Removing I-794 is a ‘generational opportunity’
Milwaukee was a cradle of freeway removal in the US, with the pioneering teardown of the Park East Expressway. The $25 million project (in the early 2000s) has spurred more than a billion dollars in downtown development. Twenty-four blocks of mixed-use urbanism were opened up for redevelopment on the mile-long corridor.
Now, a community advocacy group has released a study showing the benefits of removing another freeway spur downtown. I-794 connects on one end with I-94, but the other end goes through downtown, becomes a parkway, and ends up on surface streets.
Removing this spur would generate 1.1 billion in property value and $475 million in total property tax collected, provide housing for 4,200 residents in 3,000 units, and add $175 million in disposable income annually. Several parks could be built on the corridor.
According to Rethink 794, which collaborated with urban planner Larry Witzling, I-794’s demolition the city would generate:
- New retail, restaurants, hospitality and entertainment
- New employers attracted to locate Downtown
- Improved transit/ multimodal connections
- High-energy public spaces
- Improved local business markets
- Larger long-term tax base
Witzling is an emeritus professor of architecture at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who worked with the city on a plan and code for the Park East corridor redevelopment. The city, under then-mayor John Norquist, a new urbanist, spearheaded the project, which was a first in the US. Freeways had been torn down and replaced for surface streets before the Park East Expressway in cities like San Francisco and New York, but this was only due to damage and collapse from disasters and other causes.
The Park East Expressway plan and code won a 2003 Charter Award.
Rethink 794 calls the proposed removal a “generational opportunity.”
“The Economic Case for Removing I-794 Downtown: Economic Benefits, Neighborhood Improvement Will Benefit All Milwaukeeans” is available for download here.
