approving Whitney Gould’s appointment to the City Plan Commission. 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 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 Bohl’s push to remove DCD’s suggested language regarding cul-de-sacs and their desire to better connect streets. This prompted Alderman D’Amato to take a light hearted shot at Alderman 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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Originally uploaded by benditlikebecker13

The Daily Reporter has an article that takes a look at the recent events surrounding the proposed demolition of the Milwaukee Coast Guard Station near McKinley Pier.

It’s sad to see a landmark go, but the building is reportedly past the state of cost-effective repair. Most importantly, it’s essential that what replaces it encourages the embracing of the lakefront. The planned pavilion seems to largely accomplish this goal.

I think there is a still a market for a commercial development, even with the nearby Alterra. One that both embraces the lake and the nearby Lincoln Memorial Drive.

Most of the development on the lake is auto-dependent, and it would be nice to see pedestrian-centric development where the old station was, especially with the nearby Brady St pedestrian ramp.

You may ask why I’m so in favor of development with a planned park already on the drawing board, but I honestly think we have plenty of open space on our lakefront already. We need something to draw people to that open space outside of holiday weekends, and environmentally-responsible development would help achieve this. Alterra is a great start, but it needs to be paired with something else. Barnes & Noble with an all glass lake facing side? A clothing store? Parks are only useful if there are people there to use them, and all too often I think our Lake Michigan coastline is underutilized. We want people to have a reason to walk and enjoy the lake, not to drive by it at 45 miles an hour.

Mayor Barrett will share his vision for Milwaukee.

Location: 

Direct Supply

6663 North Industrial Road

Thursday, February 14 at 7:30 am.

Articles from the past week covering development in Milwaukee.

Location: Room 301-B, City Hall

Agenda

Location: Room 301-B, City Hall

Agenda

Jeffrey Mantes the Commissioner of Public Works presented the progress of the City Hall Restoration Project. He pointed out that after two and a half years the project is meeting or exceeding the EBE, RPP and apprenticeship goals laid out for the project. Additionally he indicated that the project is targeted to be substantially complete by Thanksgiving 2008.

Representatives from SEWRPC presented A Regional Broadband Telecommunications Plan which indicated SEWRPC’s belief that universal high speed broadband in necessary for continued growth within Southeast Wisconsin. SEWRPC set a goal of developing 20 megabit universal access throughout the region and discussed a wireless demonstration project that Kenosha is currently testing. The well presented need and existence of the demonstration project prompted Alderman Robert Bauman to ask the SEWRPC representatives to “march right down to the mayor’s office and set up an appointment”.

Two resolutions regarding water sales to neighboring communities pointed out what regional cooperation does and doesn’t look like. First up was resolution 071313 which would of renewed a contract between the City of Milwaukee and the Village of Menomonee Falls for the purchase of water. During the discussion of this contract renewal it was pointed out by Alderman Robert Bauman that an amendment allowing the Village of Menomonee Falls to remove a legal constraint on selling water to neighboring communities without the City of Milwaukee Water Works approval was “giving a benefit for no consideration”. Despite contract terms limiting the amount of water the Village of Menomonee Falls can acquire from the City of Milwaukee Water Works, this amendment would of been a first step in opening the door for the Village of Menomonee Falls to begin selling water to communities outside of the basin. The committee held this resolution as it appeared that this small change in the contract had the potential impact of encouraging sprawl and further decentralizing the region.

The second resolution, 071314, was a request by the Village of Elm Grove for the City of Milwaukee Water Works to explore the possibility of selling water to the Village of Elm Grove. Neil Palmer the Village of Elm Grove President suggested they would purchase water at wholesale or even at retail prices. Further he made it clear he would support the City of Milwaukee in a variety regional issue including improved mass transit within the region. This resolution was enthusiastically approved by the committee and will move on to the full Common Council for approval.

I had previously hyped up the new low-cost airline Skybus since they started offering service out of Milwaukee.  Turns out everything isn’t perfect in Skybus land (or airbus).  Consumerist.com brings us a consumer horror story about Skybus.

Update: I had an absent-minded moment when I put this online and forgot to give credit to Kevin, the person who brought it to my attention.

Kit Hodge emailed me to let me know about a new service called Thank You For Shoveling.

As Kit explained to me…

As you well know, snow both adds to the charm and creates a lot of frustration in Milwaukee. And by snow, I mean snow removal. Now that it’s the snow season, your readers might be interested in our new, free "Thank you for shoveling" cards, designed to encourage your neighbors to shovel the sidewalks during the winter.

It’s easy to curse your neighbors when it takes you ten extra minutes to get to work in the morning because you have to wade through snow or jump over slush. We’re making it easy for people to do something constructive and neighborly about keeping their block shoveled this winter. We’ll send you cards, and all you have to do is drop them in the mailbox of your neighbors who shovel. A little positive reinforcement goes a long way towards making a snow-free and friendlier block. This definitely won’t work for people living in larger buildings controlled by a management company but in mid- and low-rise areas with more homeowners it’s a good solution to the eternal neighborhood problem of sidewalks blocked by snow.

OnMilwaukee.com’s Julie Lawrence has a good review of some of the retail and tavern activity in the Third Ward.