Memory Care Center Wins Despite Neighbors' Opposition

With some aldermen saying they had little choice and others saying it was the right thing to do, the Common Council on Tuesday approved on St. Luke's Catholic Church-owned land.

The 13-1 vote, with Ald. Bill Carnell opposed, frustrated neighbors who argued their subdivisoin was the wrong place for a commercial enterprise.

"You don't place a $100 million business in a residential neighborhood," said Chet Bradeen, a neighbor of the project who worked for decades in the senior care industry, most recently with Alterra now known as Brookdale Senior Living.

"I don't see you supporting your neighbors," Bradeen told aldermen. "I don't see St. Luke's supporting the existing neighbors."

St. Luke's parish council member Michael Lischek said the project was an extension of the church's mission to care for people from conception to death.

"It's exactly where it should be," Lischek said.

Residents expressed concern about declining property values and public safety if dementia patients become violent in the neighborhood. Saying he represented 120 neighbors opposed to the project, Bradeen pointed to other existing vacant city sites he said would be more appropriate for a for-profit business.

In fact, on Tuesday's council agenda was a public hearing for a proposed 25-bed memory care facility on the southeast corner of Calhoun Road and I-94. No one spoke at that hearing. And aldermen recently approved another center on Calhoun Road near The Ponds hockey rink.

, 18000 W. Greenfield Ave., plans to sell about seven acres north of the church off Davidson Road to Silverado Senior Living, based in Irvine, CA, to build and operate a 45,000-square-foot memory care facility.

Ald. Rick Owen said this business' mission — helping elderly residents who lose their memories — was altruistic and not a typical commercial enterprise.

He compared memory care centers to schools, churches and hospitals as "essential and desirable" functions. Ald. Mark Nelson said the council must consider what's in the best interest of the city as a whole, saying residents who don't live near the project support it as another option for their ailing parents or grandparents.

One woman said she knew four local women who needed places for their husbands who have dementia, and one of those women drives to Pewaukee to see her husband in a center there.

Compassionate home or heartless corporation?

"They should not be forced to leave Brookfield to find these options," Owen said.

"This facility is a senior home," not an office or other business, he added.

But Ald. Carnell disagreed it was a home, saying when elderly residents of care centers run out of money, they are kicked out of the center. Real homes and families don't do that, he said.

"It's a corporation and maybe a heartless corporation at that," Carnell said.

He dismissed colleagues' arguments that Silverado and St. Luke's had a legal right to build the project because it met all city codes and the company agreed to make changes to lighting, landscaping and traffic access.

Carnell said when Hooters sought to open in the Pedro's restaurant site it acquired in bankrupcy court, aldermen were told it met codes and they had little choice but to approve.

Alderman compares vote to Hooters

But half of the council voted against Hooters because they didn't believe it belonged in Brookfield, he said.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you have the right to vote your heart, to vote the way you feel," Carnell said.

Ald. Gary Mahkorn disagreed, saying while was "touching" and "might sound good," basing votes on emotion and beliefs would be arbitary and create "complete chaos" in city decision-making.

Ald. Gerald Mellone said St. Luke's had greatly improved its original request that did not meet codes because it was too tall with three stories, too large with 280 beds and too close to the property lines and included a 15-foot retaining wall.

He said one neighbor who originally was opposed to the project sent the mayor a letter Tuesday backing the center after researching Silverado.

"I have no doubt that Silverado will be a good neighbor," Mellone said.

Owen urged approval "because it's the right thing to do."

Although he voted in favor, Ald. Chris Blackburn urged his colleagues to re-examine the city's conditional use ordinance that allows institutions to be built in residential areas and tighten it to protect future neighborhoods from unwanted intrusions.