Brookfield's Comprehensive/Master Plan-Participation Opportunity

The City of Brookfield is working on their Comprehensive/Master Plan for the city's future, projecting the community's needs until 2035.

Below, I am pasting an e-mail sent out by one of the consultants. If you live in Brookfield, I urge you to take advantage of the opportunity to provide feedback. In particular, look to the housing elements-such as affordability.
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Greetings:

The City is updating its comprehensive/master plan to guide the future growth of Brookfield. Based on an inspiring vision for the year 2035 prepared last year, the City has turned its attention towards preparing and prioritizing detailed implementation strategies for carrying out its 2035 Vision Preliminary strategies for Brookfield's future focus, for example, on what actions might be taken to advance sustainability, preserve neighborhoods, invite a new generation of families, and capitalize on new economic opportunities.

City officials and consultants need your input on these and other potential strategies to realize the 2035 Vision. To review preliminary strategies and provide input:

• Drop-in on July 18th anytime from 9:00 a.m. to noon at the Brookfield Farmer's Market at City Hall
• Stop by on August 5th from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p. m. at the Public Safety Building Fire Department Bays, as part of Brookfield's National Night Out
• Visit most any time between July 18th and August 5th at Brookfield Square Mall (in center court), the Brookfield Public Library, and on the City's website at www.ci.brookfield.wi.us

For additional information about the Comprehensive Plan and how you can participate, please contact the Community Development Department at (262) 796-6695 or development@ci.brookfield.wi.us. Information about the Comprehensive Plan is also available online at www.ci.brookfield.wi.us. Look for the 2035 Comprehensive Plan link on the homepage.

Thank you for your interest in Brookfield's future!

Jessica Schmiedicke, AICP

Associate Planner

Growth Management Team

Vandewalle & Associates Inc.

Shaping places, shaping change

Madison Milwaukee

608.255.3988

www.vandewalle.com

Cost & Benefits of Lead Control

A recent study published in the Environmental Health Perspectives shows the costs and benefits of lead control, typically done through lead paint hazard control. The effects of lead paint on young children can be severe, leading to problems with health and behavior which, unfortunately, can lead to problems with crime. You can find the sad history of lead paint here.

In the study, it calculates that the conservative estimate of benefit from lead reduction would be approximately $192.38 billion with the total cost being $11.02 billion with the net benefit being $181.37 billion. That's a ratio of 1-17; every $1 spent brings $17 in benefits eventually through reduced costs. The optimistic estimate has a net benefit of $269.23 billion with a ratio of 1-221!!! Now, I'm no financial wizard, but even I can tell that a return of 221 is a good investment! This seems like a no-brainer-spend money on lead paint control now, save money on health, educational & crime later.

Unfortunately, the way our system is set up, we don't see school systems, health care providers and potential future crime victims paying for lead paint removal. Instead, much of the lead control is done through underfunded government programs.

A new way for communities to increase dollars toward lead control is to use the recent inclusion of the Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) extension authority in the state budget. This now allows communities to use an additional year of TIF toward housing (including lead control).

Waukesha Habitat for Humanity Store Closure

I just discovered today that the HomeStore run by the Waukesha Habitat for Humanity has closed. Furthmore, they no longer have a paid Executive Director, and are searching for a volunteer Director.

It's unfortunate they couldn't keep the store open, and I wish them the best of luck in finding a volunteer director that can lead the organization in their future building projects. If you are interested, or know of someone who would be, call the Waukesha Habitat at (262) 309-6025.

Silver Housing Lining in Budget

There are two provisions in the Wisconsin 2009-11 budget that I'd like to discuss. Those provisions benefit affordable housing and provides a tool that will be very helpful to communities.

The first item is a provision to extend the life of a Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) District by a year with the extra year of funding going to affordable housing in the community. This was initiated by the Milwaukee Housing Trust Fund advocates, and inserted into the Senate's version of the budget by Senator Coggs.

The second, the result of efforts of many advocates and legislators over the past few years, would "fix" the property tax exemption for "benevolent" housing. I won't go into the details, but there were two issues at stake here-the "rent use" by the housing provider (how the rent revenue can be used and still qualify for the "benevolent" exemption), and the fact that many municipalities felt that some senior housing providers were abusing the exemption with "affluent" housing for older adults. This was in the joint finance version of the budget, removed from the Assembly's version by the Democratic Caucus, modified in the Senate version, and the recounciled version was closer to the Senate's version.

Both were not vetoed by the Governor, and are now law.

This is very significant because it allows low-income housing providers to continue to provide housing without being slapped with a tax bill they never budgeted for which would drive many out of business.

The TIF District gives communities a powerful tool to raise revenue (however erratic) for affordable housing and to improve housing stock. A community can use at least 75 percent toward affordable housing, and the remainder to improve housing stock. This could be an ideal revenue source for a housing trust fund.