Board Divided on McGovern Park Senior Housing Project

Conceptual rendering of proposed McGovern Park senior center (red) with existing senior center pictured near the lagoon (transparent). Rendering by JLA Architects.

A plan to redevelop the McGovern Senior Center with affordable senior housing units located on its upper floors is receiving a mixed reaction as it works its way through the Milwaukee County Board.

Supervisors remain divided over the proposal for a mixed-use redevelopment of the McGovern Park Senior Center, with several supervisors drawing a red line at housing in parks. But for County Executive David Crowley‘s administration and supporters of the project, the project represents a rare opportunity to build a new senior center without taxpayer funding and to create affordable senior housing in the city of Milwaukee. It’s also an opportunity to save the senior center, which has mounting maintenance costs that conservative estimates peg at approximately $1.75 million over the next five years, according to Aaron Hertzberg, director of the Department of Administrative Services.

“So, to be crystal clear, one, we cannot afford to maintain all of our buildings… We simply cannot afford the current footprint of Milwaukee County’s infrastructure,” said Isaac Rowlett, strategy director for the county, during a meeting of the county board’s Committee on Parks and Culture June 10. “Second, we are woefully, woefully under the amount of homes that we need within Milwaukee County by an order of tens of thousands of new units of housing. There’s no one coming to rescue us from the federal government, as I think we all know, and money is drying up in the state government as well.”

The proposal involves leasing 5.5-acres to Jewish Family Services (JFS), a non-profit social services organization, for $1. The project area would, generally, occupy the existing footprint of the senior center and parking lot. However, it would be moved further from the park’s lagoon and closer to W. Custer Avenue. The county would retain ownership of the underlying parkland. JFS would have a 60-year lease with renewals up to 99 years. They would construct both the new senior center and 30 to 55 units of affordable senior housing on the floors above. The project is being led by the county’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Department of Administrative Services (DAS) and Milwaukee County Parks.

If the McGovern Project fails to pass the board it will deal a blow to the future-looking conceptual plan created by county’s Aging Commission called MKE Hubs. The McGovern project would be the first senior center redeveloped in line with the MKE Hubs report, which envisions senior centers as community hubs, with modern amenities and programming. Recognizing the county’s financial obstacles, the commission encouraged county officials to consider mixed-use development of future senior centers to draw funding from outside of the county budget.

The county currently has an estimated $1.1 billion worth of maintenance and infrastructure needs over the next five years, and only an estimated $375 million in available funding for them, according to Joe Lamers, director of the Office of Strategy, Budget and Performance. Approximately 50% of the funding is needed to address parks system infrastructure.

Feedback from the community has largely opposed the project, based on data collected by the county at public meetings and the minutes from county board meetings. However, county officials did report strong support for the project when the public outreach knocked on doors in the neighborhood surrounding the community.

So far, two county board committees have taken the project up, producing two different results. The parks committee voted  4 – 2 to recommend the project for approval on June 10. Two days later the Committee on Health, Equity, Human Needs and Strategic Planning voted 3 – 2 to recommend rejection.

McGovern Park is located within Sup. Felesia Martin‘s district. Though a portion of the residential areas immediately surrounding the park fall within Sup. Sequanna Taylor‘s district, who has not weighed in on the project at a public meeting yet. Martin expressed strict opposition to the project when supervisors were first briefed on it in April. She voted against it at both committees that reviewed it.

“I worry about gentrification, displacement of folks in this community… This beautiful project is going to change that landscape tremendously, just like the white flight changed that landscape tremendously,” Martin said.

Martin suggested the county should look elsewhere to develop affordable housing, instead of McGovern Park.

“It’s about park land being confiscated… We’re leasing the land. We still own it, but we’re developing county park land for living spaces when there’s a plethora of places that you can go that are derelict,” Martin said.

