Much has been said about the Whole Foods project by the Cap Times, Wisconsin State Journal and Channel 3 among others . . . but here’s a few facts to think about . . .
1. We’re replacing 3 3-story buildings with underground parking (97,340 square feet of office space with 236 parking stalls) with a single-story 50,000 square foot grocery store with 240 surface parking stalls.
(Do I need to go on, or is that enough?)
2. When we approved the plan for the Hilldale area in January 2005, the 3 story buildings with underground parking were supposed to stay in place, this is a change to concept presented in the recent approvals for this site.
3. Demolition standards have likely not been met because we cannot find that the buildings are structurally unsound or incapable of being rehabilitated or repaired.
4. There is a 30% increase in parking above what would be required under the Zoning ordinance. The ordinance would require 167 parking spaces or one space per 300 feet of floor area.
There isn’t even a need to go into the question of why we would have three grocery stores so close together or concerns about Whole Foods labor practices. The land use is, well, as I said to Channel 3 . . . “its just plain dumb, terrible land use”.
