New Website!

We've moved to a new website. Please visit southshoreparkwatch.org for the latest news and information. Thanks!

Bluff Restoration - Your Help is Needed

Milwaukee County has approached the Park Watch with a preliminary plan for native restoration of the bluff between the lake front trail and South Shore Drive. The native restoration will create a more stable habitat for birds and wildlife as well as prevent erosion. The Park Watch is preparing to raise funds and recruit volunteers to support this important project.

Enjoy the Farmers Market!

The South Shore Farmers Market reamins open 8 am until noon every Saturday through October 16, 2010. Seasonal produce, baked goods, cheese, eggs, specialty meats, refreshments, and many other treats are available from a wide variety of local vendors.

Come see your neighbors, relax, and enjoy the free entertainment program which changes every week. The Market is located in Bayview's beautiful South Shore Park near Lake Michigan (2900 South Shore Drive, Milwaukee).

The State of the County Parks

Interesting article in the Journal Sentinel. Now the County will be asking people to pay to play golf, but there will be collection boxes instead of a collection person.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/91532534.html

If you have thoughts, please comment below.

South Shore Park Clean-up

Come join us!

Saturday, April 24th is our South Shore Park Cleanup. Join South Shore Park and the BVNA for a positive day of community action. We’ll spread out to pick-up trash and whatever you may find in our park, along the beach, and on the bike path. At noon we’ll meet back for lunch. Supplies, food, and drinks provided, but bring your own mug or water bottle to be entered in our raffle.

Details:
Saturday, April 24th
South Shore Park Pavilion, 2900 S. Shore Drive
9-noon, rain or shine
supplies provided, including coffee, snacks and lunch

For more information, details about other Bay View clean-ups and to register:
http://www.bayviewneighborhood.org/committees/5-environment-transportation/42-earth-month-clean-ups

National attention on Milwaukee park funding

The City Parks Blog is a blog for the Center for City Park Excellence, part of the Trust for Public Land. They've taken notice and have brought national attention to the Milwaukee park funding situation.

They specifically take note that increasing funding for the parks was not listed as an option by the County Auditor, although selling park land was considered an option.

http://cityparksblog.org/2010/01/06/increased-funding-for-parks-not-an-option-in-milwaukee/

Sell parkland?

The County Auditor has suggested selling parkland in Milwaukee County. Please see the article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/80633172.html

If you have ideas on what could/should be done to save the County Parks, please share.

South Shore Park Watch is on Facebook

Please check out our Facebook page!

http://www.facebook.com/SouthShoreParkWatch

Park Watch Meeting on Thursday

Please come to the Park Watch meeting this Thursday, December 10 at 7 pm. Please find the details below:

South Shore Park Watch
Thursday, December 10 at 7 pm
South Shore Park Pavilion
2900 S. Shore Drive

We have an exciting agenda for our next meeting, including election of new leadership.

Post your ideas for our next meeting.

Bring your friends.

November Park Watch Meeting

Just a quick reminder that the regular meeting will be held:

November 12 at 7:00 PM

South Shore Yacht Club, on the second floor

2300 E. Nock Street

Note: the bar down stairs will be open if people want to purchase a beverage

before or after the meeting.

Please write (southshorepark@yahoo.com) if you have any questions.

Bring your friends!

Next Park Watch Meeting

While Park Watch meetings are usually in the South Shore Park Pavilion, that is not the case this month. Because of an event that is scheduled at the Pavilion there will be a change of venue for our monthly meeting. Please find the details below.

What? South Shore Park Watch Meeting

When? October 8 at 7:00 pm

Where? Historic Beulah Brinton House, home of the Bay View Historical Society
2590 S. Superior Street , on the corner of South Superior Street and East Pryor Avenue

Most importantly...there will be cookies!

Park Watch Meeting Tonight!

