KK River to be reengineered

84 residential properties to be acquired

Over the next decade, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) plans to acquire approximately 84 properties near the concretized Kinnickinnic River mainstem between Sixth and 16th streets in order to reengineer the river. The $49.9 million project is designed to reduce flood risk, increase public safety, and beautify one of the nation’s most troubled rivers.

The MMSD commission unanimously approved the public acquisition plat of the first 27 residential properties at its meeting Oct. 26. MMSD officials said approximately 57 more residential properties will be made public in the coming months.

“To do the construction work, we have to take out some homes,” said Michael Martin, MMSD director of technical services, at the Oct. 19 meeting of the MMSD Operations Committee.

MMSD will formally cooperate with the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Milwaukee (RACM), which will oversee property acquisitions and provide relocation assistance. MMSD has approved up to $495,000 for RACM (see “Redevelopment Authority’s Role,” page 6).

The mainstem project will remove 12,000 linear feet of crumbling concrete lining the KK River between Sixth and 27th streets and expand the channel from the current 60 feet to as much as 200 feet wide. “The new channel will be bioengineered and will include a low flow stream, pools and riffles, and a connected vegetative floodway. The project will also replace five vehicle and four pedestrian bridges,” according to the Kinnickinnic River Watercourse Management Plan, updated in October.

The KK mainstem project is one of seven projects under the plan, which also includes a KK River sediment transport study, stream rehabilitation between Sixth Street and Chase Avenue, flood management projects for Villa Mann and Lyons Creek (proposing the removal of 24 structures from the floodplains of these KK tributaries), naturalization of Wilson Park Creek channel, and a recently completed project to repair storm sewer discharge pipes between 43rd and 60th streets. 

The watercourse plan was originally approved in April 2004 and updated in September 2008, Martin said. The most recent October 2009 update increased the mainstem project price tag from $15.5 million to $49.9 million and included the first acquisition plat, which MMSD staff said was based on a revised floodplain as determined by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC).

“The total project cost change increase reflects a change in scope from a concrete removal project to a flood management project. This came about because a recent SEWRPC study identified a significantly increased floodplain,” according to MMSD’s 2010 proposed capital budget (see “Revising the Floodplain,” page 6).

According to MMSD’s updated plan, SEWRPC’s new modeling “has added an estimated 280 structures to the high hazard floodplain on the Kinnickinnic River.”

Those are structures-not yet legally considered on a floodplain-that MMSD argues its project will remove from flood danger. MMSD executive director Kevin Shafer told the MMSD commission Oct. 19 that by taking 83 structures, approximately 200 surrounding ones would likely increase in property value (or at least owners would not require future flood insurance) because they won’t fall on the revised floodplain.

MMSD said their updated plan will remove a total of 424 otherwise flood-threatened structures from SEWRPC’s revised floodplain throughout the KK watershed, including the 280 near the KK mainstem, 120 along Wilson Park Creek (MMSD has proposed an additional $23.8 million project to remove these structures from the high hazard floodplain), and 24 near other KK tributaries.

Ironically, urban waterways like the KK and its tributaries were originally “armored” with concrete in the 1960s and ’70s to reduce the risk of flooding. Engineers used the friction-reducing trapezoidal channels to artificially reduce the floodplain and accelerate stream flow, rapidly whisking potential floodwaters downstream. FEMA’s 1979 floodplain for the KK River between Sixth and 16th streets, for example, lies completely within the concrete river channel.

MMSD executive director Kevin Shafer told the MMSD commission Oct. 19 that simply replacing the concrete lining, which is deteriorating, was not an option the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) would accept.

Transparency & Sensitivity

Several MMSD commissioners Oct. 19 voiced concerns about removing the properties from the city tax base. Commissioners also commented about the need for the property acquisition process to move forward with transparency and sensitivity.

Two residents testified before the Operations Committee, expressing their support for the process but concern that it not be bungled.

E. Peder Methum, a homeowner of 12 years at 2655 S. Seventh St. whose home is one of the first 27 slated for acquisition, said he wasn’t always thrilled about the process. But, “I’ve come to believe it maybe can be a positive thing if it’s handled right,” said Methum. “Be decisive,” he advised the MMSD commission. “It does affect our lives quite dramatically. Be fair with it. Either decide to do it or kill it but don’t be in the middle.”

