Everything in its place, a place for riverfront development, a place for nature.
Milwaukee River at Risk......page 4 & 5 of 12
Have you ever gone on a hike or a bike ride along the Milwaukee River between the former North Avenue Dam and Silver Spring Avenue?
Have you ever put your canoe or kayak into the water for a slow paddle downstream?
Do you run or walk your dog alongside the river every day?
Do you drink water out of the tap?
If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, you should care about the Milwaukee River, which along with Lake Michigan, is one of our city’s most prized natural resources.
The Milwaukee River offers a peaceful escape and a connection to nature in sharp contrast to the urban environment. The natural areas along the Milwaukee River help filter urban pollutants from entering our surface waters, provide migratory pathways for wildlife, and minimize the effects of flooding on downtown Milwaukee.
An Unprotected Treasure
Whether you are a regular recreational user of this river corridor or a resident who just enjoys looking at the river as you drive over one of our many bridges, the value of the Milwaukee River to our local economy, our environment, and our quality of life cannot be overstated. Many people assume that this river corridor is legally protected as a “state park,” “county parkway,” or “environmental corridor.” The truth is that this gem within the City of Milwaukee is largely without any legal protections and vulnerable to constant threat of destruction, development, and degradation.
If this seems a bit alarmist to you, I urge you to put down this paper and go for a walk along the Milwaukee River downstream of North Avenue. Milwaukee exists largely because of the access that our rivers provided for shipping, trade, and commerce. Our urban riverfronts provide a connection to that past, even as warehouses transition to condominiums and trading posts to parks.
However, the river corridor upstream from downtown Milwaukee that runs through present-day Riverwest, East Side, Glendale and Shorewood is under extreme development pressure as the last few riverfront parcels downtown are being slowly redeveloped.
In addition, landowners currently have the right to cut down trees and vegetation from the top of the river bluff down to the river bank for no other reason than to improve their view. Such an incident in Shorewood last year spurred that municipality to create a shoreland protection ordinance to ensure that this couldn’t happen again.
This is not to say that all riverfront development is a bad thing. In fact, there are positive reasons to have more residents living near the rivers – in short, more eyes and ears mean more people watching out for the river and its protection. Future riverfront development must occur in a sutainable fashion that respects the river valley.
A Patchwork Quilt
Recognizing the beauty and importance of the natural river corridor upstream of North Avenue, many City plans have suggested that this area be maintained in a natural state and that access be provided in the form of trails to enhance the quality of life for Milwaukee residents and increase value of surrounding neighborhoods.
While the City of Milwaukee created an overlay district to provide for creation of the RiverWalk (essentially a special zoning area that provides additional design guidelines and review for developments within 50 feet of the river from North Avenue downstream to Lake Michigan), nothing was ever done to officially protect the natural river corridor upstream of North Avenue. Current Milwaukee zoning for the river corridor from North Avenue to Silver Spring looks like a patchwork quilt of residential, industrial, business district and park uses. Regulations provide no guidance on building set-backs from the water, minimum lot sizes, building heights to protect scenic beauty, or vegetation removal.
Lack of design guidelines and uniform standards for riverfront development create an uneven playing field for developers and threaten this important natural resource. The river corridor exists in its current natural “green” state due to large expanses of Milwaukee County Parkland and the benevolence and good stewardship of private landowners residing in between the parks.
What About County Parkland?
County Parkland you may say? Surely that is protected?
Thankfully, our County Parks are currently in well intentioned hands. However, Milwaukee County Government ultimately has jurisdiction over these properties, and they are broke.
If you think that the County would never sell off parkland, you may want to talk to Southside residents who recently thwarted the sell-off of Bender Park for the purposes of development. In addition, our County Parkland continues to be degraded by “benign neglect” – lack of funds to maintain the health of the forests, trails, or rivers, or even to keep the park rest rooms open.
DNR Protection?
What about State shoreland protection rules? Surely the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) must protect these riverbanks you ask?
Wrong again.
While Wisconsin does have rules that regulate shoreland development in the form of NR115, these rules are not applicable to Milwaukee County or many other areas that were already incorporated when the rules came into effect in 1968.
The DNR (as well as several other federal agencies) does have jurisdiction over some aspects of development that directly alter rivers and riverbanks such as dredging, filling, and stream bank alterations, as well as developments affecting floodplains. However, these powers do not prevent development on or destruction of the river corridor itself or its habitat.
Comprehensive Planning – Too Slow?
The City is in the midst of creating their Northeast Side Comprehensive Plan, which will look at the river as one small part of overall city planning. This planning effort is expected to take two years, and will involve local residents in what they want to see not only along the river, but in the community.
Given the changes in land ownership that are rapidly occurring along this corridor, we cannot wait this long for legal river protection of this corridor.
A Simple Solution
The solution is simple. Let’s keep what’s green, green. It just makes sense.
Given the potential for future flooding (due to upstream development), protected park land is the highest and best use for this riverfront property. There are also many studies that show that land values increase when adjacent to protected natural areas, and that parks provide important “quality of life” services that attract employers and employees.
Creation of a special overlay district to protect these natural areas from future development and degradation benefits current homeowners along the river as well as future development. This overlay district consists entirely of natural areas (mostly flood plains and steep river bluffs) at the present time, and would not affect any existing structures.
Protecting the “Viewshed”
The Milwaukee River Work Group also proposes the creation of a small “buffer” area adjacent to the top of the “green” river bluff, which would create a special zoning district where design guidelines would have to be adhered to for NEW, multi-lot development (existing uses and structures “grandfathered”).
This would not affect homeowners of single family homes or duplexes, and would just come into effect when multiple lots are consolidated or old industrial properties are being redeveloped in the future.
The design guidelines would address building heights adjacent to the river, set-back of buildings from the bluff edge, vegetative screening requirements, and other components.
The overall goal of this overlay district would be to protect the “natural feel” of this river corridor and buffer the effects of urban development on the “scenic viewshed” from the level of the river.
Many residents and visitors of Milwaukee alike marvel at the beauty of our river corridor. We don’t need to go to northern Wisconsin to have a nice hike or a nice paddle down the river, but can enjoy the “wilderness” in our own backyard – what a tremendous community asset!
However, this experience is substantially degraded when adjacent buildings encroach not only physically but visually into the river corridor.
Good development and re-development can occur while protecting this “urban wilderness” experience. Other cities like Chicago have instilled river corridor design guidelines to protect these assets, and other cities such as Denver and San Antonio are even creating (at great expense) natural river corridors where they never previously existed.
Milwaukee needs to embrace our river resources, and ensure that they are protected for current and future generations.
