Hotel chain sues after plans blocked
WoodSpring wants to build by airport
An extended-stay hotel chain is suing Milwaukee, saying city officials are arbitrarily blocking plans for a hotel near Mitchell International Airport.
WoodSpring Suites Milwaukee Airport LLC, an affiliate of the WoodSpring chain, has filed two related legal actions against the city.
WoodSpring is asking a judge to order the city to grant it a certified survey map, which would allow the hotel chain to pursue its development plans.
WoodSpring has faced opposition in Milwaukee and other area communities, including Greenfield, West Milwaukee and Menomonee Falls. That opposition is tied to the chain’s niche of offering bargainpriced rooms for guests who stay several days.
WoodSpring says those concerns are unwarranted, and that the chain operates well-run hotels.
Wichita, Kan.-based WoodSpring wants to develop a four-story, 124-room hotel at 1701 W. Layton Ave. The development, with an estimated $4 million construction cost, would be just west of I-94 on part of a vacant parcel that is zoned to include hotels.
However, because the hotel site would be developed separately from the rest of the parcel, it needs a certified survey map. Such maps are usually approved routinely.
But the Plan Commission in May voted to deny the certified survey map request — despite a recommendation for approval from Mayor Tom Barrett’s Department of City Development.
Commission members voted after hearing opposition from Ald. Terry Witkowski, whose district includes the development site, and Deb Ritter, a resident of the Bostonian Village North condos, which is south of the proposed hotel site.
Both Witkowski and Ritter said an office building would be a better use for the parcel. WoodSpring would use just 3 acres of the 11-acre lot.
At a June meeting of the Common Council’s Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee, Witkowski asked committee members to reject the survey map because it didn’t show an unimproved portion of W. Barnard Ave.
WoodSpring said that mistake was irrelevant.
The zoning committee rejected the survey map request, and the full council upheld that recommendation at its June 20 meeting.
WoodSpring says the council’s decision was arbitrary and unreasonable.