County, Greendale Reach Agreement on Land Swap

(Left) Grootemat Woods. (Right) Daffodil Park Playground. Photos by Milwaukee County Parks.

Milwaukee County Parks and the Village of Greendale are ready to ink a land-swap deal exchanging parkland for a parcel of woods in the village.

The proposal, which will need to be approved by the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors, is to trade a 21.9-acre section of the Dale Creek Parkway for 13.7-acre parcel known as the Grootemaat Nature Preserve.

Since 1995, the village has had a lease agreement with the county for the parkway, allowing them to program and fund maintenance there. The park land, which includes the Daffodil Park playground and a public gazebo, lays at the center of the village and is near its historic downtown area.

“Dale Creek is like the downtown park for Greendale,” Jim Tarantino, deputy director of Milwaukee County Parks previously told Urban Milwaukee “They care for it. They care about it. They want to improve it more. And so this just sort of makes sense from that perspective.”

The village is interested in making greater improvements to the park, and the land swap would also relieve the parks department of ongoing operational costs for it. In return, Parks would get Grootemaat Nature Preserve, which sits on the northwest corner of the intersection of S. 43rd Street and W. Ramsey Avenue, and would add to the parks system’s portfolio of natural areas. Parks has a dedicated team working on conservation and maintenance of the more 10,000 acres of natural areas in the parks system.

The parks system has a massive backlog of infrastructure needs, estimated at roughly $500 million. While a small part of that figure, the Dale Creek land swap would slightly reduce the system-wide bill, according to parks.

Both of the properties being swapped would come with 40-year restrictive covenants. For the parkland, it would need to remain zoned parkland and used exclusively for public park purposes, and the natural areas would need to be maintained to state conservation standards. No commercial or residential development would be allowed and no antenna facilities, cell towers or telecommunication equipment could be installed there.

The land deal will go before the Milwaukee County Board’s Committee on Parks and Culture on June 10.