|
Current Issues
On the Front Burner
Currently, one major threat looms: the dire need for funds to maintain the quality of Milwaukee County Parks.
Our starved parks: Two proposals
The park's financial troubles Their share of the county tax levy fell from 31% to 9.9% between 1980 and 2000, and park staffs were cut by two-thirds. And the downward trend has continued. Economies have included fee increases, pool closings, elimination of lifeguards, no more stocking of fish in lagoons.
Badly needed is a dedicated funding source that can't be raided to help cover state-mandated expenses and rising costs of other County programs. Two remedies are being discussed:
1. A half-percent sales tax assessment, like the one for the Miller Park stadium, and
2. A separate self-funding parks district.
County voters in the 2008 election gave a rousing YES to a penny boost in the current sales tax to provide more funding for County parks and recreation, the transit system, emergency services and property tax relief. As the referendum was advisory, the measure requires positive action by the State Legislature, the Governor and the County Board (which supported the referendum).
Because of differing versions of the 2009 budget, the sales tax amount needed to be sorted out by a joint Senate-Assembly committee. The Senate version, which used the language of the referendum passed by voters of Milwaukee County and included allocations for parks, transit and emergency services. The Assembly version omitted parks.
The joint committee chose the Assembly version, which ignored park funding, and that was what went to Governor Doyle –- who vetoed the sales tax increase for Milwaukee County, saying he preferred a regional transit authority.
Because so much work on the budget was done in the shadows, it’s difficult to single out the legislators from Milwaukee County who defied the will of the County voters.
Our thanks to the legislators who took the lead in supporting more parks funding through a sales tax: State Senator Lena Taylor, State Representative Pedro Colon and State Representative Tamara Grigsby.
Responding to pressure from constituents irked by shunning of the referendum mandate, some local legislators have contacted us about what they can do about Milwaukee County Park funding in the form of legislative bills for either a half percent sales tax dedicated only to parks or a separate park district for Milwaukee County Parks which would stabilize funding initially and over time provide more funds. The obvious stumbling block at this time is the sentiment of the Governor and key local legislators. Steps are being taken to persuade the Governor of the critical need for dedicated funding for our parks before they erode even further.
[back to top]
Our beautiful, threatened lakefront
Alarmed by the number of building projects once planned for Milwaukee's lakefront, POP spearheaded opposition and succeeded in quashing several of them. The projects lacked coordination and there was myopia about the paving, parking, car congestion and visual mishmash they'd produce -- not to mention loss of green space and lake views.
Our position: If a project can be sited elsewhere than the lakefront, build it elsewhere! With the lakefront and other concerns in mind, a POP delegation visited the County Executive a few years ago and proposed that he create a task force to evaluate and coordinate lakefront projects and to provide for public review and comment. What eventually resulted was the Lakefront Development Advisory Commission, established to ensure public input and to make recommendations on proposed developments on the downtown lakefront. The County Board expanded it to include the entire Milwaukee County shoreline.
[back to top]
Here's what's up on the lakefront currently:
1. Downtown Lakefront
office building scuttled;
restaurant back in
One of many opponents of an office building proposed on the defunct Pieces of Eight restaurant site, POP help kill the idea. When the slice of downtown lakefront between the Milwaukee Art Museum and Discovery World was proposed as the site for headquarters of UWM’s new School of Freshwater Sciences and the Milwaukee Water Council, plus offices for other water-related entities, Preserve Our Parks wrote a couple of OpEd pieces for the Journal Sentinel; apprised the City Harbor Commission, which supervises this City-owned property, of the Public Trust doctrine that bars use of that land for commercial purposes; and questioned the wisdom of shoehorning in another large building at that site.
While we strongly support the area-wide effort to make Milwaukee a world powerhouse in freshwater research, we believed this site should be off limits for its headquarters. We offered a green alternative that would include ponds, native plantings from the time when Native Americans harvested wild rice in the harbor and easy access to a fishing pier for the handicapped.
Ultimately, UWM backed off on the site, saying it had aroused too much controversy. And entrepreneur and philanthropist Michael Cudahy, a strong back of the plan, who boiught the restaurant lease fpr $1 million and offered to donate it for the project, now says he will reopen a restaurant there. Though the lease still has nine years to run, a recent letter from the State Department of Natural Resources, spurred by POP questions about legality of restaurant use of the site, asks the City to assure that any noncompliant use will stop at the end of the lease in January 2018.
So we’ll have to wait and see what happens. At least there won’t be an office building here and, in a decade, POP hopes the site will offer an unobstructed view over Lake Michigan.
2. Old Coast Guard Station
Plans for a Great Lakes Native American education-culture center fell through when fund raising floundered. So the building has been demolished and replaced by an open-air picnic pavilion. The adjacent seawall also has been replaced. POP opposed the conversion of the fire-damaged building and supported the demolition and construction of the pavilion, which opened the lake vista.
