Committee Does What's Best For Janesville: Proposed Apartment Development Squashed

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According to this report from the Janesville Gazette, the Janesville Plan Commission, in a unanimous decision, shut down a new 95-unit apartment development proposed for the buffer space on the backside of Walmart/Sam's Club located in the city's uppity Briar Crest subdivision.

At first glance, this appears to be a rare win for "the people" vs city hall, but a few things about this particular decision do not quite match up with several recent decisions in other areas of the city.

Typically in Janesville, when a group of citizens most likely to be adversely impacted by city plans show up as a vocal majority at the public hearing, they are often maligned as selfish visionless NIMBY's who don't understand progress. Council members and their supporters defending the city's plans go even further by claiming they are doing only what's best for Janesville at-large - and not because some small group of naysayers want to protect their neck of the woods. That's how it is 99% of time. But not this time.

I won't rehash the Gazette's report or one council member's odd reason to defend his vote, but there is no doubt in my mind that had the developer propose a similar project for the south, west or central residential areas of the city, the commission would have approved it and passed it on to the city council.

But for the sake of less argument and more prose, I prefer to believe city leader's past memes when it comes to major changes or developments proposed within the city. They opposed the apartment development because adding new rental units is not what is best for Janesville. If it's not a good fit for Briar Crest - it's not a good fit for the Fourth Ward or anywhere else in the city.

Remember that the next time somebody wants to build rental housing in any one of the city's residential areas.