Condos near Summerfest seek design rule breaks

Narrow site, area crime spur variance requests

A Milwaukee developer who wants to build more than a dozen townhomestyle condominiums near the Summerfest grounds is seeking two variances from city design standards.

Peter Renner, who’s also the project architect, wants to develop 13 threestory condominiums at 620 E. Summerfest Place (formerly known as East Polk Street).

That site is now a vacant lot just east of North Jefferson Street, about one block west of Maier Festival Park.

The townhomes would have parking in ground floor garages; kitchen, dining and living space on the second floors, and bedrooms on the third floors, according to plans filed with city officials.

The $3 million development has already been approved by the Historic Third Ward Architectural Review Board.

Renner is now seeking two design standard variances from the Milwaukee Board of Zoning Appeals.

One variance is from a rule requiring overhead garage doors facing the street to have a four-foot setback from the main building mass.

The narrow site doesn’t provide enough room for that required setback, Renner’s zoning board filing said.

Another rule says window glazing shouldn’t obscure clear vision.

But, a prospective condo buyer doesn’t want clear glass on overhead door windows “where someone on the sidewalk can just walk up to it and see into his garage,” the filing said.

“It is common knowledge that anyone who leaves anything of value in a car on the street in downtown Milwaukee or the Third Ward is going to get their glass smashed and their vehicle burglarized...” the filing said.

The board is to review Renner’s variance requests at its Thursday meeting.

Renner’s other condo developments include include the nearby Waterfront, 130 S. Water St.; Hansen’s Landing, 541 E. Erie St.; and the Harbor Front, 601 E. Erie St.

Few condos have been built in Milwaukee’s downtown area since the housing market collapse in 2008.