Council May Refine Makeup of Board of Zoning Appeals

Common Council President José G. Pérez speaks at an October 2024 reckless driving press conference. Photo by Sophie Bolich.

The Common Council is poised to add new requirements to better define the makeup of the Board of Zoning Appeals (BOZA).

The citizen-led, part-time board oversees a wide variety of zoning issues, including approving the location of childcare providers, used-car dealerships and scrap yards. It reviews more than 700 proposals per year.

The current ordinance requires one of the members to be an attorney, but the four other general members and two alternates have no requirement beyond being appointed by the mayor.

The new framework would maintain the attorney requirement and additionally require one member to be an architect, one member to have experience with public safety and one member to have a demonstrated interest in social welfare or housing issues.

“Given that their primary mission is to uphold the public’s health, safety and welfare, I thought it would be appropriate to propose this ordinance,” said Common Council José G. Pérez to the City Plan Commission on Jan. 27. “It should be noted that currently the BOZA membership meets the intent of the ordinance and leaves three generalists position to be filled by those of various backgrounds.”

“It seems very straightforward and a common sense solution to have good people on these boards,” said plan commission chair Stephanie Bloomingdale.

The current board members are chair Eric Lowenberg (attorney), vice chair Henry Szymanski (architect), Jennifer Current (landscape architect), Marjorie Rucker (executive director at The Business Council) and Lindsey St. Arnold Bell (executive director of Near West Side Partners). The alternates are Kevin Kuschel (head of the Clarke Square Neighborhood Initiative) and Michael Wright (a city resident and West Allis fire fighter). India Gaar serves as the board’s secretary and is the full-time administrator.

Pérez, when the proposal was before the Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee Tuesday, said he thought the changes would ensure the body is “pretty thorough and widespread” in its decision making. The measure is cosponsored by Ald. DiAndre Jackson.

“We do already meet the requirements, so we have no issue with this,” said Gaar.

An amendment was already made to explicitly expand the definition of an architect to include landscape architects, a different license, and which is Jennifer Current’s expertise. Her colleague at Quorum Architects, architect and plan commissioner Allyson Nemec, pointed out the potential issue during the Jan. 27 plan commission meeting. Pérez said it was always his intent to include landscape architects and that the council views them in equal standing.

Pérez’s policy and administration director, Clifton Crump, was previously the board secretary.

The ordinance does not specify whether the requirements apply to the general members or the alternates. The alternates vote when a regular member is absent or recuses themselves.

The BOZA change is part of a larger overhaul, led by Pérez, of how the city handles what are known as its “plural bodies.” Spurred by the number of vacancies at the board of the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee, the council already passed two other legislative changes. Most notably, if a board has requirements for individual seats, those seats should be filled before unrestricted seats. The requirements apply to both council and mayoral appointments. An additional change included the adoption of a uniform onboarding process.

“Boards and commissions have been in the press a lot, and not for good reasons,” said Pérez on Jan. 27. “The point of all of this legislation is really raise the bar.”

The full council will review the proposal at its Feb. 11 meeting.

BOZA meets monthly for what is a several-hours-long meeting with many public hearings. Members are paid $4,200 annually regardless of whether they are in full or alternate positions. The chair is paid $35,000.

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