The issue is not being taken lightly by the board. Sup. Anne O’Connor, who voted against the project at the parks committee, told her colleagues she was losing sleep over it. Sup. Kathleen Vincent said she felt “rushed” and even attempted to pause a decision on the project at the board’s health committee, before voting for rejection.

Several supervisors and many who provided public comment have pointed to the unprecedented nature of the project: developing private housing inside a public park. Some speculated that it could lead to future private development in the Park system.

“I have a senior center in my district, and it’s in a park,” Sup. Steven Shea said. “Are we going to be putting in housing there in that park if we want to rehab this senior center?”

Shea also echoed concerns raised by members of the public opposing the project, namely that he felt the language in the proposed lease agreement was too “vague” with regards to what would be built in the park.

Sup. Patti Logsdon is concerned about the “precedent” and the potential for “unknown” problems that housing could bring to the park.

“Number one, to me, parks are parks,” Logsdon said. “I don’t want to see us compromising our parks.”

Responding to his colleagues and the members of the public that kept repeating the word unprecedented, Sup. Steve Taylor had a word of his own to repeat.

“Okay, let’s be clear, the status quo is unsustainable. It’s unsustainable, all right? I’m going to say it again, unsustainable, maybe one more time unsustainable,” Taylor said. “$1.1 billion — with a B — in deferred maintenance in this county, over half a billion in the parks alone. $46 million shortfall in this upcoming 2020, 2026, budget. So I urge my colleagues, when you say you can’t sleep at night, when you’re waking up at 4am and you can’t fall back asleep: think about those numbers… we’ve gotta be creative, we’ve got to look at different options.”

Sup. Priscilla Coggs-Jones explained to her colleagues that she was confident in the leadership of the county department heads that are working on the project, naming DHHS Director Shakita LaGrant-McClain, Parks Director Guy Smith and Commission on Aging Chair Jan Wilberg.

“I think it’s a great thing,” she said. “I think this is, this is a way for us to show that we can be different from how other folks may view housing.”

Supporters on the board also suggested that doing nothing, or rejecting the project, could do more harm than leasing parkland for the development of senior housing.

“I want to bring notice that there are already people living in parks,” Sup. Caroline Gómez‐Tom said. “They are unhoused, and it’s because of a need for affordable housing.”

Gómez‐Tom said she is more concerned about a future vacant senior center and lack of affordable housing than she is about affordable housing in a park.

Sup. Jack Eckblad also pointed out that some of the fears expressed by those in opposition could come true if the senior center is allowed to be shuttered by neglect.

“When I think about this project in particular, and I think about concerns about things like crime in the park, if that senior center goes away and that park is less active, statistics show crime will absolutely go up, versus an active senior center,” Eckblad said.

Sup. Shawn Rolland, chair of the board’s health committee, reminded his colleagues that the board has adopted a strategic plan for the county that directs county officials to nurture inclusivity, to break down silos among county departments and to strengthen the county’s fiscal position. The McGovern Park project does all of that, he said, calling it “maybe one of the most unique proposals I’ve seen in five years, totally aligned with strategic plan.”

“There’s no doubt, if the McGovern Senior Center is closed, the seniors in this community will lose an opportunity to gather, and the seniors will not have an opportunity to escape loneliness, which we know is an epidemic right now,” Rolland said. 

Rolland also pointed to the $1.1 billion backlog of projects on the county’s list, including 20 “rusted, dirty, nasty playgrounds” that need replacement, and questioned whether a senior center project that was funded by the county had enough votes to jump ahead on the list.

He also addressed the majority public opposition. He shared a story from his time on the Wauwatosa School Board, when there was significant opposition to a proposed new playfield for Wauwatosa East High School, because it included lighting. Ultimately, it was approved and today it’s enjoyed by students playing soccer or Lacrosse, he said.

“Sometimes you just have to decide for yourself what makes the most sense,” he said. “And that, to me is leadership… doing what you think is right, even if others believe it is wrong.”

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