Eyes on Milwaukee
251 Apartments Planned for Buca’s Site
New Land will build nine-story apartment complex on sloped site at 1237 N. Van Buren St.
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New Land will build nine-story apartment complex on sloped site at 1237 N. Van Buren St. Back to the full article.
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Lots of new housing near downtown, great! And a pretty attractive design. But 302 car parking spots?!?! That is so 20th Century. I assume that City regulations are forcing the developer to included all of this parking; most developers would prefer to scale this way back. Parking Minimums are bad urban policy and a well-established way to “induce demand”; build for cars and the cars will come. Meanwhile, millenials and Gen Z kids are ditching cars, preferring Uber/Lyft/etc, bicycles, transit, walking, etc. That is the whole appeal of living downtown — you are close to all the amenities, so car ownership is not essential. A 302-car garage for storing private vehicles is a giant waste of space, misguided for so many reasons.
@David I took a quick look at this and it appears to me that the site is zoned C9C which has no parking minimum. In fact most Downtown Milwaukee zoning codes have no parking minimums
https://city.milwaukee.gov/ImageLibrary/Groups/ccClerk/Ordinances/Volume-2/CH295-sub4.pdf
Thanks, Dave, that is encouraging. In light of that, it is really disappointing that New Land has decided this massive car parking garage is a good idea. Makes no sense to me.
@David Don’t know NLE’s take on the parking. But I think the real issue is would banks finance the project without that amount of parking. I’ve gathered this is a big problem in the movement to reduce parking associated with development projects.
That site has a walkscore of 95 and is one block from the streetcar stops and directly on a couple of bus lines. The developer should build the parking with a design goal of allowing it to be repurposed easily for other uses later such as additional apartments or offices. A study of parking in Chicago reveals how unused parking in residential buildings is pervasive and drives up the cost of housing. See https://www.cnt.org/publications/stalled-out-how-empty-parking-spaces-diminish-neighborhood-affordability