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Roads,
highways cost Milwaukee County property taxpayers
$180 million
per year.
Murphy
seeks new off-ramp
to Medical College. |
County,
cities struggle with County Grounds
traffic
issues
April
16, 2007 --
The potential expansion of major facilities on the Milwaukee
County Grounds has officials from the state, county and
cities of Milwaukee and Wauwatosa searching for solutions
to traffic problems in the area, County Supervisor Lynne
DeBruin said.
The
focus has been on freeways and roads and some bus transit,
she said.
"It's
all a freeway-based study," she said."The real
fight within the entitities is what combination of components
do you need and who is going to get stuck paying for it?"
Milwaukee
Regional Medical Complex development could grow by up
to 4 million square feet, far in excess of the 1 million
square feet previously projected, DeBruin said.
That
does not include the possibility of the University of
Wisconsin - Milwaukee building an engineering school and
business incubator on the grounds, an idea floated by
UWM Chancellor Carlos Santiago.
That
would make traffic problems even worse, DeBruin said.
Ald.
Michael Murphy has requested the Wisconsin Deparment of
Transportation build a freeway off-ramp leading directly
on to the grounds, but the MRMC opposes that, DeBruin
said.
"MRMC
would support a ramp but going only to Wisconsin Ave.
or Watertown Plank," she said.
Other
ideas being studied include widening Wisconsin Ave. and
Swan Blvd., building access roads along the freeway, and
expanding existing roads within the County Grounds.
"None
of this has been finalized," she said.
Traffic
volumes, already heavy, will be most affected by the fate
of the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex. County
Executive Scott Walker has proposed closing it and selling
the buildings.
There
would be about 45 acres available between the site of
the Mental Health Complex -- which likely would be razed
by developers -- and adjacent land, DeBruin said.
"The
reality is the Regional Medical Center is going to keep
growing to the extent they have land out there,"
she said.
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Roads,
highways cost Milwaukee County property taxpayers $180
million a year
Study says state shifts money to freeway
projects
March
26, 2007 -- Milwaukee County property taxpayers
fork over $180 million per year to pay for streets and highways,
according to a new study.
That
property tax burden will increase as the State Department
of Transportation spends more and more on big freeway
reconstruction and expansion projects, according to the
land use group 1000
Friends of Wisconsin, which prepared the study.
“Gas
taxes and registration fees are being used to fund highway
expansion instead of local roads,” said Ward Lyles,
transportation policy drector of the Madison-based group.
“Every dollar spent to expand the Marquette and
Zoo Interchanges and I-94 North-South is a dollar in local
road costs that gets shifted to property taxpayers.”
Milwaukee
County and its municipalities bear the largest tax burden
for roads, according to the study. Taxpayers here pay
$180 million for roads, while Waukesha County property
taxpayers are hit for just $83 million, according to the
study.
“If
given the choice, Milwaukee residents might very well
decide to trade an extra highway lane here and there for
fewer potholes, better bus service, and lower property
taxes,” said Lyles. “Unfortunately, when Scott
Walker used his veto to move the $6 plus billion highway
expansion plan forward in 2003, he made that decision
for them.”
Walker
vetoed a County Board resolution that essentially opposed
freeway expansion in the City of Milwaukee.
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Murphy
seeks new off-ramp to Medical Complex
Questions further development plans
March
26, 2007 -- The state should consider adding
an off-ramp leading directly to the Milwaukee Regional
Medical Center when it reconstructs the Zoo Interchange,
according to Ald. Michael Murphy.
.
"This would greatly relieve traffic pressure in the
area," Murphy wrote in a letter to State Sen. Jim
Sullivan (D-Wauwatosa).
Residents
living around the County Grounds have protested loud and
long about the neighborhood traffic impacts caused by
the development of the County Grounds.
"I
have received numerous complaints regarding this issue
in the past, and I believe this solution would satisfy
the concerns of our constituents," he said.
County
Supervisor Lynne DeBruin said three years ago
that the State Department of Transportation promised to
study building such a ramp, but reneged. The county relied
on that promise when it allowed major development on the
County Grounds, she said.
Murphy,
in a separate letter to DeBruin and County Executive Scott
Walker, raised new concerns about County Grounds development.
He said he rrecently learned that the Medical Complex
revised its master plan to include 4 million square feet
of development, rather than the 1 million square feet
previously anticipated.
"This
significant increase in proposed development will have
a large impact on the adjacent transportation system and
residents nearby that I represent," he said.
"I
would encourage the county consider the type of roadway
improvements necessary to suppor this expanded development...and
whether or not these improvements are feasible or practical
to build," he wrote.
Gov.
Jim Doyle has proposed accelerating reconstruction of
the Zoo Interchange, but has not indicated how the state
would pay for it.
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