Oconomowoc, Aurora seek hospital solution

City holds off on Pabst Farms rezoning while two sides try to work out differences

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, August 4, 2006

By AMY RINARD
arinard@journalsentinel.com

Oconomowoc - A move by the city to again bar a new Aurora hospital by rezoning its proposed Pabst Farms site has been put on hold pending efforts to settle the long legal battle between the health care provider and the city, Mayor Maury Sullivan said Thursday.

"If the discussions don't work out, we'll still do that," he said of the zoning change initiated by city officials.

Sullivan declined to talk about the progress of those discussions but acknowledged that the two sides were talking to each other.

Aurora spokesman Jeff Squire also declined Thursday to discuss the status of settlement talks.

The negotiations began shortly after a May ruling in Waukesha County Circuit Court that declared illegal the city's 2001 rezoning of the 43-acre site in Pabst Farms, near the northeast corner of the I-94 and Highway 67 interchange. That rezoning prohibited a hospital from being built at the site, and Aurora sued the city protesting the action.

Aurora officials and supporters of the new hospital claimed the city had rezoned the land to block competition for Oconomowoc Memorial Hospital, which had strongly opposed Aurora's building plan.

City officials said the rezoning was done because they did not want a property tax-exempt hospital in a tax incremental financing district where the city had borrowed $24 million to build roads, sewer and water lines and other public infrastructure to speed development of Pabst Farms. Such loans are paid back with property tax revenue from new developments in the district.

The May ruling by Circuit Judge James R. Kieffer meant the site reverted to its previous zoning classification, which allows a hospital. He said the city had not followed its own procedures for rezoning because there was never a written request for the action.

Aurora immediately re-submitted its application to the city to develop the 88-bed hospital and medical clinic facility, expected to cost at least $166 million for the land, construction and equipment. The application is moving through the city's review process, and city staff has met at least once with Aurora officials to discuss the building plans.

At the same time, the city has appealed Kieffer's ruling and filed a written application to rezone the site again as part of what Sullivan has characterized as a multi-pronged response to the court's decision.

Since that ruling, a 1 million-square-foot shopping mall has been announced for 110 acres of Pabst Farms that includes Aurora's proposed hospital site.

That has fueled speculation that a settlement of the lawsuit between Aurora and the city could provide for the location of a new hospital at another Pabst Farm site, at the southeast corner of the I-94/Highway 67 interchange. Both Aurora officials and Pabst Farms developer Peter Bell have said they prefer that the hospital be built at that site, which is in neighboring Summit.

Town officials have endorsed the building plan, but the County Board rejected a land use change needed for the project to proceed.

But the city could exercise the expanded land-use planning and zoning powers granted under state law to clear the way for the hospital to be built in Summit. That action would not require approval of the County Board