[back to top]
3. War Memorial Expansion
The site for a proposed veterans’ museum between the Milwaukee Art Museum/War Memorial Center building and the Vietnam War Memorial has been shifted to the VA Grounds near Miller Park. We opposed the Disneyesque design for the museum, billed as America’s Freedom Center, because it would interfere with more lake views and with the sightlines for the north face of the Saarinen-designed Memorial Center. We applaud the decision to move the project to the VA grounds.
But other plans are proposed for an extension of the Memorial Center north, through construction of a parking garage and, possibly, a showy north entrance to the building along with glassing in of the current atrium. We have adopted a wait-and-see stance until plans are more definite. We do believe that if the parking structure is completed, the ground-level blacktopped area now used for parking should be ripped up and re-landscaped in greenery.
[back to top]
Other expansions on the lakefront
One major concern with these lakefront proposals is that all those granted lakefront space in the past have expanded over the years, some several times. Some current examples:
* The Milwaukee's Community Sailing Center plans a $3 million, seven fold expansion of its facility from 1,900 to 14,000 sq. ft. Plans show a low slung, glassy building with a gently carved copper roof; 50 parking places will be added.
* With customers parking on grass and turning it to mud, the Alterra Cafe in the old flushing station on Lincoln Memorial Dr. was granted 10 more blacktopped spaces, these on County parkland.
[back to top]
Keeping lakefront bluffs less cluttered
As larger, taller apartments are built along the stretch of Prospect Avenue overlooking the downtown harbor, POP has become concerned about how these large bluff-top buildings will affect the green corridor of our lakefront below. Recently, POP members met to discuss our concerns with Robert Greenstreet, City director of planning and design.
POP’s point is that our tall wooded lake bluffs are a defining asset of our city. They provide a green backdrop for our waterfront beaches, parks, duck lagoon, bike trail and beautiful Lincoln Memorial Drive. If these soaring bluffs are invaded aggressively—if they are overbuilt, overlighted, deforested, or if developers create showy facades on Lincoln Memorial Drive— the lakefront’s beauty will suffer. Architectural fallout (security fences, transformer boxes, unfinished garages etc.) is another worry. The bluffs already contain too much ugly clutter.
Properties on the east side of Prospect Avenue include bluff land. They extend down the bluff to a point ten feet from the edge of the former railroad right-of-way which today contains a picturesque County bike trail. POP understands the builder’s need to maximize buildable space and profits. But we are asking the City to establish guidelines that will require builders to respect the natural wooded character of the
lakefront bluffs.
POP’s also encouraging current bluff property owners to unclutter the bluff in any way they can.
[back to top]
Mixed use for County Grounds
Some years ago, the County decreed that the northeast section of the County Grounds in Wauwatosa – some 270 acres north of Watertown Plank Rd. -– declared surplus and informally designated "parkland" instead should be mixed-use acreage. Delineated uses, according to the County Economic and Community Development staff, include a state forestry education center and demonstration area, two huge flood-control basins, a 65-acre economic development tract, 50 acres for recreational uses and 17 acres for expansion of the freeway interchange on the west side of the property.
POP and others saw this County Grounds quadrant as one of Milwaukee's last undeveloped treasures and wanted it preserved primarily as state forest, part of it a wetland that could soak up floodwater when necessary.
Roughly two million cubic yards of dirt have been excavated to build the flood-control basins, half of that spread over areas south of Swan Blvd. designated for economic development and recreation. The board earmarked $350,000 for restoring the 50-acre recreation site.
Recently Carlos Santiago, UWM chancellor, backed by a group of prominent Milwaukee businessmen proposed a UWM engineering campus and research park for the economic development area. Earlier news stories said the sale would include 82 acres of land, including 17 of those acres designated for expansion of a freeway interchange.
Recently the County Board approved the sale of 83 acres for $13.55 million.
[back to top]
Wisconsin Lutheran College at the County Grounds
The County Board approved the $3 million purchase by Wisconsin Lutheran College of 25 acres of the County Grounds for a football stadium-sports complex. The northwestern site beats the central area first proposed, but we still dislike this sale of public recreation land to a private entity.
The land is flanked by Underwood Creek Parkway. Under the agreement with the County, the college must keep main access roads off the parkway and must maintain a park-like buffer strip between the sports facilities/parking areas and the parkway.
[back to top]
Push for Parks in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods
Bedraggled Johnsons Park is scheduled to get a full facelift in the next couple of years as part of a Green Infrastructure Initiative in the Fond du Lac and North Ave. area. POP is part of the coalition behind the revival.
For full information, see the POP webpage on Johnsons Park.
[back to top]
Beaming in on Bender
Have you visited Bender Park, a spectacular site in Oak Creek in Milwaukee County's far southeastern corner? Purchased in the 1960s with the help of federal Land and Water Conservation (LAWCON) funds, the sprawling park, which boasts soaring bluffs overlooking Lake Michigan, ravines, wetlands, as well as level green space, has remained largely undeveloped. (After a 30-year delay during which considerably bluffland eroded away, the County stabilized a portion of the bluff and built a marina with a small pavilion.)
