If you live, work, play or even pass through North Martin Luther King Drive, now is the time to share your dreams for the corridor’s next phase.
The City of Milwaukee Department of City Development is working with Historic King Drive Business Improvement District No. 8 to develop a new corridor plan from West Walnut Street to West Capitol Drive.
Planned as an amendment to the Northeast Side Area Plan, the corridor plan will be part of the city’s Comprehensive Plan, used to inform zoning, land use and long-term development planning.
“We’re not necessarily trying to predict the future, but we want a plan that’s flexible, that allows for many different futures, all that are aligned with the community vision,” said Kyle Gast, senior planner of urban design with the Department of City Development and project manager of the Northeast Side Area Plan.
Why now?
At an open house on Tuesday at the Milwaukee Public Library’s Martin Luther King Branch, 2901 N. Martin Luther King Drive, community members shared their thoughts on the area’s economic vitality, housing and transportation by talking with city staff and adding notes or stickers to boards with questions and an interactive table with a map of King Drive.
“Most of the corridor north of North Avenue hasn’t had any real comprehensive planning project since 2009,” Gast said.
The Historic King Drive Business Improvement District expanded its boundaries from Locust Street to Capitol Drive in 2021, according to Executive Director Raynetta “Ray” Hill. Around that time, the landscape for retail and office space changed with the COVID pandemic and raised questions about how to sustain commercial corridors.
“We wanted to ensure that we were kind of staying abreast of the market, the trends, and then rethinking how to activate the King Drive corridor while new development is happening, both on the residential and on the experience side,” Hill said.
After the plan goes through the approval process in the spring or summer of 2027, it will be utilized in several different ways by city leaders, including to identify opportunities for public and private investment and review whether development or zoning proposals are consistent with the plan, Gast said.
P3 Development Group and Ce Planning Studio also are working on the project, and the architecture and urban design firm RINKA will create visuals for the potential redevelopment concepts based on community priorities.
The city, business improvement district and partners also are creating a resident leader council to help with engagement, vetting ideas and making sure neighborhood groups at different sections of the corridor are involved in the plan, Hill said.
“We’re not purporting to answer every question,” said Vanessa White, organizing director of 5 Points Neighborhood Association and member of the resident leader council. “But at least when somebody comes and says something about an issue, we can say that it was discussed and considered.”
What do residents think?
King Drive needs more trees, housing options and people, and less litter and speeding cars, according to some of the popular comments on the project boards.
“I want people to feel physically safe from cars,” said Ruth Weill, community development manager for Riverworks Development Corp., who is also on the resident leader council.
Hill said the people appreciate the colorful murals on the southern part of King Drive. She said they also received comments about trash receptacles and improving the flow of traffic at North Avenue and Locust Street.
White said she wanted to stay open-minded during the feedback process but would like to see more support for small businesses.
How to give feedback?
Residents and people who use the corridor can add feedback to the city’s project website, engage.milwaukee.gov/KingDrivePlan. You can share your own thoughts or react to other ideas that are posted.
There will be another public meeting in winter and a third meeting estimated for spring once the plan is drafted.
Hill said she knows the engagement process can be fatiguing, but it’s essential to developing an authentic plan.
“I think we have to constantly engage connection and community to ensure that’s not getting lost in the fastness of how things are moving with technology,” Hill said.
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
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