Methum also expressed concern that investments he’s made in his property be taken into account by appraisers and that the neighborhood not be destabilized. “Am I going to be able to recoup the investment I’ve made? invested in Milwaukee? in my family?…” Methum said. “The worst thing we can do is destabilize neighborhoods.”

Seventh District Milwaukee Alderman Willie Wade, also an MMSD commissioner and member of RACM, expressed his desire that Methum and all affected property owners be “made whole” through the process. “I don’t want anybody to feel taken advantage of,” Wade said Oct. 19.

Ken Czubakowski, a 55-year neighborhood resident and homeowner at 2646 S. Ninth St., testified that he wants to sell his house but project uncertainty has not helped. “I’d like a letter in my hand saying they’re going to take my home or leave my home,” Czubakowski said.

MMSD officials said they wanted to fit the needs of property owners to the extent possible, working first with voluntary acquisitions, buying the properties of those most interested in selling.

What’s Next?

Now that the first acquisition plat has been approved, watercourse manager and KK River project manager Dave Fowler said MMSD will contact affected property owners via a letter from RACM. Fowler also said he will attempt to call or meet every affected property owner.

Fowler said there was no timetable for acquiring the properties. He said the process could take three to 10 years, but MMSD is “chasing grants” that could shorten that to three to five years. “What we want to be sure is we have the properties in hand [before construction],” Fowler said. MMSD will raze acquired structures. MMSD will also negotiate with Milwaukee County for public parcels targeted for acquisition in the project area.

In its six-year plan, MMSD plans $4.5 million for the acquisitions and related costs, “to start,” said MMSD budget manager Mickie Pearsall, adding, “It’s a negotiated process.” That $4.5 million is part of the $18 million design phase of the estimated $49.9 million total project cost, Pearsall said.

But MMSD cautioned against the certainty of these numbers. MMSD acting comptroller Mark Kaminski said the project budget will be reviewed annually. “What we have today is not etched in stone,” said Kaminski. “As we move along, the numbers are going to change.”

Why two acquisition plats, one yet to be submitted?

Fowler said when project documentation was prepared for the commission, his staff could only give him 100-percent certainty that the first 27 properties would need to be acquired. He said he was 95-percent certain about the other 57. “We decided not to put them on an acquisition plat until we were sure,” Fowler said.

Fowler also manages the Kinnickinnic River Corridor Neighborhood Plan, coordinated by MMSD and the Sixteenth Street Community Health Center (SSCHC).

Revising the Floodplain

SEWRPC environmental planning director and principal engineer Ron Printz was lead person on the KK River floodplain remapping. SEWRPC has not publicly disseminated the revised KK floodplain, Printz told the Compass, but has shared its data with the city and MMSD.

“If we have more up-to-date information, we will make that available to local agencies, city of Milwaukee in this case, MMSD, so they are not basically using old information,” Printz said.

Printz said the Milwaukee County Automated Mapping Land and Information System (MCAMLIS)-a public-private consortium formed in 1990 between Milwaukee County, We Energies, AT&T, and MMSD-asked SEWRPC to update all local floodplains earlier this decade. Property owners in the Wilson Park Creek floodplain “felt maybe a new study would change their situation,” Printz said, so the city of Milwaukee asked SEWRPC to move the KK watershed floodplain update up in their schedule (Wilson Park Creek is a tributary of the Kinnickinnic River).

Printz said the existing floodplain boundaries were based on late 1970s models with limited calibration data. Armed with actual weather data from 1940 through 2004, SEWRPC was finishing simulations modeling KK River hydrology and hydraulics last year when the June 2008 flooding occurred.

Over the last 20 years, Printz said a number of large storm and intense rain events increased estimates of river flows going into SEWRPC’s models. Increased precipitation was the biggest factor leading to a KK River flow rate modeled to be significantly higher, Printz said. This, he said, increased the floodplain. Printz said he’s still finishing up work on minor KK tributaries and anticipates the fully revised SEWRPC floodplain will be submitted the first quarter of 2010.

