Parks Launches Mitchell Park Campaign

Mitchell Park Domes. Photo taken Aug. 15, 2022 by Mariiana Tzotcheva.

Milwaukee County Parks is priming the pump for a major revitalization project in Mitchell Park, home of The Domes.

The department launched a public campaign Monday, called the “Future of Mitchell Park.” The parks department is beginning with a push for public engagement on the issue. It has created a website that boils down the story of both the department and The Domes’ financial challenges. The website also provides county residents an opportunity to weigh in on The Domes and a potential Mitchell Park project.

This campaign is the first step in what Parks is calling “a decades-long process to ensure that Mitchell Park remains a vibrant community asset for generations to come.”

The campaign’s public launch comes on the heels of a recent fundraising study commissioned by the department that showed there wasn’t much appetite in the local philanthropic community to fund maintenance and repairs for the Mitchell Park Domes. But there was interest among donors in a revitalization project that took on the whole of Mitchell Park.

“The future of the Mitchell Park Conservatory remains unknown,” said Parks Executive Director Guy Smith in a statement. “But what we do know is that The Domes are a treasured asset to our community while also being financially unsustainable in their current state.”

Nearly a decade ago, small pieces of concrete began falling from The Domes structure. This deterioration gave new urgency to questions about what was next for The Domes. Emergency mesh netting to catch falling debris was installed. A Domes Task Force was convened in 2016 and three years later a plan was recommended to the Milwaukee County Board.

The resulting plan was ultimately concluded to be infeasible because of its complicated financing stack. But the idea lives on that to save The Domes the county would need to look at a holistic Mitchell Park project. The question remains, though, whether or not it will work.

A push for historic preservation has dominated public conversations about maintaining The Domes in recent years. But now, the area supervisor, Juan Miguel Martinez, has joined with Parks in advancing the idea that The Domes themselves are not as important as the park or the horticultural conservatory they house.

“I’m not concerned with historic preservation anymore, to tell you the truth,” Martinez recently said. “I’m concerned with making these sustainable.”

Really, it all comes down to money. Something that has been in short supply at Parks for more than a decade. As noted on the website for the new public campaign, the park system has approximately $500 million worth of maintenance needs. It has more than 1,000 fewer employees than it did 40 years ago but still has approximately 15,000 acres of parkland to maintain. Interestingly, the department calculated how much the average county resident pays in taxes to support the parks system each month: $1.89.

While discussing the Mitchell Park fundraising study, Jim Tarantino, deputy director of parks, said The Domes could still be used as a powerful symbol for a Mitchell Park fundraising campaign. The study indicated that a public fundraising campaign could be expected to generate approximately $20 million. A 2019 report concluded that just fixing the glazing on all three Domes could cost the county approximately $19 million. Though, as Tarantino has previously told supervisors, inflation has undoubtedly already pushed that cost significantly higher.

Parks and the county administration have pushed back against past attempts to approach The Domes with a strict preservation strategy. The Domes are not sustainable, nor do they generate enough revenue to cover their annual operation. And if they were to be preserved, it wouldn’t just be the glazing that needs fixing. “Really everything from growing plants to operating boilers to distributing water, heating the facility, everything is a challenge and everything would need to be fixed if we’re moving forward on a certain path,” Tarantino has previously said.

While hearing the fundraising report, the idea that the county may not be able to save all of The Domes began to sink in among members of the Milwaukee County Board’s Committee on Parks and Culture. Sup. Sheldon Wasserman tossed out that perhaps a future Mitchell Park project could save just one Dome.

But nothing is certain until Parks and a handful of consultants finish a feasibility report requested by the board. The report will provide cost estimates for a number of options, including preservation, demolition and a wider Mitchell Park project. The report is expected in September.

“We understand the impact this decision will have on our community, as the Conservatory continues to mean so much to all of our stakeholders,” Smith said. “What we’ve been finding is that, while everyone’s connection to The Domes is unique, there are common underlying themes. If we keep our focus on the original mission of the facility – to ‘inspire people through plants’ – we think a path will emerge that ensures Mitchell Park remains the cherished community asset that it’s always been.”