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	St. Francis Panel Clears Stritch Plan for Cousins Center Triangle Business Journal November 21, 2008 http://triangle.bizjournals.com/triangle/othercities/milwaukee/stories/2008/11/17/daily53.html The St. Francis Planning Commission voted Thursday to approve a rezoning request for the Cousins Center property, allowing for Cardinal Stritch University to build a new undergraduate campus. The Cousins Center property, 3501 S. Lake Drive, is now zoned for mixed use. For Stritch's purposes, the land would have to be zoned for planned unit development. The Planning Commission approval is subject to the outcome of a formal public hearing that will take place Jan. 6. The St. Francis Common Council is expected to take a final vote on the rezoning Jan. 20. At Thursday's meeting, Stritch's executive vice president for administration and chief financial officer Tom VanHimbergen outlined the university's preliminary plans for the property. The plans include new residence halls for expanding enrollment, classroom buildings, and 80-plus acres of We Energies land adjacent to the property as sports fields for Stritch's soccer, softball and baseball teams. As envisioned, the new campus will reside on approximately 130 acres. The Cousins Center is part of Stritch's creation of a master space plan for the future. The university, described as the largest Franciscan institution of higher education in the nation and the second-largest independent college in Wisconsin, is virtually landlocked at its current Fox Point/Glendale main campus. VanHimbergen explained that Stritch's expansion to the South Shore will take place in a manner that is consistent with the University's Franciscan values of building community and reverencing creation, emphasizing that Stritch will not touch any part of Seminary Woods and reiterating Stritch's intent to keep the natural setting preserved. Stritch announced in July that it agreed to buy the Cousins Center in St. Francis from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee for an undisclosed price. The archdiocese put the Cousins Center up for sale in late 2006 to help raise $16 million to $18 million that would be used to settle lawsuits stemming from claims of sexual abuse by priests.
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