go.

    Sounds more apropro.

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  22. The Spirit of Becker lives on! Secret meetings ,RCEDC know nothings, and going around the public.
    We know far better then you do just shut up and pay your taxes the watchword

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  23. Boy, this one will be good. Secret meetings with handpicked people, making decisions for several thousand. This might even be illegal. What don't you morons get? After the low income, after Becker, after Friedel's deal. You don't own the city, you are not royalty. You work for us, not yourselves!

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  24. 12:15

    They do own the City until we the sheep wake up and take the city back expect more of this not less.

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  25. Some help me understand your perspective. If it is a secret group made up of hand picked plants, infiltrated by Tousis double agents, why would they hold a public input session where "the secret list" could be confirmed or denied by the community they seek to keep out. Sounds like this group is trying to move the site forward for the betterment of all. Enough of the rediculous callouts on city officials. Would any bloggers here withstand the ludicrous scrutiny you put them through? Instead of making ignorant comments here, why don't you come to the meeting (evidently yet to be scheduled) and hear what these people have really done. I plan to be part of the solution.

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  26. 4:45
    The group quietly met a few times in recent weeks to collect ideas on the property and put together a formal recommendation to the city's Redevelopment Authority, which owns the vacant land.
    (the meetings so far have not been noticed)

    means some meetings have taken place interestint to note that Little Vegas (Tom Tousis) has moved before this group could put out their ideas, IMHO with O'Connell and RCEDC sitting in expect support for Little Vegas.

    I have no hope for Racine any more.

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  27. The purpose of the group was to debrief the neighborhood and ask the people who live nearby what they would like on the site. The group has done neither, and the only reason this is public is because apparently someone involved thought secretly creating requirements was wrong and exposed the city to a liability. Kudos to that person.

    Didn't the alderman learn their lesson when they secretly tried to ram through low income housing?

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  28. You can call it what ever you want, but it really is few deciding for many. This is not the first time(for this group) I might add. Elected officials must remember that they are elected officials. They are picked by the "many" to represent the "many". When they drift off this path of representation, it is the job of the voter, to again select representation.HK

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  29. P.S. I am sure some city officials will be soon looking into the legality of this "group" and its recommendations or shall we say "restrictions". HK

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  30. The purpose of the group was to slam its agenda up everybody's a**.
    Same as the Racini-Green 55 unit, the a** slamming is led by the same alderman.

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  31. Call this group the "Aryan Nation".

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  32. Pete or Dustin - off the subject, but why do you always prohibit comments on the Touis's. You don't do that for other articles or seldom do. Tou do this on all of their articles.

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  33. Pete or Dustin - why won't you answer the question? Do you give preferential treatment to some people. My comments were going to be favorable of Tommy's plan - to offset some of the negativity.

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  34. Dunstan and Pete I think have a list of friends that they protect and a list of Enemies they allow if not encourage attacks on.
    I thought that The Racine Post was different then The J-T. Guess I was wrong

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  35. It is probably because the comments that were deleted bordered on liable or were full of profanities.

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  36. Do I smell meeting violations?

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