North end of the new Beerline Trail

On Wednesday evening, the opening of the Beerline Trail was celebrated with a ceremonial walk from Gordon Park to the Wheelhouse property. The 4000-foot, paved trail connects the Beerline neighborhood, North Avenue Dam Pedestrian Bridge, Commerce Street, and Humboldt Avenue bridge through the river corridor to Gordon Park and much of Riverwest. The trail will facilitate a better connection for non-motorized travelers between the downtown area and Riverwest. The trail also turns a former railroad corridor into a welcoming and accessible way for visitors to interact with the Milwaukee River.

The effort to build the trail dates back to 2002, and was a partnership between the River Revitalization Foundation, Milwaukee County Parks department, Riverwest Neighborhood Association, National Park Service, and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

The project required a number of different sponsors to happen. Labor has been provided by the City of Milwaukee’s Earn and Learn Milwaukee program, allowing high school students to get paid work experience.  An Eagle Scout project included the construction of a pathway from the future trail down to the river’s west bank and low lying trails. Over 1,000 trees have been planted in the corridor since 2002, including 60 the past week. The tree planting has been done in conjunction with the removal of buckthorn, an invasive species.  A significant land acquisition was made recently on the south end of the trail, as the River Revitalization Foundation acquired the 2.8 acre former Melanec’s Wheelhouse restaurant property for $1.4 million.  The DNR awarded the foundation a $700,000 stewardship grant, and MMSD paid the foundation $400,000 for the a conservation easement restricting development on the property. The foundation will demolish the building and parking lot to turn the land into a park space. The boat landing will be preserved thanks to a $100,000 donation from the Kiwanis Club.

The trail is an excellent addition to the city, and is yet another small piece that fills a gap in Milwaukee’s pedestrian infrastructure that makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts.

The City Plan Commission (CPC) is the City’s official planning body established under State statute and is responsible for master planning activities. The CPC advises the Common Council on a variety of land development issues including zoning map changes, revisions in the zoning ordinance, subdivision approvals, business improvement districts, street and alley vacations, public land disposition and acquisition, new streets and the approval of development plans in certain overlay districts.

City Plan Commission (CPC) meetings are held in the First Floor Boardroom at the Department of City Development, 809 North Broadway, unless otherwise noted.

Agenda

New Design - By Korb Tredo Architects

In March 2010 the development team for Mercy Housing Lakefront Inc. presented the design for a nine-story LEED certified affordable housing apartment building to the Greenwich Village Neighborhood Association.  The apartment building is proposed to be located on Milwaukee’s East Side between N. Farwell Ave. and N. Murray Ave. on an existing City of Milwaukee surface parking lot.

The original proposal faced criticisms based on its height, the reduction of public parking, and to a lessor extent that it was a workforce housing development.   The first proposal was to be 90-feet tall, and although not out of scale with the new Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital, the neighborhood group argued it was too tall for the neighborhood.   In regards to parking, the original proposal included 115 parking spots, 30 of which U.S. Bank would use during the day and become open for public use at night..  Further, it was pointed out that there is publicly accessible structured parking located across the street from this site that could be better utilized.  Despite these parking facilities the neighborhood group argued that not replacing the existing public parking lot would be too big a loss of parking for the area.

Because of the issues raised by the neighborhood group Mercy Housing Lakefront Inc. updated the design to address the concerns over height and parking.  Taking the height issue on directly, the project has been reduced in scale and units bringing it down to a only 5-stories.  Additionally, the new design shows a larger parking garage that would extend over the U.S. Bank drive-through allowing for the project to replace the existing public parking. The new garage would include 125 stalls, with 80 of those stalls being available for public use.

Below you can see the original design and the new design.

Related Articles:

• Developer’s plan lowers apartment building height
• Neighborhood Group Says No to Mercy Housing Lakefront’s East Side Development
• East side apartments near Columbia St. Mary’s proposed

The Finance and Personnel Committee considers appropriations, finances, taxation, revenues, labor relations, personnel, pensions and other benefits, insurance, audits and city budget.

The Finance and Personnel Committee meetings start at 1:30 p.m. and are held in the Room 301-B, City Hall, unless otherwise noted.

The Finance and Personnel Committee considers appropriations, finances, taxation, revenues, labor relations, personnel, pensions and other benefits, insurance, audits and city budget.

The Finance and Personnel Committee meetings start at 1:30 p.m. and are held in the Room 301-B, City Hall, unless otherwise noted.

Agenda

The Finance and Personnel Committee considers appropriations, finances, taxation, revenues, labor relations, personnel, pensions and other benefits, insurance, audits and city budget.

The Finance and Personnel Committee meetings start at 1:30 p.m. and are held in the Room 301-B, City Hall, unless otherwise noted.

Agenda

The Finance and Personnel Committee considers appropriations, finances, taxation, revenues, labor relations, personnel, pensions and other benefits, insurance, audits and city budget.

The Finance and Personnel Committee meetings start at 1:30 p.m. and are held in the Room 301-B, City Hall, unless otherwise noted.

The Finance and Personnel Committee considers appropriations, finances, taxation, revenues, labor relations, personnel, pensions and other benefits, insurance, audits and city budget.

The Finance and Personnel Committee meetings start at 1:30 p.m. and are held in the Room 301-B, City Hall, unless otherwise noted.

