APARTMENT COMPLEX PROPOSED for McGOVERN PARK!
June 23, 2025 | Topics: Issues, Spotlight
By Preserve Our Parks with photography by Eddee Daniel
On Thursday, June 26, 2025, a resolution will go before the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors to approve a proposal to replace the existing McGovern Park Senior Center with a mixed-use apartment complex. This is the first time in our County’s history that the County Executive has lobbied for housing in a Milwaukee County Park. Preserve Our Parks (POP) prepared this document to help us visualize, understand, and question the proposal.
This image was generated using AI to show a proposed 50-unit apartment complex in McGovern Park in the approximate location indicated on the conceptual plan (below) used at recent county board committee meetings. The existing Senior Center is shown, in its current location, for scale. It would be demolished upon completion of the proposed development.
This conceptual plan was shown during a presentation at three Milwaukee County Board Committees in May and June to indicate the proposed layout of the development on the 5.5-acre site. It helps us visualize the scope of the development in relation to the existing senior center (indicated in pink next to the lagoon).
Project Background
The proposed project includes a private Ground Lease of a 5.5-acre parcel in McGovern Park for $1/year for 60 years with an option to extend the lease for up to 99 years. Jewish Family Services has been selected by the County to develop the +/- 50-unit affordable apartment complex. A new Community/Senior Center is proposed on the ground floor.
The County has stated in their presentations that they have done extensive community outreach for the project dating back to 2015, getting input on services that seniors would like to see in a new facility. The seniors who use the Center have been told that, due to the County’s budget shortfall, the only way the center could be improved or replaced is with the addition of the proposed apartments.
Preserve Our Parks is categorically opposed to housing at McGovern Park.
We urge you to contact your county supervisor immediately and tell them to reject the current proposal and seek alternative locations for the senior center/apartment complex. And please share this link.
This proposed project has moved through the County Board Committees very quickly, without a thorough vetting of the Ground Lease and background materials. Details are scant. Many questions remain unanswered about the proposal that we urge the County Supervisors consider before making this momentous decision at the Thursday/June 26, 2025 Board meeting.
- Why disrupt the serene view and quiet that visitors to a park appreciate and need by adding a multi-story apartment complex, which would bring noise, lighting, vehicles and garbage to their special spot that has been there for them—as our park commission ancestors intended—for almost 100 years?
- How will the 5.5 acres of land for this proposed project continue to be protected as park land when the zoning does not allow housing on park land? Somehow, it will have to be rezoned. The County Executive can sell land that is not zoned Parks without the consent of the County Board.
- Why is the County Board being asked to approve a project before a Feasibility Study that looks at the environmental, social, fiscal factors, and alternative options is completed, before the public has been invited to provide input on concept designs, and before land use agreements have been thoroughly vetted?
- Why move forward with this project without holding county-wide, highly advertised public engagement meetings to discuss and get feedback on the loss of park land and the construction of a multi-story apartment complex? The County Departments of Health and Human Services and Office of Aging talk about how they’ve reached out to the public about their proposal. They have never held a widely announced public meeting that mentions housing.
- Why is the budget-strapped County of Milwaukee giving 5.5 acres of parkland to a developer for $1.00/year for 99 years? This is essentially a conveyance of publicly owned land to a private developer.
- Why is the County moving a project forward that essentially gives up 5.5 acres of park land for development and requires no further review by the County Board? Park land is not “shovel-ready,” as has been suggested.
- Why is the County only forwarding a proposal to develop a $21 million apartment complex with a Senior/Community Center on the first floor when, according to a County projection, only $1.75 million is needed for improvements at the existing building? Has the County developed an estimate to replace the Center at the park that does not include an apartment complex?
- Has the County received input from the City of Milwaukee elected officials, Department of Planning, Department of City Development, and the Housing Authority, at a minimum? The City deserves an opportunity to thoroughly review a change in zoning and the addition of a +/-50-unit apartment complex on the northwest side before a lease agreement is approved by the County Board.
- Has County government thoroughly researched any potential deed restrictions and/or grant conditions placed on McGovern Park?
- How does the Milwaukee County Parks current Master Planning process fit into this development? A master plan will determine how this 61-acre park will be managed and developed over the next +/-20 years. The Parks department engages with the public throughout the planning process. In fact, there is currently a survey being conducted asking people what they would like McGovern Park to offer recreationally.
- Why would the County Board approve an apartment complex on almost 6 acres of park land that people engaged in the master planning process might request be set aside for future recreational use or leave as open space?
- Why did the County not engage with the long-standing Havenwoods Neighborhood Partnership Corporation, the Villard Avenue and Havenwoods Business Improvement Districts, and the Neighborhood Improvement District? These organizations work to create revitalization strategies and bring new resources to the neighborhood surrounding McGovern Park. They were not contacted at any point during the 8-10 years the County has been working on this proposal.
- Why the rush to add a use that isn’t allowed on park land? There are many vacant lots and buildings in this same northwest side neighborhood where housing, including multi-story apartment buildings, could be developed in allowable zoning districts.
- Why is the County Board acting on a lease that does not outline the amount the County will have to pay annually for rent of the Senior/Community Center? While the developer is promised rent of only $1.00/year for up to 99 years the amount the County will be required to pay in annual rent is not specified.
- Why does the lease agreement specify a combined Senior/Community Center, rather than one only for Seniors? The space needs for senior activities and for younger users have not been determined. Will the building have enough space for both? Only up to 25% of the capital cost of the building can be for the senior/community center, and the rest for housing for the project to qualify for low-income tax credits.
Eddee Daniel wrote a rebuttal to County Executive Crowley’s recent opinion piece arguing in favor of this proposal that was published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee County Parks should not be used for housing developments. Period.
Pat Small also wrote an opinion piece opposing the proposal that was published in the Shepherd Express.
Previous stories in The Natural Realm related to this issue, including many more photos:
Housing does not belong in parks!
Milwaukee County’s Department of Health and Human Services considers park land open for development!
About Preserve Our Parks
Preserve Our Parks, Inc. is an independent, volunteer-driven nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of Milwaukee County parks and green spaces. Our mission: To advocate for and promote Milwaukee area parks and open spaces and to strive to protect the tenets of Wisconsin’s Public Trust Doctrine.
For more than 25 years, we have been a leader in advocating for the protection of Milwaukee County park lands, halting many proposals to develop, privatize, or sell local parkland and lakefront spaces. More POP info, including past accomplishments, is available at www.preserveourparks.org.