Like the temperature outside, the Hoan Bridge reconstruction debate will heat up over the next few weeks.  Alderman Robert Bauman, who represents downtown Milwaukee and the north end of the bridge, recently issued a press release that details how the city will likely position itself on the issues with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT).

The release indicates positions we have advocated for before, including the need for the bridge to better interact with the city at its northern terminus at Clybourn and Lincoln Memorial Drive.

One should not hold out hope that the city gets everything it asks for though.  As evidence of how little influence they city may have in the issue, Mayor Barrett and Common Council President Hines were mere attendees at the Marquette Interchange ribbon cutting.  They stood among the crowd, while Governor Doyle and Transportation Secretary Busalacchi unveiled their $800 million interchange.  There might not be better symbolism for highway building than that.  The city can yell all it wants, but will the state listen?

When

Bridge reconstruction is expected to be completed in 2013.  The timeframe for such a redevelopment is relatively fast.

Where

The entire structure is in need of serious maintenance in the form of a redecking.  Running from the eastern half of Interstate 794 downtown to the south end of the bridge where it touches down in Bay View.

Who Uses It

The bridge serves primarily Bay View, St. Francis, and other southside residents looking to enter downtown and nearby neighborhoods.  It likewise provides access for individuals downtown looking to get to the airport.

Who Builds It

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation will award and manage contracts for bridge reconstruction.  The City of Milwaukee is not the project manager by any means.

Cost

Simply rebuilding the bridge as is was estimated at $200 million, and some sort of rebuild is viewed as necessary for safety reasons.  A considerable amount of money is going to need to be spent, even just to maintain the status quo.

Bauman’s Proposed Principles

Alderman Bauman’s press release revealed a series of principles to be introduced to the full Common Council on July 7th.

• The bridge and its approaches must use the existing right-of-way and substantially the same footprint.
• The bridge’s approaches must remain elevated over all land uses currently beneath the approaches, including but not limited to the Port of Milwaukee, MMSD and the Maier festival park.
• Any moveable bridge spans must have sufficient clearance over the (average) water level to minimize bridge openings for non-commercial vessels.
• Bridge openings must be limited to non-peak traffic periods, except in emergencies.
• The bridge and its approaches must accommodate pedestrian and bicycle traffic.
• The bridge and its approaches must be limited to two travel lanes and one distress lane, bicycle lane and pedestrian sidewalk in each direction.
• The lake shore interchange must be eliminated and replaced by an at-grade intersection or roundabout in the approximate location of Clybourn Street and Lincoln Memorial Drive.
• All new or reconstructed structures must be designed with lighting and architectural elements developed in consultation with the City of Milwaukee.

Conclusion

It seems perfectly reasonable to assume that the completely elevated bridge could be rebuilt in a fashion much more respectful to the city, that doesn’t impair motorists’ ability to enter downtown.  Drivers looking to enter downtown might actually have a better experience being dropped to street-level faster (the street grid gives options) at the north end of the bridge.  Also, while much of the land over which the bridge crosses isn’t developable, the land at the north end of the bridge holds a lot of potential.  A bridge that better interacts with the city could pay dividends in the form of a healthier neighborhood and increased tax base.

Cost is something to consider, and dropping the bridge to an intersection at the north end would likely mean the loss of the Interstate designation and some amount of federal funding.  That isn’t a reason not to do a highway rebuild though, as the state has shown by spending $400 million rebuilding Highway 26 from Janesville to Watertown, which includes the addition of by-passes around towns smaller than the Bay View neighborhood.

Traditional Neighborhood Development Partners was one of the seven firms that submitted a proposal for Bay View’s Solar Village project.  Although they were not selected by the City of Milwaukee to develop the site the renderings by Grenfell Architecture, PLLC are shown below.  The plan included a mix of single family housing, multifamily housing, as well as green features such as solar panels, public green space, and three wind turbines.  Details regarding the financing, the land sale price, potential uses, expected home prices, and household density are unknown at press time.

