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Plans to expand the Milwaukee County War Memorial Center’s parking lot on the Lakefront by slightly more than a half acre have stirred up a whirlwind of criticism and even the threat of a lawsuit. Critics say the private entity that runs the center, with its banquet facility and small museum, is trying to pull off a land grab. The facility says it’s only proposing a minor and much-needed expansion.

veterans park, north of the war memorial center (photo by adrian palomo)

The Memorial lost parking on its south side several years ago with the construction of the Calatrava addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum. In May, it proposed adding 88 spots to the 287 it already has to the north. The Memorial, run by a private nonprofit, leases the land it uses for parking from the county, but parks groups argue it’s overstepping its bounds and infringing on nearby Veterans Park.

Memorial leaders  contends it needs to pave areas where people sometimes park on the grass during events. Since the Calatrava’s construction, “The War Memorial parking lot capacity has been well short of our needs,” says George Gaspar, chairman of the center’s board of trustees. Gasper adds that it’s been “a successful Milwaukee County facility that relies heavily on revenue generated by facility use and parking.”

But County Supervisor Gerry Broderick, who represents the area, argues people should be parking at the nearby county-owned O’Donnell Parking Garage (though it’s currently closed pending the investigation of a collapse). The county provides about $1.5 million in annual funding to the Memorial.

Some critics say the proposed parking lot expansion is a land grab and the Memorial is mischaracterizing itself as a county facility when it’s really more private than public.

“The last thing we should be doing is paving over any lakefront park land to provide more parking for a private group whose tenants include for-profit businesses,” says Dan Cody, president of the Park People of Milwaukee County, a citizen parks group. It and another group, Preserve our Parks, filed a notice of claim with the county earlier this month, a precursor to filing a lawsuit, alleging misuse of public land.

Broderick, chairman of the county board’s Parks Committee, says the Memorial should get less, not more parking. He says the existing parking lot already exceeds the boundaries determined under the Memorial’s lease. The land leased by the facility extends north to an east-west line as defined by Wells Street, but some of the parking lies north of that. “Our hope is the War Memorial will meet up with Parks Director Sue Black and negotiate an agreement to stay within the Wells Street boundary,” he says.

the war memorial center

proposal that would have expanded the Memorial’s lease to include an additional 2.6 acres – adding all of the existing parking and the 0.6 acres that would be added under the proposal – was turned down by the County Board of Supervisors on June 24. The legislation was introduced by five supervisors (Joe Sanfelippo, who is also vice-chairman of the parks committee, Joseph Rice, Michael Mayo, John Weishan and Mark Borkowski), some of whom also serve on the Memorial’s board of trustees.

The resolution requested to suspend normal procedure, thereby bypassing the assignment of the legislation to a committee and going straight to a vote by the full board. Suspending the rules, however, requires a two-thirds majority vote, and the board voted 10-9 in favor,  falling short of the super majority. The parks group, Broderick and the other dissenting supervisors accused the five supervisors of trying to ram through the lease expansion.

“It’s an outrage that someone is trying to jam this down the throats of the public without appropriate citizen participation,” Cody said.

The county board wasn’t the first public entity to consider this. The Memorial pitched the idea to The Lakefront Development Advisory Commission, an inter-governmental panel that offers advisory opinions on proposed lakefront developments, on June 7. Dave Drent, managing director of the Memorial, told the board (of which Broderick and Black are members) that parking on the grass north of the facility’s parking lot is occurring at least once a week due to Rotary Club meetings.

The current parking lot, according to Drent, generates about $300,000 a year in revenue for the Memorial. Parking there generally costs $5 a day or more during special events.

According to Milwaukee lawyer William Lynch, chairman of the Commission, its members requested more information on the lease between the Memorial and the county and postponed making a recommendation on the parking lot proposal. The issue hasn’t yet been scheduled for another meeting.

The Commission was created as an umbrella group to help unify decisions on lakefront development. It has 17 members, both citizens and government officials appointed by city and county government. There are also two representatives of state government selected by the Commission itself.

from the war memorial center's proposal, where the facility would like to expand parking

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