Waukesha Offered Water for Land; Developer Wants Annexation in Return for Two Wells

By DARRYL ENRIQUEZ

Waukesha – Less than a week after Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said Waukesha’s aggressive annexation could hurt its efforts to get Lake Michigan water, the Plan Commission will look tonight at a controversial housing development that’s well outside the city’s southwest border.

The driving factor in this venture is the need for a resource that by most accounts is dwindling from the city of 67,000: pure drinking water.

Known as the Lathers parcel, this 334 acres on the northern edge of the Vernon Marsh Wildlife Area holds the promise of providing up to 3 million gallons a day of water that’s free of potentially dangerous radium.

Fiduciary Real Estate Development Co. is offering the city a piece of the property for sinking two wells. In exchange, Fiduciary wants “reasonable assurance from the city” that a residential subdivision will be approved “in a reasonable time frame,” according to a Feb. 20 letter to the commission.

Water for land

The Waukesha Water Utility would use the new water supply to bring the city into compliance with federal safety standards on radium levels.

For cooperative access to that water, Fiduciary wants 91 acres of the Lathers parcel to be annexed for sewer service and other amenities.

An earlier version of the proposal died because aldermen feared that the annexation would drive up fire and police protection costs and the expenses of other city services to an area now in the Town of Waukesha.

Pat Curley, Barrett’s chief of staff, said the issue appears to be one that’s local and not of immediate concern to Milwaukee, but he advised that Waukesha must consider the impression that its actions leave on watchful eyes.

Some Milwaukee officials are dead set against providing what’s perceived as a rapidly expanding Waukesha with Lake Michigan water, Curley said.

“Mayor Larry Nelson knows he needs eight votes from the (Milwaukee) Common Council to get water, and right now he doesn’t have eight votes,” Curley said. “It doesn’t help appearances that deep and shallow aquifers are being drained (around Waukesha).”

Allen Scasiewski, vice president of the Waukesha County Environmental Action League, said his group opposes the two wells, saying that high-capacity pumping of the shallow aquifer would be detrimental to the environmental health of the marsh that it feeds.

“The city needs to look elsewhere for water in an area that is not environmentally sensitive,” he said.

To make the proposal more attractive, Fiduciary will roll out a reduced development to commissioners tonight.

The total annexation request was reduced from 334 acres to 151. The amount of land slated for development was cut from 109 to 91 acres. The amount of conservancy land destined for the state Department of Natural Resources or county land conservancy was increased from 187 to 198 acres. The development would abut this proposed expansion of the wildlife area.

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