‘Growing MKE’ Proposal Picks Up Key Endorsement

Washington Park Townhomes construction. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

A signature policy proposal for Mayor Cavalier Johnson scored its first official endorsement Monday.

The City Plan Commission unanimously recommended approval of a significant revision to the housing element of the city’s comprehensive plan. The effort, long known by the catchier title “Growing MKE,” kicked off in 2022, but has been stuck since opposition emerged last summer.

In the intervening 11 months, one of the biggest opponents pivoted to supporting the plan.

The revised plan would still support the administration’s goal of increasing the amount and types of housing options available in Milwaukee. But several items were removed, including legalizing duplexes citywide, and a 49-page harm and benefit analysis was created to outline the policy’s expected impacts, including attempting to prevent gentrification.

“We know that we want to make sure that our housing choices and housing options provide choices for all of the diverse tapestry that represents Milwaukee,” said Department of City Development (DCD) deputy commissioner Sam Leichtling at Monday’s plan commission meeting. “We know that we need to have a set of policies as a city that orient around meeting that housing need… we know that the status quo in that regard is not acceptable.”

“I think this version of the plan is a step in the right direction,” said Melody McCurtis, deputy director of Metcalfe Park Community Bridges, an organization that represents a majority Black west side neighborhood. “We know that this is just the first step. We know that zoning policies come next. And we are really excited about that next step.”

“I know that it was rocky sometimes, but even through the rocky times, they listened,” said Danell Cross, the group’s executive director, in praising the Department of City Development for working with the community. “I think that this plan is 100 times better than the first plan because the community is in it.”

Metcalfe Park was one of a handful of groups that showed in large numbers at a July 2024 hearing to demand that the plan be held. Despite DCD hosting online surveys and engagement sessions at libraries and other events, McCurtis and others said the department had failed to engage residents who would be impacted. McCurtis and Cross are now praising the city for slowing down and getting it right.

The revised plan calls for more policy action, including lobbying, to get state and federal support for affordable housing efforts. An accessory dwelling unit (ADU) element, commonly called carriage houses, remains for properties that are owner-occupied. The proposal, a precursor to explicit zoning code changes, also calls for legalizing townhomes in every residential district.

Since the last hearing occurred, Milwaukee has been the subject of a sustained barrage of news that its housing market is among the country’s most competitive. “Milwaukee Is One of America’s Most Cutthroat Rental Markets” was the headline on an April 30 Wall Street Journal article.

But the revisions and hot housing market haven’t resulted in opposition vanishing. Residents from both extremes of the income spectrum aired their concerns Monday.

A handful of East Side residents testified about their concerns that the proposal would harm their primarily single-family neighborhood, among the city’s wealthiest.

“Single-family housing and stability go hand-in-hand in this neighborhood,” said Lake Drive resident and attorney Mark Foley. “There is no other neighborhood like it. This plan would destroy it… this is maybe a great plan for the city as a whole, it is a disaster for this neighborhood.”

He said five of his neighbors had openly discussed moving to Shorewood as a result.

“This whole project that has been going on has been generally threatening to my neighbors,” said East Side resident Pam Frautschi. “There seems to be a missing concept of history and preservation.”

Sy Smith, a Five Points neighborhood resident, said she continues to be against the proposal. Representatives of the Five Points Neighborhood Association had previously spoken out against the plan, stating that it would lead to gentrification.

Several other community members spoke in favor of the plan, and some expressed that they wished the plan went further, as it once was proposed. That includes council co-sponsor Alderman Mark Chambers, Jr. “We need to do something different,” he said.

“My goal in sponsoring this legislation has always been to address the housing crisis,” said Alderperson JoCasta Zamarripa. “All great journeys begin with that very first step.”

Alderwoman Sharlen P. Moore has also signed on as a co-sponsor. “We have to start somewhere,” she told the commission.

“The status quo is simply not working,” said Jenny Tasse, a member of the 1000 Friends of Wisconsin‘s Housing Coalition, which is supporting the plan.

After listening to almost two hours of testimony and asking a series of clarifying questions to the DCD staff, the citizen-led plan commission unanimously recommended approval.

Leichtling said DCD was committed to sharing its tracking of the results with the plan commission and the public, but based on experience elsewhere didn’t think there would be a rush to build ADUs or other “missing middle” housing options endorsed by the plan.

The plan now moves to the Common Council, which is expected to review the proposal at an upcoming Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee meeting. The committee also will need to review a revised version of its ADU ordinance, which the sponsors held in April pending concerns about the area around UW-Milwaukee after attempting to advance the plan on their own before the larger Growing MKE proposal was reintroduced.

If adopted, Leichtling said it would take up to 18 months to bring forward all of the specific changes, but that the policy document would help guide land use decisions.

For more on the changes to the plan, see our May 1 coverage. For more on the controversial plan, and what proponents think would actually happen if implemented, see our July 2024 coverage.

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