Town of Waukesha rejects zoning for Walgreens, Aldi development

April 27, 2012

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By Laurel Walker of the Journal Sentinel

April 27, 2012 0

Waukesha - The Town Board has denied a zoning change that would have allowed a proposed Walgreens pharmacy and Aldi grocery development at Sunset Drive and Highway X.

The vote Thursday night to deny was 4-1, with Supervisor Brian Fischer casting the lone dissenting vote.

Mark Lake of MRED-Cummings Commercial Development Corp. could not be reached for comment Friday about options available to him, including whether annexation to the city of Waukesha, which the property adjoins, is under consideration.

The developer has been working with owners of a half dozen properties for nearly four years on acquiring their homes and building the commercial development, which is across the highway from Fox Run Shopping Center to the north and Waukesha State Bank to the east. The Shoppes of Fox River are slightly farther east, along Sunset Drive.

Residents have spoken out against the development, which borders a 50-home subdivision in the Town of Waukesha.

The town's comprehensive land use plan has already been changed by both the town and Waukesha County to indicate the low-density, residentially zoned property would eventually accommodate mixed use. However, Town Board members who approved the change were recalled. Board members who took their place - Chairman Angie Van Scyoc and Joe Banske, a resident of the adjacent subdivision, opposed it, along with Supervisors Everett German and Michael Laska.

The developer, Lake, previously said that the development would add $8 million to $10 million in tax base and 45 to 50 new jobs, including 12 managerial or pharmacist jobs. MRED-Cummings would build and own the Walgreens, which is about 2.5 miles from the nearest Walgreens, and sell the rest of the parcel to Aldi for its store.

A proposed Waukesha west bypass may use the Sunset Drive-Highway X intersection as part of its eventual route between I-94 and Highway 59, but last fall Waukesha County engineers issued a letter stating that the development could be accommodated even if that turned out to be the chosen bypass route.

About Laurel Walker

Laurel Walker covered local, school and county government for 20 years -- the last half of that at the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -- before she was named Waukesha County columnist in 1997. Today she writes about the people, places and events around metropolitan Milwaukee with a broad suburban focus. She was the youngest of nine children raised on a central Wisconsin farm before leaving the nest for journalism studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and a masters degree at the University of Oregon. She has spent the last half of her life in Waukesha County, where she and her husband raised two sons. Though she has a fondness for life in Waukesha, she eagerly partakes in the culture of the big city to the east and the recreation of the forests to the west. With sons in the arts, she has a special fondness for symphonic music concerts and art museums. She finds peace in a good book at a Northwoods getaway weekend, adventure in family visits to the east and west coasts, and satisfaction in a column well-written that reaches readers.