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Looking north from Seasons at Franklin at 9677 S. 27th St., surrounded by trees. Photo taken August 21, 2024 by Graham Kilmer.
State funds will be used to determine how badly the area around a former gas station in Franklin is polluted.
Milwaukee County received a grant this month from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for the environmental impact assessment of a property in 9677 S 27th St. The property came into county ownership through a tax lien in 2017. According to the DNR, the site was used as a gas station and rest stop for motorists in the 1960s and 1970s.
The assessment will give the county and anyone interested in purchasing the property an idea of how contaminated the site is and what remediation work is needed. When county officials applied for the DNR grant in the past, county supervisors questioned whether the county was preparing the site for sale to the owner of a nearby massive residential development and whether the county would ensure remediation was completed should someone buy the property.
“With this award, Milwaukee County can provide potential developers with the information they need to return the site to productive use,” said Jodie ThistleDirector of DNR Brownfields Outreach and Policy, in a statement. “The DNR supports the county’s efforts to encourage the reuse of this site that has been vacant for decades.”
After taking possession of the property, the county housing authority assumed jurisdiction over it and worked with a developer on a plan for affordable housing on the site. However, the project never got off the ground and the county never put it up for sale because David Cialdinisenior real estate project manager, told supervisors during a meeting of the county council’s Community Environment and Economic Development Committee in June 2023.
“We’re not just doing this for the developer who happens to be building on the adjacent property, are we?” Sup. Patti Logsdon asked Cialdini. Logsdon was referring to Fiduciary Real Estate Investment, which developed and owns Seasons at Franklin, a massive residential development that stretches along the western and southern edges of the property.
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“Well, yes and no,” Cialdini replied, pointing out that the property is not very large and that the wetlands on the site make development difficult.
“We’re not particularly concerned about who ends up getting it,” Cialdini said. “I think it’s in the best interest of the county if we can dispose of this property.”
“A number of developers” have approached the housing authority about the property, but due to potential pollution, it is impossible to determine the value of the property, Cialdini said.
Logsdon said the county should not sell the property to a prospective developer for a pittance just to get it off the lists while it is doing the environmental review. She pointed to the county’s financial difficulties, saying, “So any opportunity to make money, we should take advantage of it as best we can for the county.”
Aaron HertzbergDirector of the county’s Department of Administrative Services, told supervisors that the county’s interests in such properties are “multifaceted.” One of the interests is to sell a property to a developer and put it back on the tax rolls, he noted.We also have a responsibility to help solve the problem of environmental pollution.”
The county has limited resources to undertake the cleanup of the contaminated properties it owns, he said. “If we feel there is a way to clean up a property, we have a responsibility, if not an obligation, as a government agency to step in.”
Otherwise, the property will remain contaminated and the contamination will be spread into local waterways and nearby properties when it rains, Herzberg said.
During this meeting in June, Sup. Felicia Martin asked about the county’s ability to hold developers liable for remediation efforts when the property is sold. Martin pointed to the Community within the Corridor project in Milwaukee, which redeveloped a former industrial site near N. 32nd and W. Center streets. After tenants moved in, elevated levels of a carcinogen in the air were found at the property and the Milwaukee Health Department ordered the building evacuated.
Martin urged county officials to include language requiring environmental remediation in any future sale, “because human lives are more important than profit,” she said.
