Milwaukee boosters look for public input in downtown plan

Milwaukee metropolis planners are searching for an help from the general public as they work to create a roadmap for future growth downtown.

The Division of Metropolis Improvement and Milwaukee Downtown BID #21 are working collectively on what they’re calling Downtown Plan 2040. Milwaukee Commissioner of Metropolis Improvement Lafayette Crump mentioned the plan would be the metropolis’s “North Star” in guiding growth over the subsequent 20 years.

Work on the challenge started late final 12 months.

Organizers say they need enter from residents all through the method. They’ve been amassing public feedback on-line via a portal that permits individuals to see what others have prompt. Greater than 500 individuals have weighed in to date.

Enter may even be gathered at public conferences — on Wednesday, an open home on the plan will probably be held at third Avenue Market Corridor.

Crump mentioned town’s final downtown plan was accomplished in 2010. It helped information developments that included the Fiserv Discussion board and out of doors Deer District, a streetcar and connections between the enterprise district on the Historic Third Ward.

In creating the brand new plan, metropolis leaders hope to construct on latest successes, together with investments in industrial and leisure venues. In addition they hope to draw extra housing — and extra companies to help residential growth — within the metropolis’s middle.

“We’d like this to be a various downtown not solely within the sense of who involves expertise it, however what there may be to expertise downtown,” Crump mentioned.

Most of the on-line feedback to date give attention to enhancing choices for individuals who reside and work downtown, from making town extra walkable, to investing in public transit, to enhancing highway security.

“It’s nice to have special-occasion locations,” one commenter wrote. “However we have to additionally pack our downtown with on a regular basis locations, not only for an occasional grand evening out in town or a particular journey downtown simply to get a snack within the meals corridor. Image a neighborhood with a dry cleaner, a fruit market, a small clothes retailer, a movie show.”

One other mentioned “downtown residents want extra service-oriented companies: grocery shops, butcher outlets, pet shops, dwelling items retailers.”

Beth Weirick, CEO of Milwaukee Downtown, mentioned the final plan has guided her group’s investments. She mentioned targets for the brand new plan embody connecting downtown with town’s different neighborhoods, enhancing sustainability and inexperienced areas, and making the world secure to stroll and bike to locations.

“We’re so lucky that we’ve bought 20,000 residents in downtown Milwaukee, however how can we develop that, and with nice intention,” Weirick mentioned.

She mentioned the planning course of is predicted to take a few 12 months. There will probably be extra probabilities for the general public to touch upon the plan, with that enter getting used to assist refine the targets. The ultimate draft is predicted to be accomplished in early 2023, and should in the end be accredited by the Milwaukee Widespread Council.

Wednesday’s open home will probably be held from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at third Avenue Market Corridor, 275 W. Wisconsin Ave. Individuals may weigh in on-line at connectingmke.com, the place they’ll publish concepts, pin feedback to an interactive map and look at feedback from fellow Milwaukee residents.