SEWRPC’s new floodplain does not yet have any regulatory teeth, Printz said, and nothing has been formally presented to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) or Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for flood insurance maps. Printz said SEWRPC provides its maps to communities, which are then responsible for deciding whether to use them for regulatory purposes.

But MMSD watercourse manager Dave Fowler said FEMA will essentially require the city of Milwaukee to update its official floodplain using the revised SEWRPC data, which would result in approximately 280 structures being added to the floodplain. MMSD said its KK River mainstem project is designed to remove those structures from the floodplain, by acquiring 83 of them in order to reengineer the river corridor to provide additional flow capacity.

The Redevelopment Authority’s Role

MMSD approved an Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement (ICA) with the Redevelopment Authority of the city of Milwaukee (RACM) for acquisition and relocation services for those affected by proposed property acquisitions between Sixth and 16th streets.

“District staff had intended to request proposals and contract with a private firm with the necessary property acquisition and relocation expertise. Simultaneous to this, RACM had approached [MMSD] about the possibility of utilizing their services for assisting [MMSD] staff for the Kinnickinnic River Project,” according to the October MMSD commission file regarding the ICA.

The acquisitions are to take place over a three-year period, according to the ICA. In the first year, “approximately 25 homes will be purchased on a voluntary basis,” according to the agreement unanimously approved by RACM Oct. 15 and by MMSD Oct. 26.

“Specific relocation tasks include interviewing affected occupants, preparing relocation plans for each stage of the project for Wisconsin Department of Commerce approval, identifying replacement housing for residential occupants, preparing relocation claims and coordinating house moves,” according to the ICA.

RACM will also provide translation services for $29,400 (about 35 percent of those affected require translation assistance), meet with MMSD 36 times for $10,800, and develop a $55,000 relocation plan-necessary so MMSD complies with state procedure regarding potential seizure of private property.

“Because [MMSD has] the power of eminent domain, we have to put together a relocation plan even if we do not use it,” said MMSD watercourse manager Dave Fowler, who said they’re targeting voluntary acquisitions first.

The total proposed cost of RACM’s services is $443,975, which assumes 79 acquisitions. RACM is not responsible for acquisition costs. MMSD has so far planned $4.5 million for acquisitions and associated costs, including RACM’s services, said MMSD budget manager Mickie Pearsall.

Sixth Street Bridge to be rebuilt

The Sixth Street Bridge spanning the Kinnickinnic River between Cleveland and Harrison avenues will be reconstructed starting in April 2010. The $2 million project will replace the cracking and “structurally deficient” 1983 bridge that currently also impedes river flow during flood events.

The existing “rigid-frame” concrete bridge incorporates an 11-foot-high dirt/fill layer, while the new steel bridge’s load-bearing single span will be only three feet in height and will not need fill below. The roadbed of the new bridge is also designed to be about a foot higher than the existing bridge. This greater clearance will permit 1-percent flood events to flow completely beneath the bridge, according to Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) officials.

Short Elliot Hendrickson, Inc.’s Robert Buffone is the manager for the project, which the city will submit by Dec. 1 to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT). Federal stimulus money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) will fund approximately 95 percent of the project, according to city officials.

WisDOT is expected to award the project contract Feb. 9, 2010, with construction set to begin in April 2010 and last eight months. That means Sixth Street will be closed between Harrison and Cleveland avenues for most of 2010.

Communication, water, and sewer utilities will need to be moved from the dirt/fill area up in between the I-beams of the new bridge.

In a separately funded flood management project to start in August 2010, MMSD plans to replace the concrete-lined channel of the Kinnickinnic River downstream of Sixth Street with a 38-foot rock channel and stabilize the south bank between Sixth Street and Chase Avenue.

Public pathways along the river may eventually link east (to proposed Kinnickinnic River Trail) and west (along the future reengineered river corridor) beneath the new Sixth Street Bridge, but those details have not been determined.

Related Efforts

The Southeastern Wisconsin Watersheds Trust (SWWT) Kinnickinnic River Watershed Action Team will meet 4-6pm Nov. 19 at the Sixteenth Street Community Health Center (SSCHC) Parkway Clinic, 2906 S. 20th St.

The meeting is open to the public. The watershed action team is interested in improving public health, natural habitat, and water quality in the KK River watershed.