Replacing a portion of Interstate 794 in downtown Milwaukee with street streets could generate more than 3,000 homes and $535 million in property and sales taxes over 30 years, a new study says.
The study is sponsored by Rethink 794, a group of environmentalists, urban planners and others who support highway replacement. It was done in collaboration with veteran urban planner Larry Witzling.
Witzling’s analysis focuses on possible development over three decades in the space created by the removal of the freeway between the Hoan Bridge and North Sixth Street.
Plots further west may also become available for growth, the study published Thursday shows.
Building more than 3,000 homes across 10 blocks would generate $475 million in property taxes, according to Witzling, while new downtown residents would also generate $60 million in city taxes.
Those new residents would spend $3 billion in disposable income over the next 30 years, benefiting downtown stores, restaurants and other businesses, according to the study.
It is assumed that building types, rents and prices would be mixed, with 20% of homes classified as affordable.
Rethink 794 released the study as the Wisconsin Department of Transportation considers options for I-794.
WisDOT unveiled seven conceptual plans to repair I-794 and two plans to remove it in 2023.
Along with a freeway removal option, the agency plans to narrow these plans to one option in early 2025 to rebuild freeway bridges within the current alignment of I-794 and preserve all existing freeway access ramps, and another option to rebuild bridges with a tightened alignment that consolidates ramps.
Final decisions on the I-794 project could come in 2025 or 2026
WisDOT will select a preferred alternative after gathering additional public input.
Final design work could take place in 2025 and 2026, while construction work could begin in 2027 or 2028 if the $300 million project receives federal and state funding.
Witzling is a professor emeritus at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He was a principal at Graef, a Milwaukee design, engineering and planning firm, when he received the American Planning Association’s National Excellence Award for Planning Pioneers in 2017.
Witzling’s estimates are based on decades of slow growth changes in the downtown area, including the Park East corridor. He contributed to the plan to replace that freeway stub with development, which now includes Fiserv Forum’s parking garage, apartments and The Trade hotel.
I-794 traffic could be accommodated with changes such as a four-lane, two-way Clybourn Boulevard, Witzling said.
Some downtown property owners and business owners are opposed to replacing the freeway with surface streets. They are concerned that replacing I-794 would cause traffic congestion, including in the Historic Third Ward.
The highway sections slated for repairs date back to 1974. They were left untouched when part of I-794 was reconstructed between 2013 and 2016 — a $239 million project that included rebuilding the Hoan Bridge’s concrete deck.
None of WisDOT’s plans call for removing the Hoan Bridge. But the Clybourn Street bridge could be redesigned to reduce the number of lifts, which often happens during the summer cruise season.
Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on Instagram, X and Facebook.
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This article originally appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Removing Milwaukee I-794 would raise housing and tax revenue, study says
