Was Walker Land Deal Illegal?

Originally posted at Milwaukee County First:

The Monarch Trail has been used as an
educational tool for children in
 Milwaukee County for years.

A few weeks ago, Milwaukee County First alerted the public to the sad waste that could be in store for two of Milwaukee County's finest and most understated treasures, the Monarch Trail and the Eschweiler Buildings which rest on the county grounds.

Despite his promises to preserve the land and turn it into a state park, then Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker manipulated events in order to sell this priceless land for a song to wealthy land developers in a no-bid contract.

It was only after the sale had been ramrodded through the Milwaukee County Board and the Wauwatosa Common Council did the true peril for these wonderful sites became known:

Oh, the powers that be, from Walker to the Board to the Common Council to the developers themselves, promised that the Monarch Trail would be preserved and that the Eschweiler Buildings would be restored and converted into apartments.

But those also proved to be lies.

The developers have already encroached upon the Monarch Trail, invading space that is supposed to be protected areas. There have been reports of large swatches of milkweed plants being mowed down.

Adding to these atrocities is the design of the “Innovation Park,” as they call it, is that the design of the layout of buildings and parking lots will drive all the natural wildlife out of the area into the neighborhoods and roads surrounding the area. There will be literally hundreds of animals killed by the loss of their habitat.

And even if the Monarch Trail remains untouched, which seems unlikely, the stopping point of the butterflies might be lost due to the disturbances and the change of the landscape which is what draws the butterflies there in the first place.

It has also recently been reported that, due to the years of neglect, the promise of preserving the Eschweiler Buildings probably will not be kept. The land developers turned around and immediately tried to sell the buildings to another private firm which would convert the buildings. This firm is now claiming that it’s too expensive to save all the buildings...

It turns out that their plan for the Eschweiler Buildings and the Monarch Trail is much worse than previously disclosed.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently reported that Mandel Group, Inc., the second developer which is looking at buying the buildings and the eight acres they rest on, said that they don't want to forsake a building or two.  They want to tear down all but one of the buildings and build 192 higher-end (read higher profit) apartments.  Their rationale is that it would be too expensive to rehab the buildings and cheaper to build new ones.

Will history be history?

To add insult to injury, the Mandel Group wants the City of Wauwatosa taxpayers to pony up another $2 million to $2.5 million to fund their razing of the buildings.  This is on top of a $12 million TIF that the city approved two years ago to put in sewers and other infrastructure to support the engineering school they are purportedly building.

As a side note, the developers said that the school had to be built on the county grounds so that it could be close to the Medical College and other facilities.  Ironically, there was enough acreage immediately next to the Medical College that they could have used which was already set with infrastructure and would have not cost anything extra to the taxpayers.  This causes wonder if the school was ever the original intent of this scheme.

It won't be just the buildings that are lost either.  The buildings sit just a few yards to the west of the great sycamore tree which is the heart of the Monarch Trail.  There is no way that they will be able to raze these buildings and build 192 apartments without doing irreparable harm to this rare roosting spot of the the migrating Monarch butterflies.

The damage to the Monarch Trail will only be compounded by the fact that the profiteering developers want to build a road running  immediately to the east of this habitat.  The wildlife that lives on this previously pristine land will literally be caught between this construction and will surely perish.  Likewise, the particular landscape and environment which has attracted the Monarchs for all these years will be forever lost.

Talk about paving over paradise to build a parking lot.

But now there is a most peculiar Walkeresque twist to the story.  It turns out that the original sale of the grounds, including the Eschweiler Buildings and the Monarch Trail, might have been illegally done.  However, not for it being a no-bid sale.

When Walker rammed through the sale, Walker had already abolished the economic development division.  Because there was no one, much less anyone qualified, to oversee the sale of the land, and things were done improperly, including notifying the Historical Society or imposing a conservation easement to protect the property.  Because of this, the deal should be immediately stopped and could possibly be negated altogether:

"I don't think it has any bearing on what we do," City Attorney Alan Kesner said. "There is nothing formal in front of us right now. (Mandel) has made an informational presentation so far. There is no action that we are prepared to take at this time."

Mandel did, however, announce in Thursday's session that he would need to raze the four of buildings if he were to proceed with his plans for residential redevelopment of the tract as apartments, including 192 new-built units surrounding the remaining Eschweiler building.

He did not just suggest but asserted that he would have to withdraw from the project if he were forced to retain all the buildings and restore them to historic preservation standards, at a cost he estimated at $11 million.

That would throw the buildings and the land immediately surrounding them back to the Real Estate Foundation and force it to put out another request for proposals to redevelop the historic district.

And, if the state Historical Society should insist and prevail, it could mean that RFP would have to go out with a strict proviso that all the buildings must be preserved.

The Administration Building, the only one
developers would save.

Unsurprisingly, the profiteering developers that Walker sold the county grounds too would not respond to the reporter's attempts at contacting them.

If the sale of the land is negated, it could mean that the county would have to reimburse the developers for $15 million, something which they could not afford, considering the massive debt that Walker left the county in, not to mention how he has slashed shared revenue and limited the county's ability to raise revenue.

In summary, we see what is a continued pattern wherever Walker is in charge of something.  He arbitrarily decides that he wants something done, usually to the benefit of wealthy friends and campaign contributors, regardless of public opinion or whether it is in the public's best interest.  He then manipulates the situation - even if it means either ignoring the law or changing it - to meet his desired outcome.  Then, as it inevitably must because of the questionable legality of his moves, the deal blows up.  And it is the taxpayers and the citizens that are left holding the bag and having to clean up the mess, usually at great expense.