We could spend a long time unpacking these funding dynamics, but I’ll summarize them for now: While the style of this development may be a little different from the typical cul-de-sacs, four lane speedways and fast food restaurants you'd find in a suburb, the funding mechanisms and long term outlook are exactly the same.

We’ve got a local government shelling out millions in the hopes of making that money back decades from now (cross your fingers) and the illusive promise of attracting new residents and businesses with this expensive project. The local government is also rolling out new infrastructure to support the development with little plan to pay for its maintenance. And don't get me started on the $1 million parking garage... Overall, this is a huge gamble (with millions in public dollars) on something that hasn’t been tested or experimented with in the slightest. In practice, it is no different from any large suburban project like a new mall or housing subdivision.

What’s more, the Town Square site is actually home to plenty of purely auto-oriented, suburban-style stores, in addition to its handful of walkable streets, revealing even more thoroughly its true suburban heart. The Journal Sentinel reports:

Initially, Wispark [Drexel Town Square’s developer] planned to have stores no larger than 20,000 square feet. But that plan was dropped, drawing opposition from some residents, because Drexel Town Square was unable to attract commercial tenants without a large anchor store.

"We could have never developed this entire site as a town center," Jerry Franke, [president of Wispark] said. "It would have failed miserably."

That's because Wispark, a division of Wisconsin Energy Corp., needed city cash through a tax incremental financing district to help pay for the site's roads, sewer and water lines and other public improvements, Franke said.

The Meijer store and other suburban-oriented buildings will play a key role in generating the property tax revenue to make the tax financing district work, Franke said.