Todd Hubler
More affordable housing in one of Madison’s most vibrant neighborhoods. What’s not to like? A proposed mixed-use development at 134 S. Fair Oaks Ave. would create dozens of subsidized, residential units just blocks away from Lowell Elementary and Olbrich Park, and with easy access to the Capital City bike path, major bus routes, restaurants and grocery stores.
However, residents of the affordable apartment complex — proposed by Stone House Development — would also be living across the street from an aluminum die-casting plant operated by the Madison-Kipp Corporation. A report from city health officials to the Plan Commission, which approved the project in December, concludes that the manufacturer’s activities “are not creating a human health impact.” But opponents of the city-supported development say officials lack evidence to make that claim and are potentially exposing poor people to toxins that may damage their health.
Maria Powell, president of the Midwest Environmental Justice Organization, used to live near Madison-Kipp and has long been critical of the company’s environmental record. She’s appalled that the city would back an affordable housing project so close to an industrial loading dock where “trucks come-and-go, day and night, emitting diesel fumes.” She contends that the nearby smokestacks at the Madison-Kipp plant are “more than an eyesore.”
“If this project happens, there are going to be vulnerable people living right next to a facility that emits harmful chemicals,” says Powell. “Immune system problems. Developmental problems. Cardiovascular problems. Respiratory problems. Some of these chemicals are known carcinogens. Those are the potential health hazards. There isn’t enough testing to say that residents living 100 feet away will be safe.”
Stone House Development proposes building an 80-unit, multi-family residential building on the Fair Oaks site, most recently home to Fair Oaks Nursery & Garden Center. The project would also include underground parking, commercial space that utilizes a 1927 brick industrial building on the property, and a courtyard that overlooks Starkweather Creek.
Sixty-eight apartments in the building would be available, below-market rate, to residents who qualify for affordable housing. In its application for Affordable Housing Funds, Stone House says a renter who makes 30 percent of Dane County’s median income or less, would pay $388 for a one-bedroom apartment and $588 for a three-bedroom unit. This would be Stone House’s 10th affordable housing development.
In 2014, Mayor Paul Soglin launched an initiative to create 1,000 affordable housing units in five years. Jim O’Keefe, Madison’s community development director, says the city has had “tremendous success” leveraging federal tax credits — distributed annually by the Wisconsin Housing Economic Development Agency (WHEDA) — to build affordable housing. He says city-support has been key to developers getting funding through the program. In the first two years of Madison’s Affordable Housing Fund, the eight projects supported by the city all received WHEDA funding.
“The fact that we are investing city dollars in these projects is recognized by WHEDA in its scoring,” says O’Keefe. “In a very competitive process, being able to get points for local financial participation might be the difference between getting tax credits and not getting tax credits.”
On Nov. 28, 2016, the Common Council authorized $1.35 million out of its Affordable Housing Fund for Stone Creek’s proposal on Fair Oaks. The project is one of five city-backed, affordable housing developments competing to receive WHEDA tax credits this year.
Ald. David Ahrens says the council should have given the Fair Oaks project more scrutiny before funding it. In recent months, Ahrens has rallied opposition to the proposal because of its proximity to Madison-Kipp. Uncertainty about exposing low-income residents to potentially dangerous fumes was enough to block $334,000 in tax-incremental financing that Stone House sought in late February.
Ahrens accuses city health officials of “gross negligence” for concluding the site is safe. Six alders voted against the TIF grant, defeating it at a Feb. 28 meeting.
“[Industrial manufacturing] is a noisy, dirty, smelly affair and this is particularly true of Madison-Kipp,” Ahrens said at the meeting. “We know childhood exposure to air pollution of this magnitude results in lifelong respiratory damage. And those are the kids that are going to live there…. I wouldn’t let my kid live there for free.”
Ahrens says city health officials are relying on air quality measurements by the state Department of Natural Resources from a monitor at East High School, over a mile away from the project. Without site-specific testing, Ahrens says the city has no evidence to say Madison-Kipp’s facility is “not creating a human health impact.”
Madison-Kipp has a history of soil and groundwater contamination in other properties adjacent to its facility. It has paid millions to settle lawsuits from neighbors over contamination of tetrachloroethylene, a probable carcinogen, that leaked into the soil and into people’s homes.
