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Residents challenged that determination before the Board of Appeals, arguing the commission improperly classified the project. The appeal comes after a Waukesha County judge recently dismissed a lawsuit filed by DeMoCat, LLC, Moorland Hospitality Group, LLC and the Milwaukee Rescue Mission. The lawsuit sought a writ of mandamus compelling the city to allow the project to move forward. The court also granted a motion by New Berlin Citizens United to intervene in the case before dismissing it.<\/p>\n
Milwaukee Rescue Mission President Patrick Vanderburgh said the project grew out of strategic planning discussions several years ago.<\/p>\n
“As we were doing that, part one of the questions was, is God leading us to do something, you know, the next kind of big thing,” Vanderburgh said. “We felt the next strategic thing to do would be to find a campus outside of the city that could be kind of a regional resource and then expand the capacity to serve more than twice as many men as we\u2019re serving now, realizing that addiction, alcohol, or substance addiction is just everywhere.”<\/p>\n
The New Journey program currently operates at the mission\u2019s central campus near Marquette University and serves 40 men in a residential recovery program. Vanderburgh said the organization has operated the program for four decades and has increasingly served participants from outside Milwaukee.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had just such great success helping men,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Vanderburgh said the proposed New Berlin campus would be dedicated exclusively to the recovery program and would be staffed around the clock.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis campus will be specific to that program, and that\u2019s always been the design,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a community of men working together with our staff, we\u2019ve got 24\/7 staffing for the program.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Vanderburgh, the mission consulted pastors in Waukesha County while exploring the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the pastors that we interviewed said this is an issue in our congregation,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a lot of resources. This would be a great resource that we would definitely find helpful and would access.\u201d<\/p>\n
Opponents have argued that the project is being mischaracterized as a church in order to avoid zoning restrictions.<\/p>\n
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