Development at issue in crowded board race

The Grafton Village Board has a full complement of competition in next week’s election with six people running for three seats.

Incumbents Lisa Uribe Harbeck, Amy Luft and Clark Evans are being challeged by Andrew Schwartz, Kevin Curtis and Toni Wilhelme.

Reasons for the incumbents seeking re-election and newcomers trying to join the board run the gamut.

Schwartz, 58, worked for 35 years as an air traffic controller and is a contract employee for the Federal Aviation Administration teaching air traffic control.

He was second to Clark Evans in May 2023 when he sought an appointment to the board. He wants to help shape the village’s growth.

“I’m semi-concerned about the direction we’re going in terms of development and how fast we’re growing,” Schwartz said.

“We need to find a way to grow our city services as we grow our population and stay within our revenue limits.”

Curtis, 35, a senior software engineer, wants to see stability in terms of village growth.

“If we do not cover our services with that growth, we’re going to have issues,” he said.

Wilhelme, 54, who is self-employed in the cleaning industry, said, “It’s time for change. We need some younger people who aren’t going to say yes to whatever they want to build.”

Evans, 40, is an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and has been on the Village Board since being appointed last year. His priority is to sustain “all the things that make Grafton great” such as the fire department, emergency medical services and village roads, and he wants to find “ways to pay for those moving forward without having to borrow large amounts of money.”

Luft, 57, who works at Family Sharing and has spent 25 years in sales and marketing, has been a trustee for four years.

“Public safety is my top cause,” she said.

She cited her leadership in having a crosswalk installed on 17th Avenue after Centennial Park added outdoor play equipment, her support for speed radar signs on Falls Road and the plan to add a second resource officer in the schools.

Uribe Harbeck, 66, is a part-time oncology nurse who has been on the board since 2010.

“We need to be better with transparency. We need to be better at our own board level,” she said.

She would like citizens to be able to address the board for three minutes instead of the new limit of two minutes, would like them to be able to talk more than only at the beginning of meetings and thinks elected officials’ phone numbers should be available on the village’s website.

One of the issues drawing large opposition and high attendance at meetings has been plans for the Triangle property at Grafton Avenue, 17th Avenue and Highway 60.

Milwaukee-based Three Leaf Partners, which owns the property, has submitted several plans for the land that have been rejected by the village, at least in part because they call for a dense, multifamily development, the removal of Grafton Avenue and the installation of a roundabout at Sunset Court, Grafton Avenue and 17th Avenue. All six candidates agree that an appropriate plan hasn’t been presented yet.

In talking with residents, Curtis said “the idea of multi-tenant housing would be causing more traffic issues than it would be solving,” and eliminating Grafton Avenue is opposed by residents.

Wilhelme said she thinks a traffic study done on that area isn’t accurate and didn’t take into account new subdivisions.

“The roundabout is ridiculous. That’s one of the reasons I’m running,” she said.

“I’m not against something going there on the Triangle, but not something that’s going to create a flood of traffic in a congested area.”

Schwartz said Three Leaf Partners is trying to fit a three-acre development on the 1.4 acres it owns. He dislikes the density of the proposals and said the development should be a commercial, educational or institutional facility that generates limited traffic.

Evans said an acceptable ratio would be 15 to 20 units per acre on the developer’s land and nothing more.

Luft said the property is going to be developed in three to five years but “we need to find the right density for that.” She said she supports no more than 20 units per acre.

Uribe Harbeck, who doesn’t want to take out Grafton Avenue, said “That is an area that needs to stay single family.”

She cited the village’s 2035 master plan that was updated in 2016. It calls for a minimum of 64% single-family housing and no more than 20% multifamily. The village, she said, has 55% single-family and 29% multifamily housing.

“We are kind of straying from what we said we wanted in 2016,” Uribe Harbeck said.

Luft said she supports the Seasons and Farmstead developments that will bring many apartments to the village, but a proposal “has to be the right fit and location.”

Evans said multifamily housing is a key to addressing issues in the village for people who can’t afford new homes or want to downsize. He said a recent Zillow search showed five starter homes available. Everything else is new construction of more than $500,000 that requires a family income of $140,000 or more even with a 20% down payment.

Schwartz said he is hesitant to add any multifamily housing given how much the village already has and would take a “wait-and-see” approach to multifamily developments.

“Curtis said the village needs to find the right balance of multifamily and single-family homes.

“People want to come to Grafton and we should make sure we have places for them,” he said.

On the village’s growth, Wilhelme said, it seems like “we have an awful lot of pizza places and banks. We need some different things in here.

“I think they’ve done a great job by the freeway. I don’t think you need six-story buildings right here in the subdivision,” she said of the Triangle.

On the fire department/EMS referendum, Wilhelme said “with the aging population that’s probably warranted” to add staff. “But I don’t think the Grafton taxpayers should have to pay the bulk.”

Curtis said the fire department is showing cracks as the village tries to up with its growth, adding he wants to make sure “we all have the same quality of life that we have grown accustomed to in this area.”

Schwartz said the referendum is a good thing but said it’s a “Band-Aid.”

“The fire department is the first hurdle. The next will probably be the police department, and the next will be the street department. Without finding a way to make those departments grow, we’re going to continue to be stretched in everything that we do,” he said.

Evans said he supports the referendum.

“If it doesn’t pass, we’re going to have some serious questions to address as a Village Board in terms of what funding do we have within the state-imposed revenue limits,” he said.

Luft is on the fire department’s consolidation work group that developed the referendum to add firefighter/paramedics. She cited a 95% increase in fire and medical calls over 10 years. The referendum, she said, is not to merge the Grafton and Saukville fire departments but “it’s a staffing issue.”

Uribe Harbeck said the fire chief has been fighting for the past decade to make sure the department is covered to take care of the citizens.

“This only gets worse over time. People are busy. We have families. Children have activities. So the availability is here for volunteerism for the fire department but there just is nobody. I fully support the fire department referendum,” she said.