Parks Removed One Acre of Concrete in 2023

Oak Leaf Trail. Photo by Dave Reid.

In 2023, Milwaukee County Parks removed one acre of concrete from its holdings, four times more than the department hoped to eliminate.

In recent years, Parks has been attempting to reduce the amount of paved surface in the system. It’s both a cost-saving measure and an environmental sustainability policy for the department. Paved concrete surfaces contribute to polluted stormwater runoff and the urban heat island effect. It also require big chunks of the department’s budget for infrastructure projects.

Paved concrete assets are expensive to maintain, especially those that are not directly tied to recreation opportunities, like parking lots and roadways. There are roughly 60 miles of roadways and more than 140 acres of parking lots in the parks system. In 2023, approximately half of the department’s infrastructure budget went to roads and parking lots.

As a result, Parks leaders are interested in removing concrete wherever it won’t interrupt access or remove a recreational amenity. In other words, basketball courts and trails are safe, wide roads and unused parking lots aren’t.

The department has set a goal for itself to remove at least 10,000 square feet (0.23 acres) of concrete every year “to chip away at our over abundance of pavement, asphalt and concrete throughout the park system,” Deputy Director James Tarantino told a county board committee in May this year.

By the end of 2023, the department had removed 48,441 square feet or 1.1 acres.

The department removed dilapidated concrete pads from Wedgewood Park, St. Martin’s Park and Walker Square Park. In both Wedgewood and St. Martins — where the pads were much larger — the department plans to eventually plant trees in the formerly concretized areas.

Another policy that goes hand in hand with pavement reduction is an attempt by Parks to turn roadways into trails wherever possible. Road-to-trail projects check all the boxes that pavement reduction checks, with the added benefit of improving safety along a corridor by eliminating vehicle traffic.

In recent years, the department has advanced several road-to-trail projects. However, recently, it has found mixed success. A project in the Jackson Park neighborhood was downsized at an added cost after area residents opposed the project and Parks lost the support of the area supervisors. However, another project targeting the Underwood Creek Parkway in Wauwatosa has so far received great support.

Despite the modest annual goals, the department’s pavement policy long-term goal is to shift as much funding as possible away from maintaining parking lots and roads and instead use it to develop and maintain recreational amenities.