Group seeks to revive Milwaukee River corridor

Published: November 19, 2009
Tags: Brummitt, environmental planning, Glendale, Lang, Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, Milwaukee River Work Group, Plunkett Raysich Architects LLP, Shorewood, Thomson, zoning

By Sean Ryan

An environmental group’s dream for the Milwaukee River corridor faces big challenges in getting agreement — and money — from local governments.

The river corridor stretches through three municipalities and past Milwaukee County parks and private properties.

The Milwaukee River Work Group in January will start drawing plans to fix environmental damage to the riverside and create a system of recreational trails along the waterway.

But after the plan is complete in 2010, the challenge becomes gaining municipal support and figuring out who will pay for the projects, said Ann Brummitt, director of the Milwaukee River Work Group.

“Part of that is figuring out what makes the most sense,” she said.

Planning will start in January with meetings at which the project architect, Plunkett Raysich Architects LLP, Milwaukee, and the river group will collect opinions from landowners and people who live in the neighborhoods along the river, said Christine Scott Thomson, land planner for Plunkett Raysich.

But the plan will have no regulatory effect until governments adopt it. A possibility, Brummitt said, is for the three municipalities — Milwaukee, Shorewood and Glendale — and Milwaukee County, which owns the parkland along the river, to sign an agreement to accept the plan and share the cost.

Potential costs include cutting new trails and securing easements for the trails on private property. Other costs include replacing invasive plants with native species and removing soil in one part of the river that is contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls, Brummitt said.

The Milwaukee River Work Group has been successful working with area municipalities in the past on zoning rules to limit new development. The Milwaukee River corridor plan will include protections for the environmental corridor along the banks and shores of the river, but zoning rules will regulate development of private properties near the river.

The village of Shorewood has required new projects be set back 20 feet from the top of the river bluff. Buildings cannot be taller than four stories if they are on that 20-foot mark, said Erica Lang, Shorewood planning and zoning administrator. The rules affect development of the 8.5-acres of vacant, privately owned land that Shorewood village officials are helping to market to developers.

“There’s been a lot of inquiries, but our community development authority looks at that property and wants to get a lot of value from it,” Lang said, “But unfortunately, all of the proposals we’ve seen have not had that value. They’ve all been one story with parking in the front.”

The Milwaukee River Work Group is trying to get the city of Milwaukee to adopt similar zoning rules, Brummitt said. City aldermen and planners are drafting regulations but no proposals have been introduced.

“We see this as a way for the public to enhance the private,” she said, “and the private to enhance the public.”

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