2023 Fall Issue of Urban Land - 114

The desire to
balance the
needs of the
economy, the
environment,
and the
community
meant that
diverse
groups came
to the table
to express
their hopes
for the
project.
1998 to 2003 when groundwork began, there
was a steady stream of meetings including
many community and stakeholder planning
sessions, design workshops, and a design
competition involving hundreds of professionals.
The desire to balance the needs of the
economy, the environment, and the community
meant that diverse groups came to the
table to express their hopes for the project.
By the time site activity started, they had produced
detailed plans and a clear vision with
buy-in from many facets of the community,
from funding sources, and from political leaders.
This engagement was nonstop for the
duration of the development.
Public/private, public/public, and nonprofit
partnerships. The project could not have
been done by the city alone. Nor would private
developers have been able to tackle the
contamination and other problems with the
property. It took many city and state agencies,
several nonprofits, and business associations
forming layers of public/private/nonprofit
partnerships to eventually bring the project to
reality.
Multiple sources of funding. The city of
Milwaukee was the largest single contributor
through its $26.5 million tax increment financing
(TIF) district. The development had many
goals, including economic development, ecosystem
restoration, brownfield development,
education, and support of underserved communities.
This allowed the project organizers
to go after a wide variety of federal, state, and
private funding sources for each of the purposes.
Strong
leadership. The project had a dedicated
group of champions that ran interference
when roadblocks inevitably arose. Project
leaders chose partners very carefully so that
all key players were at the table throughout.
The valley
The three-mile-long by half-mile-wide
Menomonee River Valley follows the
Menomonee River, which flows east to converge
with the Milwaukee and Kinnickinnic
rivers at the edge of Lake Michigan. The valley's
east end is about one mile from Lake
Michigan and adjacent to downtown Milwaukee
at its northwest corner. The valley
originally was marshland that provided food
and materials to the area's native tribes. As
114
URBAN LAND FALL 2023
settlers moved into the Milwaukee area to
take advantage of its natural harbor on Lake
Michigan, the city developed into a major port
for exporting wheat and other goods. Industry
grew, and residents started filling in the valley
marshes to create usable land for manufacturing
and commerce. By the 1920s the area
contained metalworking, breweries, distilleries,
stockyards, meatpacking plants, brickyards,
warehouses, and tanneries.
The valley has historically been zoned
industrial, and therefore it has no residential
areas. At its height in the early 1900s, 50,000
people worked in the whole of the valley. Most
of them lived in nearby neighborhoods and
walked to work. Roads into the valley were
not needed because the goods manufactured
there were sent out by rail or through the
canal and river system to Lake Michigan. As
automobile transit rose, the city built roads on
viaducts over the valley. With the rise of trucking
as a major form of moving goods, the
valley was at a disadvantage because of its
lack of easy road accessibility
In the 1960s, manufacturers began moving
out of the city, following the new interstate
94, and settled in western suburbs. Other
industries in the valley went bankrupt, and by
the 1980s most of the valley's manufacturing
properties were vacant. However, a few businesses,
such as leather tanning and slaughterhouses,
continued in the valley. In its central
location, waste and smells from these factories
made the sites an annoyance.
The valley is surrounded by urban neighborhoods,
which developed as walk-to-work
housing. When companies left for the suburbs,
those jobs became out of reach for most
neighborhood residents. These neighborhoods
have some of the highest population density
in the state, with about 8,500 residents living
within a half mile of the site. They have a high
proportion of lower-income residents and residents
of color. Until redevelopment began in
the early 2000s, the valley was cut off from
the neighborhoods by high bluffs on its edges.
Before redevelopment, the roads over the
valley had few access points, and trails and
bridges that once connected workers from
the neighborhood to the previously productive
site had for decades been boarded up
or deteriorated. Lack of access was a major
problem.
2023 Fall Issue of Urban Land

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of 2023 Fall Issue of Urban Land
