How restoration of a Menomonee Valley canal for kayaking will also preserve industrial use

A plan to preserve industrial space within a near south side Milwaukee neighborhood is tied to a nearby canal's restoration — which could include boat and kayak launches as well as a waterfront trail.

Proposed by Mayor Cavalier Johnson's Department of City Development, it would change the city's Menomonee Valley comprehensive plan to recommend rezoning much of West Bruce and West Pierce streets between South Ninth and South 16th streets.

That change, along with separate rezoning proposals, would need Common Council approval.

The amended plan would help protect industrial uses within the neighborhood, which is west of the rapidly redeveloping Walker's Point area, according to its advocates.

Industrial properties need preserving to help maintain family-supporting jobs which manufacturers, distributors, tanneries and other such businesses provide, say officials from the department and Menomonee Valley Partners Inc., a nonprofit group that leads valley improvement work.

And that's particularly important in neighborhoods where industrial buildings have been converted to apartments and other new uses.

"This has been kind of our guiding lens, especially in the valley," said Corey Zetts, Menomonee Valley Partners executive director.

Ensuring such neighborhoods remain safe and productive is "hard to do when you don't really have a sense of what the vision for the area is," she said.

The Department of City Development's vision includes maintaining heavy industrial zoning for much of the district while rezoning two areas to light industrial and industrial commercial zoning.

Those areas that could be rezoned are south of Pierce Street, between 12th and 16th streets, and both sides of Bruce Street between Ninth and 12th streets.

Rezoning would create buffer between residential, industrial use

Rezoning those areas would allow converting properties to new uses while creating buffers between residential and heavy industrial properties, said Monica Wauk-Smith, a department planner.

"We have heavy industry abutting residential uses," she said. "We are trying to reduce some of the conflicts while preserving the jobs that are so important."

The proposal also calls for exploring potential streetscape and intersection improvements; addressing safety issues fueled in part by illegal dumping and nearby homeless camps, and creating public access to the Burnham Canal, part of which is being restored to a wetland north of Bruce Street.

The canal, which connects to the Menomonee River, was built in the 1870s to spur industrial development. It quickly became one of Milwaukee's most polluted sites, and by the 1920s was the city’s primary cement depot.

With the canal’s cement companies gone, scrap metal recycler Alter Trading Corp. (formerly known as Miller Compressing) is the main waterfront business. Those century-old scrap metal operations added to the canal's pollution, and the company later agreed to pay for a cleanup.

Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District is leading efforts to create the wetland between roughly the Interstate 94 overpass and North 15th Street.

That project's first phase, which replaced contaminated sediments on the canal's bottom with several feet of clean sand and gravel, was completed in early 2023, said Beth Wentzel, a sewerage district senior project manager.

"Now we are waiting for that material to settle and compress the underlying sediments," Wentzel told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "During this waiting period, we will complete the wetland design and we hope to begin constructing it (in) 2026 or 2027."

Much of the cost expected to be covered by federal money

The wetland project's cost estimate won't be known until its design is done, Wentzel said. District officials expect most of the funding to come from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The Department of City Development's proposal envisions boat and kayak launches along the wetland as well as a possible waterfront walking trail.

That could expand Milwaukee's river walk system into the area.

"This is a really exciting opportunity," Wauk-Smith said.

Zetts and Wauk-Smith spoke during a presentation to the Common Council's Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee.

The committee might vote at its Jan. 9 meeting on whether to recommend approval. The panel delayed that vote from its December meeting after two property owners raised concerns about the proposal.

Sunlite Building Corp., which owns buildings at 1517 W. Pierce St. and 1411-1439 W. Pierce St., and an affiliate, KFA LLC, which owns property at 1575 W. Pierce St., are opposed to having their zoning changed from heavy industrial to light industrial.

Doing so would place those properties in "a legal nonconforming status," a downgrade from permitted heavy industrial use, said Chris Jaekels, attorney for Sunlite and KFA.

That could make the buildings ability to operate with heavy industrial uses contingent on other nearby uses, he said.

"We've been there for decades and we want to continue to protect our rights to continue to operate," Jaekels said.

Any zoning changes would require future Common Council votes, Zetts and Wauk-Smith said.

A legal non-conforming status under rezoning would allow current heavy industrial uses to continue, Wauk-Smith said.

But a change in the building's operator would then require a special use permit from the Milwaukee Board of Zoning Appeals, she said.

Common Council President Jose Perez, whose aldermanic district includes the area, suggested delaying a zoning committee vote to provide more time to address the property owners' concerns.

Meanwhile, the plan's supporters include the operators of Sur Natural Health Brands LLC, which moved its office and distribution center to 913 W. Bruce St. in 2022. The company, which makes turmeric-infused beverages, is operated by brothers Qasim and Asim Khan.

The plan should encourage more neighborhood development − which will "help make it feel more safe," said Kyle Bentzien, Sur's real estate consultant.

Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on Instagram, X and Facebook.