The Milwaukee Common Council delivered a split vote on Tuesday, approving one zoning change aimed at making it easier to build housing in the city to address a housing shortage and rejecting another after some of its sponsors added a last-minute amendment.
Common Council President Jose Pérez and Ald. Bob Bauman proposed late last year to create a new zoning designation called RT5 to allow projects between five and eight units to be developed with Common Council approval and, separately, to allow accessory dwelling units (ADUs) to be built in the city. ADUs are a self-contained residence located on a property that already has a separate, primary residence.
Both proposals were similar to items included in the Department of City Development‘s much broader Growing MKE initiative, which is an effort to overhaul the city’s zoning code that hasn’t been adopted due to community opposition.
Up against the same community opposition, the two spinoff proposals went through a turbulent approval process this month.
First, the Milwaukee Plan Commission, which serves in an advisory role, recommended the Common Council approve the ADU zoning change and reject the RT5 zoning change due to the public opposition. Last week, the Zoning, Neighborhood and Development Committee (ZND) voted to approve both zoning changes.
Then on Tuesday, the full Common Council voted to approve the RT5 zoning change and reject the ADU zoning change.
Council rejects ADU change
The ADU zoning change would establish a more streamlined process to build ADUs throughout the city. The proposal would reinstate a housing type that supporters say was once common in the city, but has been effectively illegal to build new for several decades.
Initially, the proposed ordinance would allow all residential properties with one or two units to add an additional unit, either as a separate structure, an addition or within the existing structure.
Before the Common Council meeting, however, Perez and Bauman amended the ordinance to prohibit ADUs from being added as an internal unit in the existing structure or as an addition in areas that were zoned for single-family housing.
It would also prohibit duplexes from having a third unit added to the existing structure, partly in response to concerns from the Department of Neighborhood Services, which said three-unit buildings have different fire safety code requirements that two-unit buildings.
Bauman said the change would prevent property owners from adding “significant rental housing” in areas with high student populations, like surrounding UW-Milwaukee or Marquette University.
Bauman also said the amendment was in response to concerns that allowing an internal ADU would effectively end single family zoning in the city. Detached units could still be developed everywhere, including in the single-family areas, under the amended ordinance.
“This cuts back on a little bit of the flexibility that we wanted to afford the zoning code, but I think it cut backs in a way that allows us to gauge the impact going forward,” Bauman said.
Frustrated by the amendment, Alders Peter Burgelis and JoCasta Zamarripa, who both signed on as cosponsors to the zoning change last week at the ZND meeting, removed themselves as cosponsors and urged the council to vote against the zoning change.
“This isn’t a simple amendment,” Burgelis said. “This fundamentally changes what was discussed in committee.”
Ultimately, the council voted to send the ADU zoning change back to ZND for further discussion and clarification.
Council passes zoning district for small apartment buildings
The proposed RT5 zoning district would allow for multifamily buildings between five and eight units to be built on a lot without the need to create a special zoning district or navigate variances with the Board of Zoning Appeals, both of which can be unappealing processes that cost time and money, supporters have said.
The Growing MKE initiative included a similar recommendation that would automatically apply this zoning designation to certain lots in denser neighborhoods or along commercial corridors. Perez and Bauman’s proposal would not automatically change the zoning of any parcel and still require that proposals be heard on a case-by-case basis to preserve Common Council control.
Supporters argued that making development of multifamily buildings of this size would boost the city’s stock of what’s called “missing middle housing,” which refers to medium-density housing. Housing and planning experts say missing middle housing is a key part of addressing the housing shortage and affordability challenges nationwide and locally.
However, several opponents of both the Growing MKE initiative and the separate RT5 zoning district, largely from central city neighborhoods, argued at previous meetings that the changes could encourage more absentee investor landlords to buy up housing in the city and could lead to gentrification in city neighborhoods. Opponents also criticized the city’s public engagement efforts.
The council passed the zoning change unanimously without discussion.
More articles about housing development in Milwaukee:
- City of Milwaukee unveils updated TIF guidelines, including for workforce housing
- Milwaukee committee approves zoning change to allow for small apartment buildings
- Viewpoints: What it actually costs to build new housing, and why most of Milwaukee can’t afford it
- Which southeastern Wisconsin municipalities are best for real estate development?
- Milwaukee Plan Commission delivers split votes on two zoning code changes
- Historic downtown Milwaukee office building to be converted to apartments
- Cudahy Farms development on far northwest side inches toward groundbreaking
- Private sector could be hesitant to redevelop former Northridge site in Milwaukee, consultant says
