Military asked to play role in development decisions

Published: September 18, 2006

Milwaukee is considering inviting representatives from major military installations
in the city to have a nonvoting seat on the Plan Commission.

The move would put Milwaukee in line with a state law signed in August 2005
that was intended to give Wisconsin’s military bases a voice in local development
decisions. Military installations don’t have a say in the choices of cities
that surround them, so placing a nonvoting representative on area planning commissions
would allow them to have a say in what gets built around their borders.

That way, a city will know if a proposed apartment building is within earshot
of the artillery range for army trainees, or if it would disrupt the airspace
needed for military runways, said Linda Fournier, Fort McCoy public affairs
officer. She said installations’ attempts to have a voice in municipal
affairs can be misconstrued as heavy-handed military intervention, and the state
law attempts to smooth out potential conflict.

“It’s not us trying to push our will on the communities, it’s
just that they need to understand,” she said.

Rep. Terry Musser, R-Black River Falls, who wrote and sponsored the law in
the state Legislature, said Milwaukee was the first city he was aware of to
pick up on the legislation.

“I’m just glad somebody’s taking it seriously,” he said.

Not widespread impact

Although the state law included any military installation with at least 200
personnel or 2,000 acres, it will probably only have a big impact around Fort
McCoy Army base and Volk Field Air National Guard Base, Fournier said. In Milwaukee,
the 440th Airlift Wing uses land at General Mitchell International Airport,
and disrupting that airspace seems out of the question considering the havoc
it would wreak on civilian flights, she said.

“If they were to build a 10-story apartment building at the end of Volk
Field, it would affect military traffic; it would not affect civilian traffic,”
Fournier said.

However, Musser said the law had value even in cases where the bases are protected.
Plans to expand a base or eliminate the number of troops would have economic-development
impacts on the municipalities, and open lines of communication are useful in
any case, he said. Fort McCoy is in the midst of four construction projects
as part of the federal Base Realignment and Closure plan.

The legislation also called on the governor’s office to create a council
on military and state relations “to enhance the installations and determine
how state agencies can better serve military communities and military families.”
Musser said the council could set up one place to be a clearinghouse between
state government and military. He said that, to his knowledge, the council hasn’t
been created.

Milwaukee’s Zoning, Neighborhood and Development Committee is scheduled
to vote Tuesday whether to allow military bases to name representatives to the
Plan Commission.