Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee - Regular Meeting

Out in a hybrid format, which means we are accepting public testimony both in person at 809 North Broadway and online in GoToWebinar. If you're joining via GoToWebinar, please keep yourself on mute until you are called. If you would like to provide testimony during any of the public hearings or items, please click the raise hand function. You can see that on the screen right now. During your agenda item of interest, click the raise hand function, and our staff assistant Chris Lee will call on you during the public test polling portion of the item.

For anyone that is watching on channel twenty five and would like to participate in the meeting, you will need to log in to go to webinar to do that and you can do that by going to city.milwaukee.gov/cpc. Again, it's city.milwaukee.gov/cpc. From this web page, you can log in to the web go to webinar to provide public comment during any of the public comment items. Whether you're providing comments in person or remotely, please state your name, address, and affiliation with the item for your testimony. Thank you for your participation.

I also want to address that the initial city plan commission meeting agenda originally included two additional items for consideration regarding an application at 5825 West Hope Avenue. Those items have been removed from the today's agenda to allow for additional information to be prepared in response to questions from city staff, the local alder, and members of the public. Those items will not be heard at today's meeting and we will not be taking public comment on those items because they are not on today's agenda. At this time, any next steps for that application are not known. But we do have two agenda items today.

So for anyone who has comments on those items, you are welcome to participate. Thank you. Alright. Okay. Thank you. At this point,

I will take the role. If you are here, please tell me that you are present or here. Commissioner Allison Nemick. Present. Commissioner Katrina Queen. Present. Commissioner Willie Smith. Commissioner Renell Washington.

Present.

Commissioner Tariq Moody. Commissioner Jesus Gonzales. Okay. Alright. The first item of business is to review the minutes from the previous meeting. Commissioners, have you had a chance to review those minutes? And if so, I will entertain a motion to accept those minutes.

I will take the the minutes from

our, last meeting. K. There's been a motion. Is there a second?

Second.

And is there any further discussion? Seeing none, I will take the role on this. And because we have one of the commissioners online, I'll have to do that by the role. So you're in favor of the passing of the minutes. Please vote vote yes. Commissioner Allison Nemak? Yes. Commissioner Katrina Crane? Yes. And commissioner Renell Washington?

Yes.

The motion carries. Thank you. Alright. Now let's move on to item number two. And miss Fonseca, would you like to introduce the file?

Yes. Item number two is a resolution or excuse me. File number 252196, a resolution declaring the Department of Public Works parking lot at 1335 North 12th Street as surplus to municipal needs and authorizing acceptance of an unsolicited offer to purchase from Blee Street Lofts LLC in the 4th Aldermanic District.

Okay.

Rosita Ross with the Department of City Development. We are here with the Department of Public Works, which I will introduce him after myself. The property is located in the 4th District, Automatic District. The lot is about 11,265 square feet approximately. Currently, the lot is underused, not being used by the public.

As the information is stated, we do have a developer that we are working with and who did submit a unsolicited offer to purchase that property, Villy Street Lofts, as additional parking for the residents at that property. I think that's it. I will, introduce Peter, from our Department of Public Works who will give you a little bit more information regarding that parking lot if you have any questions. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome.

This lot that we're discussing is an underutilized lot. They averages two parkings two parking vehicles a day. The city itself is looking to kinda reduce size of the footprint of our service lots because they're even underutilized. So we do support this. We have no concerns about this. Okay.

Alright. Commissioner, is there any any questions or comments on this item? Okay. Pretty straightforward. I'll entertain a motion at this time.

I motion to approve item two five two four nine six.

Okay. There's been a motion. Is there a second?

It's commissioner Washington. I'll second.

K. There's been a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this item? K. Seeing none, we will go to the go to the roll. So if you're in favor, please say aye. Commissioner Allison Nemick.

I abstain as I'm associated with the development the main development.

Okay. Commissioner Katrina Crane. Aye. And commissioner Renault Washington.

Aye.

The ayes have it. Thank you very much. Good luck with the parking lot. Okay. Now item number three.

Item number three is file number two five two two four seven, a substitute resolution relating to a minor modification to the detailed plan development known as Riverwest Apartments to allow additional signage on the mixed use building located at 1132 East North Avenue on the North Side of East North Avenue, West Of North Commerce Street, and the 3rd Aldermanic District.

Kristen Connolly, DCD Planning. The subject site was rezoned to a detailed plan development known as Riverwest Apartments back in 2023 to allow construction of a four story mixed use building with first floor commercial space for the Riverwest Food Accelerator and 91 residential units. That building has since been constructed. And the DPD zoning, as you all know, is a site specific zoning that prescribes, among other things, allowable signage for the site and the building. This minor modification relates to the allowable building wall signage, which currently includes a flag sign at the residential lobby that's been installed.

