MMSD Plans To Acquire 84 Homes Along KK River Corridor

Group claims information sessions were not designed to allow residents any decision-making power, and MMSD to exercise Eminent Domain as an option to take properties

By H. Nelson Goodson
Updated: August 11, 2009

Milwaukee – On Tuesday by email, Jill Florence Lackey, PhD Anthropologist and Executive Director of the Urban Anthropology Inc. (UrbAn), 707 W. Lincoln Ave. wrote, the organization is not opposing the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District’s (MMSD) plan to acquire 84 homes for its proposed $40 million flood-control plan along the Kinnickinnic River. MMSD is planning 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.
Lackey says her organization was opposing the way the planning committee and their decision-making process did not include 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 Lackey.
“Given that I am the one being called out as the individual that “opposes” the KK project, I'd like to clear the air on this. First, I represent a very small resident-serving organization (Urban Anthropology, Inc.) in Lincoln Village, where the homes will be lost. Second, our organization is not “opposed” to the project at all. Third, we think your information sessions have been very well planned and attended. But they were not designed to allow residents any decision-making power. What we have consistently asked is that the residents in our neighborhood have a voice on the planning committee that decided on all the alternatives and amenities that would constitute this “neighborhood plan.” The planning committee (called the technical review committee) met nearly monthly for over two years. Alternatives were presented and decided. We remained entirely neutral throughout the process and only requested the resident’s play a role in decision-making. We met with the KK planning leaders and requested that residents serve on this committee. The residents were not invited,” Lackey wrote.
Lackey claims that since the MMSD planning of the KK River corridor began in 2004, Lincoln Village residents were left out of the decision-making planning process. She and her organization which is considered the neighborhood association for Lincoln Village have tried to participate by initiating and providing research-based scientific surveys of local residents, but were left out due to a lack of information about scheduled meetings conducted by MMSD and its partner the Sixteenth Street Community Health Center in the proposed plan development. The partnership between MMSD and Sixteenth Street Community Health Center created the Kinnickinnic River planning committee.
Lackey tried to join the KK River planning committee on various occasions, but apparently was excluded from the committee. Lackey says that residents along the KK River and her organization “did not even know these meetings were being held” in early January 2008. The planning committee met on Nov. 1, 2007, Jan. 22, 2008, April 9, 2008, and no residents participated in the meetings. Also on June 24, 2008, the planning committee met again and no residents from Lincoln Village or UrbAn were invited to attend.
In April of last year, JJR, a Madison–based architectural firm was selected to do the Neighborhood Plan and no residents were involved in the selection process either, according to the UrbAn documented report provided by Lackey.
The Greater Milwaukee Foundation provided Sixteenth Street Community Health Center a $100,000 grant to get the community involved in the planning. The Sixteenth Street Community Health Center hired Gladys Gonzalez from Pa’lante Creative, who in addition was a subcontractor on the JJR team, says Lackey. Gonzalez interviewed Lackey and other leaders in the community concerning the KK River plan. Lackey says Gonzalez had interviewed people who were not from the Lincoln Village area.

Benjamin Gramling, the Director of Environmental Health Programs from Sixteenth Street Community Health Center when contacted denied Lackey’s allegations that residents along the KK River were never contacted or allowed to participate in meetings. Gramling was the key spokesperson for a conference group that visited the KK River corridor on S. 16th St. on early Monday afternoon.
The KK River Flood Management Project is expected to begin in 2010 and homes along the KK River will need to be acquired. The KK channel restoration and affected area will be between W. Harrison St. to W. Cleveland Ave.
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. The plan is ongoing and public access throughout the area on both sides of the KK River is still in the planning stages, according to Gramling.
Affordable housing is being proposed along the KK River and commercial areas will be developed on Cleveland, according to the proposed plan. Property values in the area would increase as a result of the proposed development along the KK River.
Gramling said, information in both English and Spanish have been provided through literature drops and mailings to residents along the KK River. However, Lackey says that Lincoln Village residents have not been fully informed about the proposed KK River plan. The development plan will have an impact to the community and they need to get involved in the planning process, added Lackey.
“Lackey says scientific surveys of local residents are the best way to involve residents in decision-making that impacts them and their neighborhoods and would like to see all “major development projects” in the future to be vetted by the community through surveys,” Gramling wrote in an email dated August 4, 2009 to Alderman James Witkowiak, and Steven J. Jacquart MMSD.
Steven J. Jacquart, Intergovernmental Coordinator for MMSD said Monday, that MMSD has eminent domain authority and would be an option to acquiring homes needed to be removed for the expansion and restoration of KK River channel, but it would be lengthy a state legal process. Alderman Witkowiak, 12th Aldermanic District and Michael J. Maierle, Strategic Planning Manager for the Milwaukee Department of City Development are supporting the KK River Corridor Action Plan, Jacquart confirmed.
On Tuesday by email, Jacquart wrote “I don’t directly manage this project, but I know that members of the KK planning team have been meeting with Ms. Jill Lackey since April of 2009. She has been provided and on occasion has taken advantage of multiple opportunities over the last several months to provide input on the project, which of course, she opposes. We have recently made several additional attempts to meet with her to address any specific concerns. She has refused an invitation to meet from MMSD Commissioner Ben Gramling. Last week, MMSD Executive Director Kevin Shafer sent a written invitation to her to meet with him and hopefully this will lead to more dialogue.”
The KK River restoration project is part of $1.56 million in federal economic recovery act funds (federal stimulus funds).
A survey conducted and released by UrbAn resulted with numbers revealing that 79% of 62 residents interviewed along the KK River restoration project knew about the process. 56% say they were not part of the decision making process.
However, what was not clear is, did they want to or did they try to become part of the process (that 79% knew about).
19% apparently cared enough to take the time to become part of the process and 79% of the area residents apparently knew they could or knew about it.
21% apparently either did not pay any attention to the attempts to notify or were caught up in other circumstances such as address changes, etc.
The MMSD is holding a public meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, August 13, 2009 at the Kosciuszko Community Center Gymnasium, 2201 S. 7th St., Milwaukee, WI concerning the KK River projects.