This saga showcases the masterful manipulation by a real estate developer, along with the mayor and city attorney of Lake Geneva, steering Symphony Bay (SB) residents into a detrimental choice. At the same time, they created a false dilemma for the city council: choosing between the best interests of all Lake Geneva residents and what SB residents have been led to believe is in their favor.
The Plan Commission meeting on 5.20.2024 commences.
Public comments kick off with the feisty City Council President leading the charge:
Mary Jo Fesenmyer begins for some reason by passing out documents about monthly reports to the Planning Commission and the public that should be included in the packet. The Packet contains the documents available to the public and council / committee members receives before a meeting which they need to review to make informed decisions, she states ” We are working on all the committees to beef up those reports, the Utility Commission, along with the Tourism Commission that I gave you their reports, so possibly in your packet for reports, could include building permits which we used get/ also you get other kinds of permits, code enforcement numbers, short term rentals and enforcement, accessibility compliance and comprehensive plan implementation, which you do see a little of the second document I gave you is from Joe Zimmer, who used to be on the Planning Commission. It puts together all the short-term rental categories.?” Joe Zimmer served on the plan commission under Mayor Kline but declined to serve on Todd Krause’s plan commission. (one smart dude).
She also passed out a document about SB phase eight and asked the committee to do fact finding with written documentation.
Mary Jo Fesenmyer goes on, “And it’s because you are looking at zoning, sewer and water implications. The police Service, Fire Department service, EMS service, other kinds of impact fees, the impact on the clubhouse and the pool for capacity. Population growth, sidewalks, trail connections, stop signs, park and open space current. What would be included for phase eight and then looking at the park that’s already there cleaning up roads every night for construction. The impact on the stop light future. Stop light on Townline Rd. and maybe paying for that. The contract that people sign for Symphony Bay, including the Handbook, HOA control, and what that involves wetland delineation. Looking at the environmental corridor in writing. Subdivision access to Bloomfield Rd. Only repair and resurface Bloomfield Rd. And then extra territorial plat review so it would be nice to have thorough fact finding in writing, not just statements verbally.”
Next up to speak was SB resident Joe Valin “I came before the City Council and spoke to them about the issues we were having with the build at Symphony Bay. I was looking for help to make repairs and educate the City Council on their quality.”
Mayor Todd Krause then cuts him off and did not want to talk about the builder, only annexation.
Joe Valin went on “We don’t even know what Bloomfield will do in terms of the density. Build is going to propose. If it doesn’t come into Lake Geneva and no matter what happens to phase eight, whether it stays in Lake Geneva or goes to Bloomfield, is that going to continue to tell? Tell us that the HOA is going to stay in control of Fairwyn (the developer). And is the city inspector your inspection department? Is not doing their job.”
Council Member Joel Hoiland 390 Country Club Dr. and recent Planning Commission member for three years was up next. He starts by praising the building and planning department and building inspector. And wants to annex. “Would be vastly different in appearance from the current Symphony Bay properties and the creation of developer owned private water and sewer utilities would be problematic because you know it won’t tie in directly to the city system. So, I really urge you to recommend annexation of Symphony Bay.”
Kathy Rangy, SB “We’re very happy there. I think it’s extremely important that you give serious consideration to annexing.”
Anthony La Port of SB states the mayor and fire department convinced us to want an additional 140 homes to SB
Council member Linda Frame then chimes in “with all due respect to Alderman Fesenmyer, I just want to clarify that we’re here tonight only for the annexation. We’re not here for a grocery list of items that need to be done, which they do.”
Former Mayor Speedo Condos is next up “I’m in favor of the annexation. I believe at this point we have an ample number of services. You mentioned before police and fire. We provide mutual aid. To all the cities around us, and they also provide it to us, we go as far as Delavan, Elkhorn with our aerial truck Bloomfield we service Lynn Township right now. Full time we service Geneva Township full time. We have ample number of firemen. Equipment our police also back up other communities like they back us up.”
“Our utilities, I believe, are not at capacity or we would hear about it. So, all these things factor in as to why you would do an annexation in a community. You never want to remain stagnant. That is not a good thing.”
Former city council member Pete Peterson took the floor next, voicing the collective sentiment of Lake Geneva residents: “As a long-time city resident and taxpayer, I see no benefit in this annexation.”
“We’re already big enough, and almost everybody that’s run for the City Council in the last 20 years has vowed to keep this city as a small city. Most of you are probably under the same guys. There’s absolutely no reason for us to do that.”
“We aren’t obligated to go over there if there’s a police call in Bloomfield, Bloomfield, Police goes 1st, and Bloomfield even comes to us. There is. There’s no personal gain to the city. It’s a mutual agreement and it goes all around the lake. If you vote to annex it, it’s done.”
Plan Commission member Doug Sketes now decides to recuses himself from this item for some unstated reason.
SB developer Brian Pollard believes the Town of Bloomfield and Village of Bloomfield are going to merge in the next 30 to 60 days so Lake Geneva will not be able to annex the land from Bloomfield.
Commission member Peg Esposito is concerned about the developer paying for repair of Townline road. “When we annex the property, does any of Bloomfield Rd. come with it? Does 1/2 of one side of it come with the property?”
Mayor Todd Krause interjects, “Currently, if you go right down the middle of the road, the middle of the road says is Bloomfield, the middle of the road to the north is Lake Geneva. We met with staff today and it’s kind of a crazy thing, but if you go right down the middle of the road, the South side is Bloomfield and the north side is Lake Geneva. So, to get that road fixed might be tricky.”
Commission member Cindy Forster Fueredi expressed concern about the impact fee allocation to Parks, emphasizing her role as the chairman of the Park Board.
Peg Esposito goes on, “And the last thing I just I think that there are a lot of questions yet outstanding about bringing this size of a property with this many units into the city and I agree with Mr. Peterson that we already have agreements with other communities around the lake where if indeed we are spending too much time in their areas, then we start to work on, you know what the fee is going to be and we recoup a lot of the costs. So, when we look at something this big that we’re bringing into the city itself.”
“You know, I think some of these other things need to be talked about then. The size and the quality of the housing, the clubhouse and the pool at the current construction, the population growth, sidewalks, the wet wind delineation, the environmental quarters. I just think that there’s a lot of questions. That I would like to have just a little bit more input and I’m not seeing those answers within the documents that we have tonight.”
Developer Brian Pollard pointed out “at the end of the day this will be developed ..I don’t want to get into too much details, but I was here in October and I was kind of shoved off to the side saying we’re not interested. And so, I’ve spent the last six months working on stuff and so we have conceptual plan of over 400 units for that.”
Mayor Todd Krause points out, “and part of that is because of the fact that the sewer has to be put in at the cost of $3,000,000 to offset that (400 units if developed in Bloomfield).”
Commission member Kyle Cary “I’ll make a recommendation to approve the annexation of Bloomfield Holdings LLC property, located at 875 LB Line Rd. tax key number MB 50003.” Second by John Gibbs
John Gibbs, Cindy Forster Fueredi, Jeremy Nafziger, and Kyle Cary voted in favor Doug Skates did not vote and Peg Esposito voting no.
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