I don't know if we have any great photos that see that show that. Well mounted signage at the corner of East North Avenue and Commerce Street on the North Avenue facade, which is also existing. This has a Riverwest food accelerator. And then it also allows temporary signs for construction, which has been completed, as well as for leasing of space within the building. This particular modification file will allow an additional type a building wall sign above the Commerce Street side at the corner of Commerce And North, and it'll be to support a tenant, which we'll go into in a moment.

And it also clarifies that window signs are allowed in the for the general provisions of the zoning code. So, typically, the zoning code says you can have a certain percentage of window permanent window signage, and this just clarifies that that would be allowed if it could support the commercial tenants in the future. And then finally, it just gives a little bit more flexibility since it was so specific in the signage at the time that it was originally established to allow additional type a building wall signs that would otherwise be allowed if it was zoned local business three, which is a comparable zoning on this corridor. The additional sign request is specifically to support Food Rite Inc, which occupies the River West Food Accelerator space. A representative from Food Rite is here to speak about the more about their mission.

We'll do much better job than I will. But from this location, Food Rite Inc. Will operate programs like the Good School Food Movement with part that partners with Milwaukee Public Schools. And they also lead many other programs and events to empower youth and families to eat food that sustain lifelong health through gardening and culinary skills. So it's a perfect fit for this building.

This site's within the boundary of the Northeast Side area plan and more specifically is within the River West sub area. The plan aims to enhance the sub area character by allowing context sensitive development options and promoting commercial sites within areas such as Riverwest. These objectives can be further accomplished by improving the visibility of the Riverwest food accelerator space, which this file will allow to be done. And thus, we conclude that the minor modification file for this additional signage is consistent with the plan recommendations. The sites within the 3rd Aldermanic District, and Alderman Brower has expressed his support. Staff does recommend approval of the file and Mary Kate from Food Rights here to, go over a little bit more information about their wonderful programming.

Okay. Thank you, miss Petz.

Everyone. My name is Mary Kate, and I am with Food Right. Thank you so much for your time and attention to this matter. Food Rite is a Milwaukee nonprofit that empowers youth and families to choose foods that sustain lifelong health, and we do this through our culinary nutrition education and gardening programs. We work with over 1,300 students every single year.

And for over the last decade, we've been embedded in Milwaukee Public Schools. So we've had very little brand awareness outside of people who are already in our program. So we're very excited and hope that the sign can become a fixture on our building so that people know where we are and who we are, especially we have just begun classes for the public. So before you had to be a student, either with Milwaukee Public Schools or, Milwaukee Rec, or there were a couple other schools in there as well that we have taught our eight week culinary nutrition education programs too. So in addition to classes for families in the neighborhood, we also hold our good school food project meetings there as well.

So we train Milwaukee public school parents how to become strong advocates for healthier school meals and environments. And I am happy to answer any questions you guys may have. Otherwise, you can learn more about us at foodright.org.

Sounds like a really interesting and important program that you're that you're doing. How long have you been doing the program?

So Food Rate has been around since 2014. Our staple program is the Youth Chef Academy, which was developed before Food Rite was even an official business, and that was developed by our CEO and founder, Lisa Kingery. So she developed this program, started implementing it at Golda Meier and, a couple other schools, and it has now grown where, in over 50 classrooms every single year.

Wow. So it started at the high school or the grade school?

At the grade Yeah. So we

Started and what was the person's name who started this?

Lisa Canary. She formerly also worked with Fundy Foods, and before that was at the food bank in New York City.

Okay. So she created this this model, and is this one of the, the the first programs like this in the country?

Yes. Absolutely.

Okay. Yeah.

Well, wonderful. Commissioners, any other questions or comments? Okay. Well, thank you. I don't have anyone else that has registered to speak on this item. So I'm gonna ask the commissioners, is there any other questions that you have or comments?

We just focus on the signage.

Correct. Yep. Yeah. So at this point, I will accept a motion on I would move to approve

the sign as presented.

K. There's been a motion. Is there a second? A second. There's been a second. Alright. Any further discussion, commissioners?

I wanna echo the sentiments of the chair that this is a fabulous program, and we need to have more signage to let people know that it's

in there.

Wonderful. Thank you.

Yeah. We're close looking at it. We're have a lot of time. Mhmm.

Okay. So there's been a motion and a second, and I will now take the role. If you're in favor, please say aye. Commissioner Allison Nemak? Aye. Commissioner Katrina Crane? Aye. Commissioner Renell Washington? Aye. Okay. The ayes have it. And I wanna wish you the best of luck. And this is another great thing for us to know about. I did not know about this before, but it's something that we really can celebrate in Milwaukee, you know, the foundational work that you're doing to create this ability for people to learn how to cook healthy food for their for their whole lives. So thank you so much. Alright.

And it's a good looking sign.

And it's a good looking sign. Okay. That concludes our agenda. I don't have anyone I don't have any any other anything else on the agenda. So at this point and I have no one else recorded to speak. So at this point, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. K. There's been a motion. Is there a second? And then I'll ask, is there all in favor? Aye. Okay. Opposed? Meeting adjourned.