Please come to the South Shore Park Watch meeting. Spring is in the air! There are many plans for the coming months to discuss at our next Park Watch meeting. It's this evening:

Thursday March 12 - 7:00 pm
South Shore Park Pavillion

Agenda
Annual Earth Day Celebration
Preparing for the Farmers Market.
Updates on the Seminary Woods.
Progress with networking on the Web.
Park projects.

Come with your ideas, friends and enthusiasm. Looking forward to seeing you there.

Seminary Woods is too high a price to pay

Seminary Woods is too high a price to pay (Response to JSOnline Editorial "Cousins Center: South Side Vitality, January 6, 2009)

The MJS editorial, “Cousins Center: South side vitality,” mentions but dismisses environmental concerns about Seminary Woods. How did the editorial board make a decision about those environmental concerns without even trying to speak to any of the environmentalists who have raised the concerns?

Like many people, the groups that have been working to purchase Seminary Woods and place it in a conservancy so that it will be protected forever were interested to learn last summer that Cardinal Stritch University planned to purchase the Cousins Center and turn it into a south campus. We were prepared to welcome Stritch back to the neighborhood, and were hopeful that the university would be mindful of environmental issues surrounding Seminary Woods.

However, in mid November, Stritch revealed that it also plans to purchase the 84-acre We Energies land to the south and west of the Cousins Center and adjoins the Seminary Woods proper. The We Energies land is a brownfield. It contains coal ash that has been capped and buried. Because the cap cannot be broken, that land was deemed “undevelopable.” Now, Stritch plans to put at least five athletic fields, bright lights, stadium seating, parking lots, roadways and a field house on this land.

The plan is not acceptable. The damage to Seminary Woods is too high a price to pay.

Kathy Mulvey, President
South Shore Park Watch

Park Watch Meeting on Thursday

We will be having out first meeting of the year this Thursday. Please come to find out more about Seminary Woods and the canceled public hearing.

Thursday, January 8
7:00 pm at the South Shore Park Pavilion

Please feel free to bring friends.

We will be discussing winter events in the park, updating our projects, including a debrief about the Cardinal Stritch University public hearing.

Bring your thoughts and ideas.

SEMINARY WOODS HEARING POSTPONNED

Because of estimated attendance of 450, there was not enough room to hold all in attendance at the public hearing in St. Francis regarding the proposed purchase of the Cousins Center by Cardinal Stritch University. Please see below for more about this.

Details about the rescheduled hearing will be posted as soon as they are available. Please see the list of links to the right for medial coverage.

Development Does Not Always Pay

The great landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted recognized the economic value in greenspace. He used economic impacts as a justification to purchase the land for Central Park. He estimated that the property values around Central Park could increase significantly in proximity to the park.

Professor Doug Booth has prepared a report analyzing the potential economic impacts of the proposed Cardinal Stritch University, South Campus and the impacts of other types of land uses, like greenspace.

Please find the documents below. To access you may download the documents. (If you wish to read online, without downloading, right click on the document, choose "weblink," choose "open," and then choose "preview.")



There are two documents - one is a flyer, detailing the highlights of the report. The other is the full report.

Seminary Wood Public Hearing - Monday

Preserving Seminary Woods … Again!

Like many people, the groups that have been working to purchase Seminary Woods and place it in a conservancy so that it will be protected forever were interested to learn last summer that Cardinal Stritch University planned to purchase the Cousins Center and turn it into a south campus.

However, in late November, Stritch revealed that it also plans to purchase the 84-acre We Energies land that runs to the south and west of the Cousins Center and adjoins the Seminary Woods proper.

This cannot be allowed to happen.

The We Energies land is a brownfield. It contains coal ash that has been capped and buried. Because the cap must remain intact, that land was deemed “undevelopable.” Now, Stritch plans to put at least five athletic fields, bright lights, stadium seating, parking lots, roadways and a field house on this land.

In 2006, WISPARK, Inc., the development arm of We Energies, indicated the capped land would be kept as a green-space buffer for the woods. We Energies has even planted the land with prairie grasses and plants. The property has become an important environmental site in itself, as well as an essential component to the health and preservation of Seminary Woods. Animals from the Seminary Woods use the land for foraging and hunting, and the entire tract protects the woods from human impacts related to development.

