Wauwatosa Luxury Tower Proposal Pulled Before Council Meeting

WAUWATOSA, WI— Developers of a 20-story, 340-unit apartment tower proposal pulled their application shortly before Tuesday's Common Council meeting.

The proposal faced final approval or denial during the meeting.

Wauwatosa City Attorney Alan Kesner said if the council denied the proposal, the developers would have to wait six months to resubmit plans.

The developers can come back to the city with new plans for the site at any time because of the withdrawal but would have to start the process over by going to the Plan Commission and Community Affairs Committee before going before the council for final consideration.

Wauwatosa Mayor Dennis McBride said after several elected officials spoke that he would "exercise his discretion" as chair of the meeting to allow the withdrawal.

The development, proposed by Mo's Irish Pub owner John "Johnny V" Vassallo, is at 10845 W. Bluemound on the former Edwardo's Natural Pizza site on the southwest corner of the intersection of U.S. Highway 18 and state Highway 100. The building would sit across the street from Mo's.

The proposal is for a mixed-use apartment building of 20 stories with about 340 residential units, common amenity spaces, a parking garage and ground floor retail. Some of the proposed amenities include Amazon lockers, a weight room, a pool, grill area, cabanas, pet walking and relief station, movie theater, individual workspace and conference rooms.

The proposal was rejected in a 5-2 vote during the Feb. 9 Community Affairs Committee meeting.

The developer said at the beginning of the Feb. 9 meeting that if the proposal was denied, it would build something else. "Whether it is a taller building with fewer units or anything we can build within the current zoning, we will end up building something," Vassallo said earlier.

Vassallo's lawyer, Brian Randall, submitted the withdrawal letter.

"We are withdrawing the applications primarily because of some of the comments made during the most recent Community Affairs Committee meeting and our inability under the current procedural position to engage in further planning and design dialogue as part of our project planning process," the letter said.

The letter said the developers were not given a chance to respond to arguments from an organized group of people. The letter also said they were recently made aware of a petition filed against the rezoning plans.

The petition suggested that a three-fourths majority vote of the Common Council would be required to approve the plans under local ordinances, according to the letter. "The petition filed raises a number of legal and factual questions that we do not believe can be fairly considered on the same day of the meeting," the letter said.