Why Is North Point Parking Lot Closed?

North Point parking lot and stone revetment. Photo by Short Elliott Hendrickson. Courtesy of Milwaukee County Parks.

North Point parking lot, a popular destination for visitors to Bradford Beach and the lakeshore, will be closed through the beginning of May.

The closure will allow Milwaukee County Parks to finally rebuild the heavy stone barrier that protects the small patch of land jutting into the lake from storm surges and erosion.

For the past several years, Parks has been planning and putting together the money to rebuild the revetment and add a pedestrian path along the shore. The parking lot is a popular destination in the summer, sitting at the southern edge of Bradford Beach and containing MooSa’s Custard Stand.

North Point is also a popular year-round attraction for locals that take in the lake from parking spots along the lakeshore. But this edge of the lot has regularly flooded in recent years, due to degradation of the stone revetment, causing the shoreline to gradually disappear into the lake. Winter storms in 2020, which caused damage all along Milwaukee’s shoreline, caused significant damage to the barrier.

The project will rebuild approximately 620 linear feet of stone revetment with more than 37,000 square feet of large stone fill material. New stormwater sewer outlets will also be built into the new revetment.

Originally, the revetment and the parking lot were going to be rebuilt in one go. But the project took years to develop from design to funding and became increasingly expensive, as Sup. Sheldon Wasserman, who represents the area on the county board, told Urban Milwaukee at a press conference he called on the project Tuesday. Parks has since split the project into two phases, the first being reconstruction of the stone revetment. The department does not yet have funding to rebuild the parking lot.

Once finished, vehicle and pedestrian circulation in the lot should be improved, according to parks, and a pedestrian crossing will run from the lakeshore directly to the custard stand.