The Downtown Franklin plans Mayor Olson doesn't want you to see
Last month at the Economic Development Commission (EDC) meeting, Mayor Olson presented an update regarding the work to date (at that time) regarding the 76th/Rawson/Loomis area by GRAEF. GRAEF is the city's hired consultant to research opportunities for this area as part of a potential TIF District. They have been working for several months after the Mayor announced the city's intentions to spearhead three development areas in Franklin. The 76th/Rawson/Loomis commercial district is the one that has grabbed the most interest by residents, since the demand for new retailers, restaurants, entertainment and just businesses overall has hit an all-time high.
The concepts below, developed by GRAEF in conjunction with the city, have been made public at the time of the EDC meeting. However, at the wishes of the Mayor, no one was allowed to truly spread the word about these draft concepts. The argument was made that by doing so could lead to much disappointment by the public if nothing ends up happening. The Chairman of the EDC, Craig Haskins, put up an objection to that based on his efforts to do some outreach to his connections in business and development circles. By the Mayor requesting in the strongest sense of the word to keep the plans tightly held back from being distributed, despite them being public, any such efforts by Haskins or anyone else on the EDC could be viewed as hostile to what the Mayor's desires are.
These plans are so tightly restricted that aldermen have claimed their requests to obtain these draft plans have gone unanswered. Despite these plans being in the draft phase with limited distribution, Mayor Olson stated at last month's EDC meeting that he already reached out to contacts of his own about this and/or other areas being researched by the city.
OPTION A (NOT RECOMMENDED) - LOOMIS RAMPS ARE STILL IN PLACE
The first draft plan is what the consultant had in mind in case the state decided to keep the on and offramps from Loomis to 76th and Rawson. This plan has those ramps still intact, and obviously has severe problems on several fronts. The Mayor has rightfully argued that this concept is the least attractive of the two, primarily because of the huge hindrances it puts on customers accessing the properties in this Downtown district. Additionally, the impacts on surrounding subdivisions would likely be greater due to needed backup access points from these properties to subdivisions east of them.
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OPTION B (RECOMMENDED) - MOST LOOMIS RAMPS ARE ELIMINATED
The second draft plan is a plan that the city is really trying to get moving forward. This is why the Council authorized spending up to $70,000 on a traffic study; the study is geared towards hopefully convincing the state to eliminate good portions of their on and offramps on Loomis Road. As you can see with this plan, with the elimination of the ramps more options open up in terms of accessibility to properties on both sides of Loomis Road. It also eliminates the need to rely on road connections to existing subdivisions to the east, eliminating a good chunk of NIMBY concerns. The bright yellow areas are the single family residential areas. These areas are the only ones that have roads that access other subdivisions, and are still separate from the commercial parts of the district. The dashed lines you see are trail/pedestrian connections versus roads.
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Both drafts highlight the need to have "destination" style development - one that brings in customers, clients, workers, etc. followed by multifamily and mixed use development. The term "multifamily" is quite broad. Residents should realize that this is geared for Franklin's Downtown area; therefore concerns about what kind-of living opportunities will be here should be alievated with knowing that the developers being marketed likely will bring in condos or high-rent apartments to the area.
Density is needed to ensure that if the city put up a TIF District, the amount of revenue coming in from the new development can pay off the TIF. Mayor Olson argues that in order for the city to get a good bond to kickstart this area, there needs to be a 4:1 ratio between new development revenue versus TIF spending. It's projected roughly $30 million will be needed for this TIF, leading to a demand for roughly $120-130 million in new development needing to happen in this area to be a viable TIF District.
As a quick example, The Corners of Brookfield received approximately $40 million from the Town of Brookfield in the form of a TIF District. That development is projected to bring in roughly $200 million in new development.
Franklin Today had these draft plans for some time, and decided to withhold publishing them out of respect to Mayor Olson's wishes and demands that its distribution be rather limited. There is no knowledge if the FranklinNOW or other news organizations have these plans and are sitting on them until they get their OK from administration.
It was decided now is the time to publish them because the concerns Mayor Olson had that you, the public, would be disappointed if nothing happened pales in comparison to if no one was made aware of the opportunities and, if it failed, never knew anything was going on. If the plans were delayed, or held back, you'd never know. If the overall concept was shoved aside for a different TIF District, and the OK never came to publish the drafts or even a newer version, you'd never know. The public being made aware of the process and keeping their elected officials held accountable can do much in moving things forward. Some would argue keeping the public in the dark as long as possible and convincing certain developers to pick up the pieces for a later announcement is the opposite angle that could work as well. Perhaps this adds to a growing list that is leading to the power struggle between the Mayor and Council.