For decades, residents have also complained of chemical odors near Madison-Kipp’s facilities on Atwood and Fair Oaks. When assessing the Stone House proposal, city officials still cite the “Madison Kipp Corp Exposure Assessment” prepared by Madison’s public health department in 2001. The report finds potential emissions from Madison-Kipp’s die casting operations include chlorine, hydrogen chloride, nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, particulate matter and various volatile organic compounds. But the report says emissions are at levels that are “not expected to cause human health effects that are observable with an epidemiological health study.”
In 2016, Madison-Kipp also announced it had stopped using chlorine to treat aluminum at its facilities. John Hausbeck, environmental health supervisor with Public Health Madison & Dane County, says there are fewer complaints about odors coming from Madison-Kipp since the measure was taken.
“From my personal experience, there are odors. It is my hope that people coming into this new development go in with eyes open,” Hausbeck told the Plan Commission on Dec. 12. “From what everybody tells me, it’s a great neighborhood. And then, there are obviously people who would rather not live next to [Madison-Kipp]. The odors are there, the noises are there. If that’s tolerable to a person, it could be a great place.”
Ahrens isn’t convinced by the available data.
“There have been hundreds of complaints over the years from residents over Madison-Kipp,” says Ahrens. “It’s incredible that a city department would risk these people’s lives when they lack evidence on the health hazards. To expose known toxins to low-income residents, who have few resources to defend themselves if there is a problem, is a great injustice.”
Hausbeck says the agency lacks the means to provide the evidence that critics of the Fair Oaks project are demanding.
“The environmental data that I have says it’s safe for people to live there,” says Hausbeck. “It would be great to have all the data in the world. But the monitoring done by the DNR says the air is safe. That’s what I’m working with. This property does have some environmental problems but they are being addressed as part of the development.”
Ald. Mark Clear says using “hypothetical environmental concerns” to derail the affordable project is “a farce.”
“That’s a red herring. Opponents were using a potentially vulnerable population as a shield to make more of an emotional case,” says Clear. “I think it was just a lot of noise.”
Stone House was granted a conditional-use permit to build housing on the industrially zoned property.
Helen Bradbury, Stone House president, says the company did its own environmental testing on the site and is taking “significant steps” to eradicate any contaminants.
“You can’t get a loan or get an investor without clean environmental reports. We are very satisfied that the site is safe,” says Bradbury. “We are improving the environmental conditions. If we felt like it was too dangerous to live there, of course we wouldn’t move forward. We’re affordable housing providers.”
Bradbury says it was frustrating to hear “hyperbole from council members” about health hazards.
“There are hundreds of people who live near Madison-Kipp. There are houses that are closer to both of their plants than [the Fair Oaks project] location,” says Bradbury. “If there really are serious pollution issues, where is the outrage about that? Why are we the ones being picked on?”
Bradbury adds that council members who oppose the project also fail to understand the difficulty of finding locations for affordable housing in isthmus neighborhoods.
“It’s the Willy Street neighborhood. Everyone wants to live there,” says Bradbury. “It would be much easier to build out in a cornfield somewhere but that’s not the socially responsible thing to do and wouldn’t come close to offering the same amenities.”
Bradbury says council members have put the project in jeopardy. She says Stone House lost at least a point or two off its score for WHEDA funding when the council denied the TIF. Stone House will know by the end of May whether it will get the tax credit.
“The WHEDA [tax credits] are so competitive that losing one point off our score might make the difference,” says Bradbury. “If we don’t get that funding, I can’t say what will happen with the project.”
Environmentalists aren’t the only ones opposed to the Stone House project.
Tony Koblinski, president and CEO of Madison-Kipp, posed a hypothetical situation to city officials in a Dec. 6 letter.
“Imagine Stone House had built its development 30 years ago and it was [Madison-Kipp] who came to the city today to propose an 80,000-square foot manufacturing facility right next door, operating 24 hours per day, with loading docks and all the attendant noise and traffic,” Koblinski wrote. “Even though a manufacturing facility is a permitted use, [Madison-Kipp’s] ability to develop such a facility would certainly be impeded by the existence of residential units so close by.”