A DNR Memo of October 10, 2008, states that the We Energies land:

• Has been identified as part of the “Seminary Woods – St. Francis Lakeshore Legacy Place” in the Wisconsin Land Legacy Report, and is a special site most important to preserve;
• Is one of the last undeveloped grasslands of over 40 acres remaining in Milwaukee County;
• Is a nesting area and important migratory stopover area for bird “Species of Greatest Conservation Need;”
• Is one of only four sites in Milwaukee County where the Dickcissel, small grassland bird, observations have been reported in the last 40 years;
• Shelters wetland indicator species Nodding Lady’s Tresses, Spiranthes cernua and the State-endangered Bluestem Goldenrod, Solidago caesia;
• Contains important wetlands, which are threatened by athletic facilities and parking lots;
• May already have contaminated soil and groundwater.

PUBLIC HEARING

Monday, January 5, 7 p.m.

St. Francis City Hall, 4235 S. Nicholson

The City of St. Francis must change the zoning on the Cousins Center and We Energies land in order for Stritch’s plans to proceed. Stopping the rezoning may be our last chance to preserve the Seminary Woods. If the We Energies land is developed, it will complete the noose of development that will eventually choke the life out of Seminary Woods.

We urge you to attend the public hearing and speak out against the rezoning.

Seminary Woods: Plan Commission meeting in St. Francis

The City of St. Francis Planning Commission

Thursday, November 20

7 p.m.

St. Francis City Hall

4235 S. Nicholson Avenue.

Copies of the plan map will be available.

On November 12, Cardinal Stritch University unveiled its preliminary plans for an undergraduate campus to be built on the Cousins Center grounds and the vacant WE Energies lands to the south and west of the center.

Nine new buildings would be built on the 44-acre Cousins Center property, plus a library addition on the north side of the existing building. Several of the buildings would rise within 15 feet of the Seminary Woods. Stritch’s purchase also would include a strip of about 15 acres of Seminary Woods that has been part of what a coalition of environmental groups has been raising funds to purchase and preserve.

Almost the entire 80 acres of We Energies property, which is now a capped brownfield, would be covered with athletic fields – soccer and track stadium, baseball, softball and two practice fields – and a 558-car parking lot.

Environmentalists, preservation-coalition members and neighbors have grave concerns that the plan would eliminate the green-space buffer around the woods, severely altering the character of the woods and its ability to support existing wildlife. In addition, new buildings close to the woods would block sunlight to the woods, changing the delicate ecosystem.

A total of 1,440 new parking spaces, in addition to existing parking areas, has

raised concerns about increased traffic along Superior Street/Lake Drive, Oklahoma Avenue and Howard and Packard Avenues.

The City of St. Francis Planning Commission will meet this Thursday, November 20, at 7 p.m. to consider a zoning change that would be required for Stritch to proceed with its plans to purchase and develop the properties. The meeting will be held at St. Francis City Hall, 4235 S. Nicholson Avenue. Copies of the plan map will be available.

We urge people concerned about this plan to:

· attend the Planning Commission meeting;

· contact their aldermen;

South Shore Park Watch Meeting

Please join us for the next Park Watch meeting:

November 13 at 7:00 pm.

Bella' Fat Cat

2737 S. Kinnickinnic Ave.
Milwaukee, WI 53207-2264
(414) 747-9746

The venue change accomdates another group that is using the pavillion.

See you there!

Funding the Parks

There will be a referendum on the November ballot for a 1% increase in the sales tax. This tax increase is meant to increase funding for the parks, transit and emergency services. The bulk of the increase will go to the parks.

This sales tax increase will also fund some property tax relief, as parks, transit and emergency services will be removed from the property tax levy.

The sales tax increase will provide a dedicated stream of funding for Milwaukee County's parks.

Please read more:
http://qualityoflifealliance.com/
http://cityparksblog.org/2008/10/16/referendums-for-city-parks/