Park West Redevelopment Task Force.

The collection contains detailed and extensive grant applications and reports in the files for the Milwaukee Community Development Agency, Milwaukee Department of City Development, Milwaukee Economic Development Administration, Urban Development Action Grants, and Wisconsin Department of Local Affairs and Development.

The photographs found in the collection provide excellent images of the Park West area, including aerial views, and pictures of homes. Sanborn maps of the area provide details on the types of housing and buildings.

ACCESS RESTRICTIONS: There are no access restrictions on the materials, and the collection are open to all members of the public in accordance with state law. However, the researcher assumes full responsibility for conforming with the laws of libel, privacy, and copyright which may be involved in the use of this collection (Wisconsin Statutes 19.21-19.39).

ARRANGEMENT: The files are organized alphabetically by personal name, name of office, or by subject, then chronologically. Files can contain a variety of materials, including correspondence, staff memos, and reports.

Committee records can be found under:

1. Committee on... or 2. (name) of committee

In addition to the normal chronological files, files containing more specialized information about a topic are found after the chronological files, as provided in the example below:

ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY NOTE: The PWRTF was a private, non-profit organization created in 1977 to administer the redevelopment of the land cleared for the Park Freeway West, an expressway that would have connected downtown Milwaukee with the northern and western suburbs. Funding for the PWRTF came from various sources, but primarily the Community Development Block Grant Program administered by the city of Milwaukee. The city of Milwaukee's Department of City Development was the monitoring agency for the PWRTF.

The "North Avenue Expressway" (renamed the "Park Freeway West" in 1964) was designed in 1954 to run northwesterly along Fond du Lac Avenue and turn west at North Avenue and 24th place. It was to be a 3.2 mile link between Interstate 43 and the proposed Stadium North Freeway (Interstate 41). Four square miles or approximately 145 acres were part of the actual planning area. The Milwaukee County Expressway and Transportation Commission began property acquisition in 1962, and cleared the land for the freeway between 1966-1972. In 1972, construction halted after a coalition of Westside citizens groups obtained a court injunction, forcing the Commission to comply with Federal Environmental Standards. The Commission conducted an Environmental Impact Statement and submitted it to the United States Department of Transportation (DOT). In December 1976, DOT rejected the study as inadequate and a new use of the land had to be found.

In 1977, Congressman Henry Reuss created the 22-member PWRTF in consultation with Milwaukee County Board Chair Thomas Ament, Milwaukee County Common Council President Ben Johnson, and State Assembly Majority Leader James Wahner. Its membership included representatives from community organizations, and local, county, and state officials.

The PWRTF was to redevelop the Park West lands for housing, commercial areas, improvement of social services and public facilities. The PWRTF's major focus was to transfer the land from the state and county to the City of Milwaukee, to identify areas for redevelopment, and to find a suitable private developer. The PWRTF favored New York developer Aaron Gleich's housing plans, but Milwaukee's Redevelopment Authority selected local developer's B.J and Harold Sampson. PWRTF chairman State Senator Gary George declared its planning functions complete in November 1982, and grant funding ended within a week.

COLLECTION CITATION: This collection should be cited as:

Park West Redevelopment Task Force. Records, 1963-1983. UWM Manuscript Collection 47. University Manuscript Collections. Golda Meir Library. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

RELATED COLLECTIONS:

The records of the Henry W. Maier administration (Milwaukee Series 44) contain a number of files on the development of Milwaukee County expressways, including the Park West, and the PWRTF.

The papers of Henry Reuss contain large amounts of correspondence and reports about the PWRTF (Milwaukee Manuscript Collection 112).

ACQUISITION: Ms. Joanne Molin-Case donated the collection to the Milwaukee Public Library (MPL) in April 1983. The MPL transferred the collection to the Golda Meir Library for processing in May 1991. The MPL transferred ownership of the collection to the Golda Meir Library on 13 August 1993.

PROCESSING: Mark Shelstad processed the collection in September-November 1991 at the Archives.

MARC RECORD SEARCH TERMS: The following terms were used in the online bibliographic MARC record to this collection:

• City planning--Wisconsin--Milwaukee.
• Community development, Urban--Wisconsin--Milwaukee.
• Express highways--Wisconsin--Milwaukee.
• Gleich, Aaron.
• Highway planning--Wisconsin--Milwaukee--Citizen participation.
• Hoeh, David C.
• Housing--Wisconsin--Milwaukee.
• Land use, Urban--Wisconsin--Milwaukee.
• Milwaukee Community Development Agency.
• Milwaukee (Wis.). Dept. of City Development.
• Milwaukee (Wis.)--History--Sources.
• Milwaukee (Wis.)--Transportation.
• Roads--Right of way--Wisconsin--Milwaukee.
• Sullivan-Flynn, Brigid.
• Urban renewal--Wisconsin--Milwaukee.
• Wisconsin. Dept. of Local Affairs and Development.

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URL: http://www.uwm.edu/Library/archives/findaids/uwmmss47.htm
Last edited on Thursday, May 24, 2001.
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