Agenda

• More cuts for county transit By Peggy Schulz
• Beerline Trail extension opens Wednesday By Tom Held
• Oakland Ave. Goodwill store approved by Zoning Appeals Board By Tom Daykin
• Beerline Trail Opening By Dave Schlabowske
• Biketoberfest is on, but everybody be cool By Andy Tarnoff
• Vote for Milwaukee MaKEover By Thurston Woods Neighborhood
• Downtown Milwaukee hotel proposal faces historic fight By Marie Rohde
• $30 million hole possible in Milwaukee County budget, report says By Steve Schultze
• Asia meets Mexico on the Tigerbite street food truck By Damien Jaques
• Financially troubled Grand Avenue mall to be sold at auction By Tom Daykin
• Nice short video on walkable street design By Kaid Benfield
• Arts and development By jsonline.com
• Industry survey confirms developers shifting to smart growth By Kaid Benfield
• Local activism, restored homes turn Midtown neighborhood around By Tom Tolan
• Beerline Apartments construction work to begin in November By Tom Daykin
• High-speed rail; no turning back on American jobs, economic opportunities, mobility gains By Ray LaHood
• Developer’s plan lowers apartment building height By Tom Daykin
• Milwaukee County transit system gets $8.3 million grant By Larry Sandler
• Expect delays: Hoan Bridge deck repair gets rolling By Joe Lanane
• Developer reduces building height for proposed east side apartments By Tom Daykin
• Same, but different: St. Louis mall project exemplifies possibilities for fading Grand Avenue By Stacy Vogel Davis
• Light rail work starts on U of M Minneapolis campus By Associated Press
• Striking images of disconnected streets and unwanted sprawl By Kaid Benfield
• Stuck in Traffic – Worst Peak-Hour Commutes in America By Richard Florida
• An open front door to invaders in Great Lakes By Dan Egan

October 12, 2010

UEDA: 10th Annual Community Development Summit

October 12, 2010

The 10th Annual Community Development Summit will be held on the morning of Tuesday, October 12, 2010 at the Italian Conference Center in Milwaukee.

“Foreclosure: Impacts and Opportunities” will provide an update of the foreclosure situation in Milwaukee and innovative approaches currently being utilized to address the issue.

This year’s event will also feature keynote speaker John [...]

Common Council Meeting

October 12, 2010 9:00 am

City Hall
200 East Wells St.
Common Council Chambers
Milwaukee, WI 53202[...]

SARUP Lecture Series: What Makes Early American Architecture American: The Origins of Regional Building Practices

October 12, 2010 5:30 pm

Carl Lounsbury, PhD, Lecturer at Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia
Lounsbury’s lecture will consider how English colonists reworked their building practices in response to regional conditions in the American colonies, especially during the 18th century. He will consider how English technologies and building forms changed in response to new materials as well as contact with other [...]

October 13, 2010

Capital Improvements Committee Meeting

October 13, 2010 9:00 am

The Capital Improvement Committee is tasked to develop, maintain, and update a long-term capital improvements program for the City’s construction and maintenance of its infrastructure and facilities.

It is made up of the Commissioner of Public Works; the Department of Administration – Budget and Management Director; the Comptroller; the chair of the Public Works Committee; the [...]

All Things Water – The Great Lakes in miniature: A peek into the lives of microplankton

October 13, 2010 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm

Speaker: Rudi Strickler, Shaw Distinguished Professor, UWM Department of Biological Sciences

The Great Lakes are full of microscopic organisms that form a critical strand in the food web, but their small size makes them challenging to study and understand. In this seminar, Rudi Strickler will talk about how his lab is using a combination of high-tech [...]

Beerline Bash

October 13, 2010 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm

In late 2009 The River Revitalization Foundation, Milwaukee’s urban rivers land trust, purchased a 2.8 acre developed site along the Milwaukee River that includes the abandoned Wheelhouse restaurant. By late 2011, the property will be green and in the midst of a major restoration effort!

The project will restore blighted urban riverfront land to preserved [...]

October 15, 2010

SARUP Lecture Series: Simulated Landscapes, Rachel Bruya Walker and Piper Vollmer

October 15, 2010 4:30 pm

Simulated Landscapes, Rachel Bruya Walker and Piper Vollmer

Rachel Bruya Walker and Piper Vollmer will discuss their artwork featured in the Architecture Gallery. Both artists create miniature environments with dramatically different visuals. Influenced by popular culture and her experience working in the highly political San Francisco architecture industry, Bruya Walker creates paper structures employing printmaking [...]

Gallery Night and Day

October 15, 2010 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Gallery Night and Day is the premier art event in Milwaukee for both the experienced art connoisseur and most beginning admirer. An evening of gallery hopping and art viewing begins Friday, October 15 and continues during the day on Saturday, October 16. This fall, the quarterly event showcases 61 venues throughout the downtown Milwaukee area. [...]

UrbanMilwaukee.com S. 2nd Street Happy Hour

October 15, 2010 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Here at UrbanMilwaukee.com we’re happy to see the reconstruction of S. 2nd Street being done in a way that will meet the needs of the neighborhood, and we want to do our part to help businesses during the construction.

So please join us for our first UrbanMilwaukee.com S. 2nd Street Happy Hour.

We’ll be having it at [...]

October 16, 2010

Stand Up For Your Trains Wisconsin!

October 16, 2010 12:00 pm

Stand up for your trains Wisconsin! For the last 14 years, different administrations, elected officials, agencies and travelers have been working towards rejuvenating Wisconsin’s passenger rail service. However, In the last 18 months critics have tried to derail this effort. It’s time to stand up in support of modernizing and extending passenger rail in Wisconsin [...]