Recently I moved my mother from a single family home into a low-income subsidized senior housing development.  It wasn’t fun, or easy, but it was necessary.  It’s vitally important that all of our communities have facilities like these, as imperfect as they might be, to allow our aging population safe and clean housing to live in.  Unfortunately, there is a severe shortage of affordable units, not just in Milwaukee or the Bay View neighborhood, but nationally.  For example, my mom’s building which is located in a suburb of Chicago, just like many of the other facilities she looked at both in Milwaukee and Chicago, has a waiting list of over a year to get in it.  It would great for her to be able to live in a neighborhood like Bay View where she might walk to the store, the lakefront, or to a park instead of having to drive.  It would be even better if she could, on her fixed-income, live in a development with almost no energy bills.  Unfortunately, after sitting through Tuesday May 26th’s neighborhood meeting on the proposed Eco Bay development I learned something bothersome about Bay View.

I say bothersome because of the arguments made against the proposal had little to do with design or the green components.  Throughout the meeting what many residents used as an argument against the proposal was that it didn’t “maximize tax base,” so it shouldn’t have been the winning proposal.  One of the many Bay View residents that opposed the project because of the senior housing component, stated that “if you’re building low-income senior housing you’re not maximizing tax base.”  For one, it needs to be pointed out that if “maximizing tax base” is truly the goal then high-rise buildings with lake views should have been allowed as a possible proposal during the RFP process.  Though comments by other residents indicating that they “don’t want lots of people in a congested space,” that the project should be “scaled down,” and the fact that Bay View recently passed an overlay district restricting heights, indicate that wasn’t a widely supported alternative.  So, this discussion of maximizing tax base was fascinating, misleading, and to me offensive.

Fascinating because the opposition was strong, vocal, and seemed organized, but beyond opposing low-income seniors being able to live in a new facility in Bay View, there wasn’t a lot of comment on the actual design.  Misleading and offensive because this discussion of “tax base” was an expression of fears over “low-income” people living in the neighborhood and hurting property values.

Yeah, pretty harsh words from me today, but what I learned at that meeting wasn’t that Bay View is committed to green living, sadly it was that my mom isn’t welcome in Bay View.  I truly hope somebody will prove me wrong.

photo provided by bensons

Meghan Arnold, one of the many biking santas you may have been lucky to see in downtown on Saturday, has an excellent write-up of the event complete with photos.  The story comes complete with details of a rendevous with the police and enough mentions of Diablos Rojos restaurants to make Mike Eitel blush.  Oh, and there is plenty of discussion of Lakefront Brewery beer.

The Southeast Side Area Comprehensive Plan was presented for approval by the Department of City Development.  It included site specific recommendations for each district based on smart growth principals such as promoting dense mixed use projects that preserve the unique character and qualities of the neighborhood.  District plans were laid out for the Port of Milwaukee District, Kinnickinnic River District, Bay View District, South of Morgan, General Mitchell International Airport, Airport Gateway Area and the Airport Neighborhoods. Additionally catalytic projects, three of which are highlighted below, were presented that if completed would spark new development and increase the urban character of an area.

A resolution was brought forward that would force banks and lenders to manage and take care of properties while they enter into foreclosure.  This file brought out lawyers representing various banks and lending operators.  They argued that this resolution wouldn’t pass legal muster and that they didn’t have timely notice.  Alderman Bohl came out firing as he took issue with their notice argument as lenders often don’t properly notify the city when they acquire a property.  He went on to say that “the sky isn’t falling here, this is a reasonable measure” and that “I think that this legislation should be shoved down their throats” indicating his belief that their complaints were unsubstantiated and that this measure was vitally important.  Alderman Witkowiak closed the meeting with “frankly I’m out of patience at this time.”  The resolution was held at the call of the chair to allow for further input but the committee’s intent rang loud and clear.  Clearly the committee’s intent was for this resolution to eventually move forward.

During the Department of City Development’s presentation of the 2007 TIF Annual Report a couple of items that stood out.  First, as recently reported, the Aloft Hotel project would be receiving construction financing this week.  Second, the troubled First Place on the River development has issued 79 occupancy permits which should fill approximately half of the units in the development.  Finally, it was pointed out that TIF activity has been lower than previous years but that a few projects would be brought forward soon.

