Parks Plans Improvements to Veterans Park Lagoon

Veteran’s Park Lagoon. Photo taken by Graham Kilmer, 2024.

Milwaukee County Parks is looking into ways to improve the water quality and the experience of the Veterans Park Lagoon, and it wants the public’s help.

The 14-acre lagoon, which sits in Veterans Park near the park’s boundary with N. Lincoln Memorial Drive, is frequently plagued by toxic blooms of algae and cyanobacteria. Parks wants to fix this and sees an opportunity to make improvements to the area surrounding the lagoon while it undertakes a future water quality project.

Parks received funding through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) to conduct a feasibility study to identify solutions to the water quality problems. The department is working with engineering consultants from SmithGroup and plans to use the feasibility study process to also gather input on potential new recreational amenities and infrastructure for the area. The department is holding public meetings and circulating a survey to help guide planning efforts for the lagoon.

Conceptually, Parks is considering how exactly the lagoon will look in the future and wants to know what residents would prefer. Should it be a wide-open area, or naturalized and made to resemble a wetland? Should there be a thick growth of shade trees or a prairie-like meadow surrounding the lagoon? Would park visitors like to see an engineered hard surface around the lagoon, such as a pier jutting out into the lagoon, or a more natural shoreline? These are some of the questions the department is seeking feedback on.

The lagoon is actually older than the park it’s named for, according to a 2022 water study. The shoreline in that area was expanded in 1907 when landfill from nearby construction projects was deposited, leaving a coastal bay that was connected to the lakefront that would eventually become the lagoon. The connection to the lake kept the water moving and the lagoon clean enough to swim in, and it became a popular swimming destination. But by the early 1950s, the opening was only three feet across, and in the 1960s it was closed off as the county filled in 100 acres that eventually became Veterans Park.

Once closed, the stagnant water became a breeding ground for the toxic blooms, which have not been helped by the stormwater connections that dump dirty water into the lagoon. The largest is a stormwater pipe that empties runoff from N. Prospect Avenue, according to the water study. 

The primary goal of the study is to identify solutions for the poor water conditions. The Parks Department will need additional funding to implement them.

Veteran’s Park is the latest lagoon to receive attention in the parks system. The department is also working to stabilize the shorelines of the lagoons in Mitchell Park and Kosciuszko Park.