Better connections within Glendale
Bike lanes, Bayshore apartments could link neighborhoods
Glendale was founded just over 70 years ago on an oddly-shaped tract left over from an area that decades earlier was carved up to form other North Shore communities.
Now, a large apartment development, and a new plan for bike and pedestrian improvements, could better connect neighborhoods within Glendale — where the high-profile Bayshore mixed-use development is separated from much of the city by I-43.
The apartments would total 311 units in four buildings at the northern end of Bayshore, east of I-43 and just west of Glendale’s North Lydell Avenue border with Whitefish Bay.
New bike lanes, along with a roundabout and other measures designed to slow traffic, would mainly be west of I-43, where most of Glendale’s roughly 12,500 residents live.
The Bayshore apartments project, which the Community Development Authority recommended for approval at its March 4 meeting, would add hundreds of residents to Glendale.
The conceptual plans, first disclosed in summer 2020, include around 500 parking stalls for the apartments. They would range from studios to three-bedroom units.
The housing proposal is a big part of redeveloping Bayshore from a failing retail-oriented center
into a mix of more diverse uses. Those include a revamped public square, The Yard, which opened last July.
Meanwhile, the bike and pedestrian improvements are designed in part to help Glendale continue attracting younger residents, said Mayor Bryan Kennedy.
“We have a lot of older homeowners who have sold to young families in the past 10 years,” Kennedy said.
“They are clamoring for more familyfriendly activities in the city,” he said.
The apartments are proposed by Dallas-based Cypress Equities LLC, which operates Bayshore.
A pair of four- to five-story buildings would have 119 units and 79 units, with two other buildings each featuring 59 units.
Three of the buildings are to wrap around the parking structure on Bayshore's east side. The other apartment building would be just north of the parking structure.
The apartment community would include an outdoor pool, club room and an elevated court yard. There also would be a public plaza facing Lydell Avenue.
Cypress last year began redeveloping Bayshore.
That work so far includes The Yard public square, the older mall building's demolition to make way for new development and a Total Wine and More store's September opening in the former Sports Authority space.
Meanwhile, a Target store is to open by early fall at the former Boston Store.
Glendale is providing up to $37 million for Bayshore's redevelopment. That money is coming from a portion of Bayshore's property tax revenue — but only as new buildings are constructed.
In return, Glendale's old Bayshore tax incremental financing debt of $57 million was paid off by the property owners.
The city took on that debt when it helped pay for the 2006 creation of what was then named Bayshore Town Center. That project combined the old Bayshore Mall with several new buildings, parking structures and a street grid.
The city wouldn't have been able to pay off that debt with Bayshore's existing property tax revenue after its value declined steeply as several stores and restaurants closed in recent years.
New sidewalks, bike lanes, narrower streets
Meanwhile, the city's new bike and pedestrian plan recommends sidewalks, bike lanes and other safety upgrades on Range Line Road, Green Bay Avenue, Milwaukee River Parkway, Jean Nicolet Road, Port Washington Road, Lydell Avenue, Good Hope Road, Green Tree Road, Silver Spring Drive and Civic Drive.
Those improvements are to begin over the next few years, said City Administrator Rachel Safstrom.
Green Tree Road, between Range Line Road and Green Bay Avenue, and Green Bay Avenue, from Good Hope Road to Green Tree Road, are top priorities, she said.
Also, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation's I-43 widening plans include sidewalk improvements on Jean Nicolet Road and Port Washington Road north of Bender Road, Safstrom said.
The bike plan, created for the city by Vandewalle and Associates Inc., features several general recommendations.
They include developing a Complete Streets policy.
Complete Streets is a nationwide movement of designing streets for more than just cars.
Milwaukee adopted its Complete
Streets plan in 2018.
That's led to narrowed roads, more bike lanes, wider sidewalks and other measures designed to make life easier for bikers, walkers and mass transit riders.
That makes streets safer as well as more welcoming for stores, restaurants and other commercial developments.
In Glendale, bike lanes were added in 2018 to a wide stretch of Bender Road from Green Bay Avenue to Jean Nicolet Road.
That made the road safer for both cyclists and drivers, Kennedy said.
The average speed on that stretch of Bender Road is around 34 miles per hour, down from 39 miles per hour before the changes, according to Glendale Police data. The speed limit is 30 miles per hour.
The positive reaction to those changes led to the development of the citywide bike and pedestrian plan, which the Common Council approved on Feb. 22.
“It is great to see local municipalities taking steps to make sure they are planning for the future to make biking and walking more safe, easy, and convenient for their residents,” said Jake Newborn, Wisconsin Bike Fed assistant director.
The city and state are planning other road safety improvements that would encourage more walking and biking by slowing down speeding cars.
Those include improved crosswalks on Silver Spring Drive, reconfiguring ramps that connect Green Bay Avenue to Silver Spring Drive and a possible roundabout on Silver Spring Drive, Kennedy said.
Safety tied to better connected neighborhoods
Making biking and walking safer will help better connect Glendale's neighborhoods — including the growing number of apartments at Bayshore, he said.
Pending final city approval, construction of the apartments is to begin in September, with completion anticipated in early 2023, said Bayshore spokeswoman Kristin Paltzer.
Bayshore was among the top destinations for walking and biking named by Glendale residents when the city's bike plan was being drafted with public input.
Part of Glendale's challenge in creating more connections is tied to its history.
The city was founded in 1950 on a remnant of the former Town of Milwaukee.
Much of that once-rural area was carved up into other North Shore communities such as Whitefish Bay in 1892 and River Hills in 1930.
Glendale saw a development boom in the 1950s and ‘60s, with the wide streets, cul-de-sacs and a lack of sidewalks that often characterize low-density, auto neighborhoods built during that era.
Now, with the bike and pedestrian improvements, and denser development coming to Bayshore, Glendale is taking a different approach, Kennedy said.
“How do we start retrofitting the area for a new generation of families who don't want what their parents and grandparents wanted?” he said.