Awhile back, the County and Oak Creek proposed turning a large chunk of the park into a tournament-caliber 18-hole golf course -- possibly with residences on adjoining land outside the park and possibly the new home for the Greater Milwaukee Open--with high fees for public play. (A 9-hole course was included in the park's original plan.) The plan was put on hold.
Recently Oak Creek backed a developer who wanted to trade about half of the park, including some pristine forested areas, for land north of the park, which had been polluted by past industrial activity. POP opposed the trade and it was shot down by the County Board.
POP opposes any development of this southeastern jewel, believing that the terrain here should be kept for all county residents to enjoy.
For those who might want to visit this gem in the
rough: Off I-94, take the Ryan Road (Hy 700) exit and drive east to Chicago Road (Hy 32). Turn north (left) onto Chicago Road and go a short distance to the South Bound saloon. Turn right onto the eastern extension of Ryan Road and drive east to the park and marina.
[back to top]
Aurora Health Care expands Honey Creek Parkway
Over a long period of time, the Aurora Health Care/Honey Creek Parkway saga continued. Aurora requested an easement to place the main driveway to its new hospice-office-training-center on Honey Creek Parkway. The County Board granted it. POP and citizens protested. The County Exec vetoed the easement, but then proposed a compromise allowing Aurora its parkway entrance provided that the corporation sends trucks to another entrance (trucks aren't permitted on County parkways).
As part of the compromise, Aurora ended up deeding 7 acres of choice land to the parkway. The land is at the east end of the parkway where Honey Creek enters the Menomonee River.
[back to top]
POP persistence Pays Off
Downtown Lakefront office building scuttled; restaurant back in
One of many opponents of an office building proposed on the defunct Pieces of Eight restaurant site, POP help kill the idea. When the slice of downtown lakefront between the Milwaukee Art Museum and Discovery World was proposed as the site for headquarters of UWM’s new School of Freshwater Sciences and the Milwaukee Water Council, plus offices for other water-related entities, Preserve Our Parks wrote a couple of OpEd pieces for the Journal Sentinel; apprised the City Harbor Commission, which supervises this City-owned property, of the Public Trust doctrine that bars use of that land for commercial purposes; and questioned the wisdom of shoehorning in another large building at that site.
While we strongly support the area-wide effort to make Milwaukee a world powerhouse in freshwater research, we believed this site should be off limits for its headquarters. We offered a green alternative that would include ponds, native plantings from the time when Native Americans harvested wild rice in the harbor and easy access to a fishing pier for the handicapped.
Ultimately, UWM backed off on the site, saying it had aroused too much controversy. And entrepreneur and philanthropist Michael Cudahy, a strong back of the plan, who boiught the restaurant lease fpr $1 million and offered to donate it for the project, now says he will reopen a restaurant there. Though the lease still has nine years to run, a recent letter from the State Department of Natural Resources, spurred by POP questions about legality of restaurant use of the site, asks the City to assure that any noncompliant use will stop at the end of the lease in January 2018.
So we’ll have to wait and see what happens. At least there won’t be an office building here and, in a decade, POP hopes the site will offer an unobstructed view over Lake Michigan.
Warship on the lakefront scuttled
After a lengthy campaign that opposed docking a mothballed warship on the downtown lakefront as a museum and visitor attraction, POP was gratified to have the Lakefront Development Advisory Commission, as it’s first order of business, unanimously vote against the project. The County Board agreed.
POP did not oppose bringing the mothballed USS Des Moines to Milwaukee, but we strongly battled against siting the two-block-long heavy cruiser, with a seven-story superstructure in the city’s front yard. We believed the steel wall would destroy the view from many angles; we also had many questions about the financial projections for the proposal.
The last we heard, the Des Moines was scrapped in Texas.
Lincoln Park’s Blatz Pavilion saved
POP's continuing opposition to replacement of Lincoln Park's Blatz Pavilion by a large privately operated social and convention center, to be largely funded with public money, paid off, too. The proposal for the $8.7-million center was made by M7 Community Development Corp., which sought a $250,000 grant from the City of Milwaukee and a million dollars from the State of Wisconsin as preliminary funding.
The County also had earmarked $100,000 for razing the building. The million-dollar item, which made it into the legislative budget, was vetoed by the governor after an extensive contact campaign by POP and concerned Lincoln Park neighbors and friends. And undercutting the city grant was an opinion from the City Attorney's office that the center, as proposed, would violate a park deed restriction that the POP lawsuit had kept alive earlier. In all communications, POP emphasized that it did not oppose the M7 plan, but simply did not believe the center should be sited in a County Park.
[back to top]
|
Our Starved Parks
