MMSD KK River Project May Never Break Ground

Controversy over using Eminent Domain to acquire 84 properties draws a couple of hundred Lincoln Village residents to MMSD community meeting on Thursday

By H. Nelson Goodson
August 14, 2009

Milwaukee – A couple of hundred Lincoln Village residents showed up for last Thursday’s Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District’s (MMSD) community meeting at the Kosciuszko Community Center to get a glimpse of the proposed Kinnickinnic River Restoration plan and graphics. The MMSD authority to use eminent domain to acquire an estimated 84 properties and possibly more, if property owners don’t volunteer to sell has generated controversy and concerns.
The KK River Flood Management Project is expected to begin in 2010 or 2011. The KK channel restoration will affect the following area between W. Harrison St. to W. Cleveland Ave. Two houses from each side of the river are targeted for removal.
Public access along both sides of the KK River corridor between S. Chase Ave. and S. 16th St. will be limited after the project ends. Affordable housing is being proposed along the KK River and commercial areas will be developed on Cleveland, according to the plan. The KK River restoration project is part of $1.56 million in federal economic recovery act funds (federal stimulus funds).
Last Monday, Urban Anthropology Inc. (UrbAn) a group from Lincoln Village criticized the decision-making process of the planning committee, which did not include any Lincoln Village resident participation. When residents attended the public meetings nearly all alternatives had already been decided on. The residents were then told that their homes would be removed, according to members from UrbAn.
However, MMSD has not determined if they will ever break ground for flood control to prevent the one hundred year flood. Latino residents who attended the public meeting expressed concern over the expected increase of property values due to development and commercial growth, which would then lead to gentrification.
MMSD’s proposed plan is to replace the S. 6th St. bridge over the Kinnickinnic River and begin in 2010 or early 2011 to restore the river channel upstream by widening the KK River with a 100-foot-wide span from S. Chase Ave. to S. 16th St. The river span would have no culvert sections beneath it and would provide 75% more space than the current structure for floodwaters to flow downstream, according to the MMSD Commission.
Photo by Victor Huyke