The other items of interest were the change of zoning requests for O. C. Hansen Development’s proposed office building at 331 and 341 North Milwaukee Street.  As these items were declared obsolete and then placed on file, it appears that this project will not be moving forward.

The replacement of the Hoan Bridge and its associated freeway ramps with a grade level route offers many opportunities but will also require the rerouting of a portion of the 40,000 motorists that travel over the Hoan Bridge each day. Although 40,000 motorists seems like a lot of traffic, history has shown in both the removal of the Embarcadero Freeway in San Francisco and the Park East Freeway here in Milwaukee that traffic patterns will change and the grid system will be able to support the rerouted traffic.

To put this rerouted traffic on to the grid a few changes will be required to link the Lake Parkway in to the system. First I-794 should be replaced with an at grade extension of the Lake Parkway. Although this will undoubtedly cause the loss of federal dollars it will also reduce some of the traffic taking this route merely by removing the interstate from maps. The road itself could be rebuilt as a parkway which would run in the current footprint of the freeway and then turn west to connect with Greenfield Avenue across a new bascule bridge. Although once across the river the majority of the traffic would follow S. 1st Street into downtown, with the addition of a rebuilt S. Barclay Street and a new bascule bridge connecting Walkers Point to the Third Ward the traffic could find a multiple of routes into downtown. To facilitate this rebuilding of the grid some properties on both sides of the river will need to be acquired but this is surly less expensive than a complete rebuild.

Specifically in order to connect across the river to Greenfield Avenue a road connecting to the new bridge would require the relocation of Kaszube’s Park and the acquisition of some surrounding property. This relocation could actually offer an opportunity to create a larger park that could be better separated from industrial properties in the area. This new park could be developed as a greenbelt running between the parkway and the lakefront. Further the remains of the freeway demolition could be utilized to create an expanded park much like the new Lakeshore State Park.

This is just one idea of how to possibly replace the Hoan Bridge and create a better Milwaukee in the process. Surely the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (”Wisconsin DOT”) will be investigating a variety of options in the coming months but hopefully the Wisconsin DOT will look at this as more than a demolition project and find a way to work with the city to build a better Milwaukee.
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Resolution 080271 would authorize the land sale of nineteen City of Milwaukee (RACM) properties to create three mixed-use developments within the Haymarket Square neighborhood. These three development would consist of the Sixth Street Market, Vineyard Place, and Walnut Hill. Sixth Street Market will contain an approximately 5,000 square foot food and convenience market. Vineyard Place will be a two-story building consisting of five live-work condominiums. Walnut Hill will be a four-story mixed-use building with first floor retail and on upper floors a mixture of office and residential units. Although the purchase prices was some $100,000 under the original asking price set in the City of Milwaukee’s Request for Proposal (RFP) this project is actually the combination of two separate RFP responders so it appears to be a win-win situation for the City of Milwaukee and all interested parties. Further this project is targeting a 30% Emerging Business Enterprise (EBE) goal which is higher than the City of Milwaukee’s guidelines for similar projects that utilize public financing. This resolution was approved by the committee and will now go before the full Common Council.

Alderman Zielinski brought forward resolution 051036 at the request of the majority of property owners in the area to create a Neighborhood Conservation Overlay Zone in Bay View along South Shore Drive. The intent of the overlay zone is to preserve the neighborhood in its current state which this resolution will achieve but it does appear to have significant impacts on both development and environmental issues. Impacts of this resolution include the prevention of new buildings higher than forty feet, prevention of flat roofs which may make developing green roofs more difficult and require a Board of Zoning Appeals (BOZA) request, and has limited the maximum lot coverage to 25% of the parcel which will severely limit density. This resolution was approved by the committee and will now go before the full Common Council.

Movement may finally be occurring towards completion of the Marine Terminal Loft’s Riverwal. Resolution 080267 updated the agreement with the City of Milwaukee regarding the portion that would connect to MIAD. Further it was pointed out that the Mandel Group has received a “concrete” or legitimate bid regarding construction costs which should allow the project to move forward. This resolution was approved by the committee and will now go before the full Common Council.

Resolution 080195 which relates to storm water management regulations and that had been refered to the Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee after approval at the Public Works Committee was held to the call of the chair with no discussion.