Plan to raze smoke shop for parking lot opposed
A plan to replace a former smoke shop with a parking lot on Milwaukee’s near west side might be opposed by a city official who instead wants either a building or green space.
The former 27th St. Tobacco and Wireless, 848 N. 27th St., was purchased in March for $120,000 by an affiliate of Penfield Children’s Center, according to city assessment records.
Penfield is now seeking a permit from the Department of Neighborhood Services to demolish the vacant building. That tobacco store, which police called a magnet for illegal activities, closed in 2016.
Penfield, a nonprofit group, provides early education, health services and family programs for children, many of whom have developmental delays or disabilities.
The organization hopes to eventually develop a building on the 17,200square-foot lot, said Christine Holmes, president and chief executive officer. The property is just north of Penfield’s facility, 833 N. 26th St.
However, until Penfield is ready to proceed with those plans, the group wants to create a secure parking lot for its employees, Holmes said Tuesday.
Some employees now park about a block from the facility. Holmes said she’s concerned about criminals preying on them.
“We want to make sure our employees are safe,” Holmes said.
Also, Penfield doesn’t yet know how much it will cost to do an environmental cleanup on the site.
It once had a gas station, she said, and that could require removing an underground storage tank — which can be expensive.
However, Ald. Robert Bauman, whose district includes the near west side, doesn’t like the parking lot proposal, Holmes said.
Bauman would rather see either a building on the lot, or green space until the site is developed, Holmes said.
Bauman wasn’t immediately available for more information.
The former smoke shop site is a key parcel within the city’s North 27th Street Corridor Strategy, which the Common Council and Mayor Tom Barrett approved in January.
The strategy’s goal is to create an attractive, safe and pedestrian-friendly commercial corridor along the street between West Highland Boulevard and West St. Paul Avenue.
City officials, commercial developers and Near West Side Partners, a nonprofit group, have been leading those efforts.
They include the planned conversion of the former Wisconsin Avenue School, 2708 W. Wisconsin Ave., to the Ambassador Suites hotel, and a possible state office building that would be constructed south of West Wisconsin Avenue and west of North 27th Street.
The strategy’s recommendations include maintaining local business zoning for the former smoke shop to encourage urban development at that site.
The strategy also says that if that site is “acquired by an adjacent property for use as surface parking,” then parking lot landscaping requirements should be enforced until the parcel is redeveloped.
Penfield’s parking lot plans include a decorative fence and space for a possible bus stop bench and Bublr bikesharing station, Holmes said.
Also, the parking lot entrance would be on West Kilbourn Avenue, she said, to avoid causing traffic problems on heavily traveled North 27th Street.
The parking lot requires a special use permit. The Milwaukee Board of Zoning Appeals could review the plans at its Sept. 13 meeting, Holmes said.
Regardless of how the zoning board rules, Penfield wants to demolish the one-story concrete block building, she said.
“It’s really nasty,” Holmes said.