Design review board for new developments on Milwaukee's east side faces elimination

A design review board for new developments on Milwaukee's east side is facing elimination.

The East Side Architectural Review Board would be dissolved under a resolution the Common Council is to consider at its Tuesday meeting.

The board, whose members are appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the council, reviews proposed new buildings, as well as exterior signs, in an area bordered roughly by Prospect Avenue, the Milwaukee River, Greenwich Avenue and Windsor Place.

The board review is sometimes a substitute to Plan Commission review for new developments.

That includes such major pending projects as the four-story, 56-unit apartment community planned for the 1500 block of East North Avenue. The architectural review board in 2022 approved that development, which also received a special use permit from the Board of Zoning Appeals.

Ald. Jonathan Brostoff, whose district includes the east side, is sponsoring a council resolution to effectively dissolve the architectural review board, which was created in 2011.

The board's design guidelines, which also would be rescinded, include minimum and maximum building heights.

Brostoff told the Journal Sentinel the board has done good work but "has fulfilled its purpose."

"Everything that has a beginning also has an ending," he said.

The board in 2023 met around three or four times, said Matt Jarosz, its chair. He said the Plan Commission, zoning board and Common Council would have oversight on neighborhood development proposals.

But Jarosz said it's important for city officials to continue monitoring seemingly small items such as exterior sign proposals − which can "become an avalanche."

Officials should be careful to ensure the neighborhood "develops in a careful and proper way," Jarosz said.

The board was created when Brostoff's predecessor, Nik Kovac, was the east side's alderman. Kovac was appointed city budget director in 2022 by Mayor Cavalier Johnson.

Kovac in 2010 said the board and design guidelines were needed in part to halt the development of single-story retail buildings, and encourage multi-story mixed-use buildings.

The board also was designed to provide more oversight to neighborhood residents and business owners, according to its backers.

Milwaukee has one other such panel: the Historic Third Ward Architectural Review Board.

Brostoff's proposal to abolish the east side board was crafted as a resolution for immediate adoption and was disclosed on Friday − four days before the Common Council meeting. That allowed it to bypass a council committee hearing.

Council rules require a two-thirds vote to approve such resolutions.

Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on Instagram, X and Facebook.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee development review board to be eliminated under new plan