Harlow & Hem apartment development proposed for Wauwatosa Village gains initial approval

A developer's revised plans for the Harlow & Hem apartment development proposed for the Wauwatosa Village has gained initial approval despite concerns and opposition from residents.

The Wauwatosa Plan Commission approved the Mandel Group's requests for a planned unit development, rezoning and certified survey map to combine parcels in three separate 6-0-1 votes Monday night, with Mayor Dennis McBride voting "present" on all three votes.

When asked by the Journal Sentinel why he recused his vote, McBride declined to answer.

But according to campaign finance records, Phillip Aiello, president and chief operating officer of the Mandel Group, donated $250 to McBride's recent campaign for reelection.

After Aiello presented the development plans Monday, about two dozen members of the public spoke in opposition of the project.

Approval from the commission, which is made up of the mayor, two City Council members and four citizen members, is the first step in an approval process that includes multiple public meetings.

Here's what to know.

Where's the site of Harlow & Hem and what parcels were combined?

The apartment is being proposed for a 1.63-acre site located on the northern corner of Wauwatosa Avenue and Blanchard Street.

The plan commission approved Mandel Group's request to combine five lots in the area into one: 1330 Wauwatosa Avenue; 7463 Harwood Avenue; and 7460, 7462, and 7470 Blanchard Street.

The combined lot includes a major Village parking lot, a property that will become a new surface parking lot on Harwood Avenue and a duplex residence on the southeast part of the corner of Blanchard Street and Wauwatosa Avenue. The closed Swan Interiors store at 1348 N. Wauwatosa Ave. is not part of the land that would be built on for the development.

What is Mandel Group's plan for Harlow & Hem?

Harlow & Hem would have 157 apartment units on five levels, according to the Mandel Group's latest plans. The U-shaped building would have 59 studios, 53 one-bedroom, 28 two-bedroom and 17 three-bedroom units available, according to Aiello.

Harlow & Hem would have 193 private parking spaces and 98 public spaces. Fifty-one public spaces are planned for two levels of enclosed parking that have an entrance on Wauwatosa Avenue under a "green roof" turf on the first level of the building.

Forty-seven public parking spots are also planned for a new parking lot at 7463 Harwood Ave.

Among other requests for flexibility on city code, the Mandel Group proposed the drive aisle on the surface parking lot have a width of 22 feet. That's a change from Wauwatosa's parking lot standards that require a drive aisle width of 24 feet for two-way traffic with 90-degree parking lot stalls.

The group would install permeable pavers to help with water drainage in exchange for flexibility on city landscaping standards.

Residents ask Plan Commission to pump the brakes on Harlow & Hem development

More than two dozen people showed up to the May 13 Plan Commission meeting in opposition of the development.

Some residents opposed a multi-family apartment at that location entirely, worried that more than a hundred additional residents at that development alone would oversaturate the area and make traffic unimaginable and pedestrians unsafe in an already congested area.

Some asked that the city pump the brakes on Harlow & Hem since Three Leaf Partners' proposed apartment development is already planned for the nearby site of St. Bernard parish.

"It's OK to suggest Mandel Group look somewhere else," Wauwatosa resident Katherine Whitlock said.

Ursula Twombly, a resident and member of the Wauwatosa Housing Coalition, asked the Plan Commission to deny approvals unless members address affordable housing in the development first. The original request for proposals included an ask for affordable housing, and the city should ensure that Mandel Group sticks to it because Wauwatosa needs housing now, she said.

Wauwatosa, like other communities nationwide, needs more affordable housing, according to a local housing study.

The affordability component of the project and requests to fund the project with tax increment financing, or TIF, will have to go through Financial Affairs and the Common Council, Mayor Dennis McBride said at the meeting.

Other residents who live nearby said they're frustrated they hadn't heard from the Mandel Group about the developments' plans.

The Mandel Group hosted a neighborhood meeting May 1 that had eight business owners and community members in attendance, according to a summary from the developer. Aiello said that he and his team reworked the project's design to include a path from the planned surface parking lot to the retail in the Village. He also said they would try to provide more space between the development and the patio of Draft & Vessel at 7479 Harwood Ave.

What's the timeline for Mandel Group's Harlow & Hem project

The May 13 Plan Commission action is just one step in a long approval process to determine zoning, design and financial assistance. Here's the timeline of what comes next for the proposal:

• Thursday, May 16 at 7 p.m.: The Design Review Board will review architectural designs for the project.

• Tuesday, June 18 at 7:30 p.m.: A public hearing will be held at the Common Council meeting as the next step in the zoning process.

• Tuesday, June 25 at 7:30 p.m.: The Community Affairs Committee will consider the preliminary PUD and rezoning for the project.

• Tuesday, July 2 at 7:30 p.m.: The project would return to the Common Council for an initial vote on the preliminary PUD and rezoning process.

• Once the project gets preliminary PUD approval and submits revised plans that address conditions brought up by officials during the process, the project must get final PUD Approval from the Community Affairs Committee and Common Council. Those dates are to be determined.

• Any TIF and affordable housing decisions would have to go through the Financial Affairs Committee and the Common Council. Those dates are to be determined based on completion of a negotiated term sheet, according to the city.

Mandel Group has until April 1, 2025, to obtain all necessary permits, licenses and approvals from the city and Milwaukee County, according to the offer to purchase. Mandel can extend the deadlines three times for a month each at a cost of $50,000.

More information on the development and city process can be found on engage.wauwatosa.net/harlow-and-hem.

Mandel Group's proposal for the location has changed over the last four years.

In the last four years, Harlow & Hem has been revised from a proposed project with 89 apartments and four two-story townhomes, to a 130-unit apartment building, to today's proposal for a 157-unit apartment building.

In fall 2020, Wauwatosa sent out a request for proposals for developments at the Blanchard Street parking lot. The Wauwatosa Community Development Authority in early 2021 voted to choose the Mandel Group's submitted proposal and approved plans to conduct negotiations on selling the parcel to Mandel Group.

On previous plans, the development received approval for a final planned unit development in July 2022. But increased project costs and new project managers re-evaluating the project put the project on hold. In the latest designs, Mandel Group cut the townhouses and increased the apartment units due to the market.

Because there were substantive changes to the previously submitted and approved Harlow & Hem project, Mandel Group was required to resubmit an application and go through the planned unit development approval process again, according to Eva Ennamorato, communications manager for the City of Wauwatosa.

Contact the reporter at bfogarty@gannett.com

Editor's Note, 5/15/24: This story was updated to reflect the votes cast by the Plan Commission were 6-0 with Mayor Dennis McBride voting "present" and that McBride didn't specify why he recused his vote. The story was also updated to reflect that Phillip Aiello donated $250 to McBride's 2024 campaign.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Harlow & Hem in Tosa gets initial approval. Here's what's next.