Whitefish Bay Affordable Housing Project Stalled

Rendering of 17-unit affordable housing development at 4800-4818 N. Santa Monica Blvd. Rendering by Zimmerman Architectural Studio.

An affordable housing project in the Village of Whitefish Bay with financial backing from Milwaukee County has been rejected by a village commission that reviews development proposals.

The planned development is a 17-unit affordable apartment building at 4800-4818 N. Santa Monica Blvd. The three-story building would sit at the intersection of N. Santa Monica Boulevard and E. Hampton Road, considered a prominent entry-point to the village.

Milwaukee County awarded approximately $3.2 million to developer Spoerl Development to support the project. Increasing the supply of affordable housing in the suburbs is a policy goal of County Executive David Crowley.

But the project has been stalled, and potentially derailed, by the village’s Architecture Review Commission (ARC), which voted on Dec. 21, to reject the project. The commission voted 4-2 to reject the project for permitting by the village. The project will go before the village’s Board of Appeals in February, seeking a reversal of the decision.

“It just so happens that the same day this project went to the ARC that the county announced their grant for us, for an affordable housing development,” the developer Brian Spoerl, told Urban Milwaukee.

Spoerl’s project is in compliance with the local zoning. In fact, it was designed to meet the zoning designation on the site. The only approval his project needed from the village was from the ARC. The project was initially presented in November. ARC members offered suggestions for how to improve the aesthetics of the project, and it was tabled for a month.

In December, Spoerl returned, having made a number of changes in response to the ARC’s suggestions. But this time, there were all new concerns from the commission members. The commission was told him that the building needed underground parking, and that the parking lot could devalue surrounding residential properties.

Directly west of the project site, across N. Santa Monica Boulevard, is a CVS pharmacy set back from the road with a large surface parking lot. Directly to the south, across E. Hampton Road, is a gas station. And kitty-corner to the development site is a commercial building, also with a large surface parking lot. The corner Spoerl plans to redevelop has sat vacant for years, with a building he called “dilapidated,” saying it “cannot possibly be consistent with enhanced property values.” 

In a “Finding of Facts” document produced by the commission following the denial, the ARC called Spoerl’s development “cold” and said it “still doesn’t feel like [Whitefish Bay].”

Just a week earlier, Spoerl appeared before a committee of the Milwaukee County Board, where the project was criticized by one supervisor for the per-unit cost of the project. “They want it to look nice,” Spoerl said, explaining that the building would incorporate brick and other expensive building materials uncommon in affordable developments.

The ARC is charged with ensuring “all construction and structures within the Village meet minimum standards of architectural quality, consistency, aesthetic design, and finish,” according to the village’s code. The goal is to maintain the village’s “character and atmosphere, preservation of existing property values, and enhancement of the desirability of the Village as a residential community.”

Spoerl said he thinks his building is of a higher aesthetic quality than some that have recently been approved by the ARC.

The second time around, he said, the commission seemed far less concerned with the original issues related to design, and seemed more concerned with parking and traffic.

Urban Milwaukee reached out to two members of the ARC that voted during the late December meeting. James Hoffman, a critic of the project who voted for rejection, could not be reached for comment. And Sam Schultz, a member who spoke in favor of the project and voted for the project, declined to comment.

No one has publicly stated that the ARC rejected the project because it was a publicly-supported affordable housing development. Spoerl maintains that the financing for the development should not be “material” to the decision to be made by the ARC.

Raisa Koltun, a trustee on the village board, told Urban Milwaukee that the ARC’s denial was a “red flag.”

“From my perspective, I just want to see this development happen,” Koltun said, noting that the vacant building on the site has created a “dead corner” at an entryway to the village. The fact that the project is affordable is “a plus,” she said.

“Whitefish Bay is obviously not a cheap place to live,” she said. “So having the ability for people, like teachers and firefighters and people who work here be able to afford to live here is very appealing, and then, ideally, send their kids to school here.”

The median home value in Whitefish Bay, according to the village’s comprehensive plan, is approximately $365,000. The village plan also discusses the issue of affordability in the village, noting that without dedicated planning and development staff, affordable housing projects in the village will require new policy or partnerships with other governmental entities. It names the county’s “Housing Division” as one such entity.

The plan notes that the village was asked to “evaluate the affordability of housing in the village and the impact it has on racial diversity.”

Suburban communities have historically been resistant to publicly-supported affordable housing projects. Whitefish Bay, like nearly all county suburbs, had a history of racially-restrictive covenants which helped to create the segregation that persists in Milwaukee County. A major feature of Milwaukee County’s suburban housing policy is to give low-income families more options for where to live and access to neighborhoods and communities with more jobs and better-performing schools. Many of the county’s poorest ZIP codes are also predominantly inhabitated by Black and Hispanic residents.

The suburban housing policy is a part of Crowley’s focus on achieving racial equity in Milwaukee County.

“The County Executive’s support for this proposed affordable housing development has not changed,” said Jonathan Fera, a spokesperson for Crowley, in a statement to Urban Milwaukee. “We support the developer’s pending appeal on this decision, and we look forward to working to move the project forward.”