Asylum woods in Wauwatosa to be protected from development
Wauwatosa Mayor Kathy Ehley pledges to preserve an isolated woods of oaks and aspen north of the Ronald McDonald House on Watertown Plank Road where the old Milwaukee County insane asylum stood until the mid-1970s.
Ehley publicly stated the commitment last week in response to a social media storm in the community over fears the city was preparing to destroy the woods for development.
But no development will occur there, according to the mayor. "I cannot bear seeing this special place chipped away at or incrementally encroached upon," Ehley told an overflow crowd at a Jan. 17 meeting at City Hall.
Officials from the city, county and Milwaukee Regional Medical Center hired a consultant more than a year ago and started discussing future development in the County Grounds corridor along both sides of Watertown Plank Road and the U.S. 41-45 interchange. At one of their first meetings, Ehley said she showed them on a map where the woods was located.
"I put my finger on this area and I said this is a beautiful, wooded ravine and no one is going to touch this," Ehley recalled on a recent visit to the woods while slowly walking ice-covered paths there.
Planning consultants are calling the entire County Grounds corridor along Watertown Plank Road a Life Sciences District because it encompasses the medical center campus, the Milwaukee County Research Park and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Real Estate Foundation's Innovation Campus.
Consultants' recommendations for the Life Sciences District include a proposed east-west parkway north of Watertown Plank Road. The two-lane parkway is intended to connect neighborhoods and the historic village center east of N. 87th St. to a possible mix of residential, office and retail development along the parkway west to Discovery Parkway.
At the same time, a curving arc of green space on the north side of the County Grounds would remain intact within a proposed Environmental District, according to the plan. This includes the Underwood Creek and Menomonee River parkways, Hansen and Hoyt parks, the Monarch Trail butterfly habitat, state Department of Natural Resources forest, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District's flood control basins and the County Grounds Park.
The small isolated woods would be included in the Environmental District, under the plan.
"The proposed road follows the tree line" on the southern edge of the woods, city development director Paulette Enders said. Maps in the latest version of planning documents show the east end of the parkway crossing a parking lot at the Wisconsin Athletic Club and then passing through open space before it bends around the medical center's power plant as it heads west.
In protecting the woods, Ehley also has set a goal of improving public access to the woods so that more city residents will know firsthand "the joy" and health benefits of hiking its secluded trails. There are no signs identifying it as county-owned land and no city-owned streets lead to the trees.
The woods cannot be seen by motorists driving on Watertown Plank Road, but birding and hiking enthusiasts, as well as dog walkers and photographers, have been drawn to the canopy of trees in recent decades.
Ehley hiked into the woods for the first time more than 10 years ago and observed two stone staircases, remnants of the asylum grounds, on opposite sides of the ravine. Portions of stone walls and partial building foundations also remain.
Old, mature oaks with long, extended branches are scattered around the property, a living testament to the major role that former asylum officials gave to nature in the healing process, she said. In the 40 years or so since the buildings were taken down, young aspen, oak and other trees and shrubs have filled in spaces between the tallest oaks.
At the Jan. 17 public meeting, Ehley said one published report that city officials intended to bulldoze a road through the woods was "untrue." She described the report as "misinformation" before introducing a consulting team who drafted the concept plan and briefed Common Council members.
Fears the city intended to destroy the woods prompted more than 300 local residents to pack the council chambers and an adjacent meeting room at last week's meeting.
The mayor asked them to read the latest draft of the plan posted on the city's website before the next public meeting at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 7 at Wauwatosa City Hall.
Not only does an east-west parkway road recommended by consultants avoid the young woods, the proposed master plan would end special medical zoning on 60 acres north of Watertown Plank Road, said Ehley. The zoning places all of the woods at risk of development, she said.
The draft master plan would add 40 of those acres — owned by the county and not zoned as park land — to the Environmental District. This parcel is south of County Grounds Park and would include the woods.