Dave Reid

Committee Appoints Whitney Gould to Planning Commission

By - Jan 31st, 2008 01:19 am

stcatherines_x200.jpgApproving Whitney Gould‘s appointment to the City Plan Commission was the highlight of this meeting.

The Committee made it clear that in her former position as the Journal Sentinel’s architecture writer she played an important role in improving Milwaukee’s urban environment and hoped she would bring her enthusiasm and knowledge to the Commission.

The Committee also approved resolution 071307 which if approved by the full Common Council will allocate $1.4 Million dollars from the Housing Trust Fund to support five affordable housing projects. One example of these projects is the St. Catherine’s Residence at 1018 E. Knapp Street. It will receive $264,000 to build affordable housing for low-income women and it is already under construction. Alderman Michael Murphy pointed out that this $1.4 million will generate $26 million worth of development and went on to say that these projects do two things “one economic development and… two do the right thing”.

The Northwest Side Area Comprehensive Plan was presented again as it had been held before to allow the Department of City Development to address issues that the committee felt the plan didn’t incorporate. Specifically items were added to insure existing rail corridors are reserved for future mass transit options and encouraged creating transit oriented development projects along those rail lines if they are ever converted to passenger service. Other areas of that plan that were improved included refinements of the 76th and Good Hope project, additional recommendations for the vacant transit hub at 76th and Mill, and addressed the potential reuse of Timmerman Airport if it were to be closed. One setback for the project was Alderman Jim Bohl‘s push to remove DCD’s suggested language regarding cul-de-sacs and their desire to better connect streets. This prompted Alderman Mike D’Amato to take a light hearted shot at Bohl by saying, “we hope you haven’t eliminated all the sidewalks from the Northwest side”.

Additionally two closed sessions were held to discuss strategy with the City’s lawyers regarding the court case Dawn McCarthy vs. the City of Milwaukee. This case involves the City’s handling of the development of a City owned surface parking lot on Downer Ave. Despite the courts apparent concern the judge hasn’t stopped construction and development continues at a brisk pace.

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2 thoughts on “Committee Appoints Whitney Gould to Planning Commission”

  1. Hi Dave,

    My name is Robert Schmidt, and I’m an American architect doing research for the University of Tokyo. My Japanese colleague, Toru Eguchi, and I will be in Milwaukee March 6th-11th. During our period of stay, we hope to have an opportunity to talk with you as it seems you have great knowledge/ interest regarding the development of downtown Milwaukee.

    Our research focus is on building conversions as a tool to spur community (re)development, especially looking at the role government plays as policy makers, both in terms of enhancing and regulating opportunities. We are interested to understand the processes/ policies which are particular to projects underway/ completed within downtown Milwaukee. If you would like I can send you an outline of the research investigation, which includes our general questions. Milwaukee is part of a 4-city US investigation (New York, Kansas City, and New Orleans), and an integral part of our research. We hope that you could take the time to speak to us. We greatly appreciate your wiliness to help our research.

    Sincerely,

    Robert Schmidt III and Toru Eguchi

    Department of Architecture
    Graduate School of Engineering
    The University of Tokyo
    Email: rschmidtiii@yahoo.com / tooru@buildcon.arch.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp

  2. Dave says:

    Robert,
    Sounds great I should be in town then and would love to chat… I’ll send you an email with my contact information.

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