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To view or download the Summary of Changes as a pdf, click here. The content in the pdf is the same as the virtual content below.

Community input throughout the planning process reflected a range of opinions. On July 29, 2024, staff presented a proposed draft plan at City Plan Commission. The CPC took no action at that time in order to allow for additional time for community engagement and to consider changes to the plan based on resident and neighborhood group feedback.

DCD has made a number of adjustments to the Draft Plan based on the feedback received since July 2024. Feedback generally continued to support the overall plan goals. DCD also heard continued concerns that the Plan should be adjusted to elevate goals and policy recommendations related to support for homeownership, mitigating the potential for displacement of residents of vulnerable neighborhoods, and discouraging speculative investors who may engage in predatory development practices within residential neighborhoods. Through the additional outreach and public hearing, residents also expressed that the Plan should more explicitly reflect the goals of meeting the housing needs for existing residents, as well as the needs of those who will call Milwaukee home in the future.

Multiple changes to the Plan have been made in response to this feedback. Additional information about some of the changes is also contained within the Benefit and Harm Analysis that DCD prepared to supplement the Plan. Not all public comments resulted in changes to the Plan. This summary is organized chronologically based on the section of the plan. Edits that were made to clarify language, correct typos, or other non-substantive edits that didn’t result in impacts to the Plan recommendations, are not included in this summary.

Text additions are shown as underlined text while text removals are shown with a strikethrough.

Throughout the Plan

• Changed the name of the Plan to Housing Element (see below for additional information about the name change).

1. Introduction Chapter

• Update to the introduction to explain what the Plan is using the new name. (page 6)
• Added 7 Key Priorities to better explain the goals of the Plan, which are broader than changes to the Zoning Code. (page 7)

7 Key Priorities

Increased Housing Choice & Access

Neighborhoods with a variety of housing types and a variety of price points are more likely to provide housing choices that meet the needs of all households across the income spectrum. Increasing the variety of housing types and housing supply will help create broader housing accessibility for all Milwaukeeans.

Repairing Homes & Neighborhoods

The quality of housing and neighborhoods plays a pivotal role as a social determinant of health and can have profound effects on individuals’ physical and mental well-being. Repair and incremental improvements can significantly enhance the quality and stability of neighborhoods.

Commitment to Intergovernmental Collaboration & Legislative Advocacy

The City is committed to legislative advocacy and intergovernmental collaboration to help increase funding for affordable housing, support homeownership programs, increase accountability for landlords, and to enact legislation to protect tenant’s rights.

Commitment to Homeownership

The City is committed to supporting homeownership, including supporting new households achieve homeownership, helping existing homeowners repair their homes, building new affordable homes, and deploying innovative homeownership strategies for a variety of housing types.

Commitment to Anti-Displacement

The City is committed to anti-displacement work through ongoing tracking, programs to help households buy and retain homes, advocating for legislative measures to provide additional resources, and collaborating with community partners.

Economic Resilience

New tax base from new development will spread the costs of City services across a larger group of taxpayers, helping stem future property tax increases or service cuts, and supporting investments in new neighborhood gathering spaces, safer streets, and other core services such as libraries. Increasing the number of people in neighborhoods can help attract businesses and services to neighborhoods.

Walkable Neighborhoods

More housing development near commercial districts and transit corridors creates vibrant walkable environments – increasing quality of life, supporting businesses, and providing health and environmental benefits. Central to walkability is housing density in close proximity to a range of amenities, enabling residents to conveniently meet their daily needs without a car.

• Added a new section to explain the reasoning to update the name of the Plan. (page 8)

Why is there an updated Plan name? The Housing Element is an update to the City of Milwaukee’s Comprehensive Plan to support Milwaukee’s evolving housing needs. It includes strategies and policies to increase housing choice, affordability, and sustainability. Earlier drafts of the Housing Element were titled “Growing MKE.” The title was updated to align with updates to the Plan’s strategies and recommendations, and to better reflect the plan’s goals of meeting the housing needs for existing residents, as well as the needs of those who will call Milwaukee home in the future. Meeting Milwaukee’s evolving housing needs is key to the City’s overall strategy to enhance the quality of life for current residents and make Milwaukee an even more attractive place for future residents in order to grow Milwaukee.

• Updated the Project Timeline to reflect the full process to date. (page 9)
• The Housing Types Defined information was expanded to include renderings of the housing types, additional photos, and people. The renderings, people, and longer descriptions of the housing types were in a later portion of the plan in the July 2024 version. (pages 17-20)
• A new graphic was added to portray an example of a typical block in one of Milwaukee’s earlier neighborhoods that has a mix of housing types. (page 21)

2. Overview Chapter

• Updated the data for the most up-to-date years (2023 or 2024) and added additional infographics to explain the data and state of housing. (pages 24-28)
• Data was re-arranged to create room for infographics. (pages 24-27)

3. Engagement Chapter

• Updated the numbers under the Engagement Highlights. (page 30)
• Updated and expanded on Themes from Public Engagement to reflect themes from the full engagement process. (pages 32-33)

4. Goals & Policies Chapter

• The updates and new policies in this section reflect feedback from the community and changes made to the near-term zoning code strategies.
• Under section I. Housing Choice & Access (page 36)
  • Adjustments were made to the policies to reflect updates to the near-term zoning update strategies.
    • I.A.1 was updated – Update Over time, continue to explore updates to the zoning code and area plans to permit or allow greater flexibility for a variety of housing types throughout city neighborhoods including single-family homes, accessory dwelling units, duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, townhomes, and cottage courts.
    • I.A.2 was updated – Permit accessory dwelling units (ADUs) throughout the city, as well as other housing types that can to better facilitate intergenerational households, aging in place, or rental income for homeowners.
  • I.A.4 is a new policy (see underlined text below) This also shifted the other policies down. A supplementary call-out box was added to explain the compatibility of RS and RT districts and how parcels were zoned in 2002. This new policy also aligns with recent action by the Milwaukee Common Council to create a new RT5 zoning district that would allow for additional missing middle styles of housing at appropriate locations via the zoning map amendment process including neighborhood and Common Council review.
    • Explore opportunities including potential future zoning map amendments to allow smaller middle housing types such as duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes at appropriate locations within residential neighborhoods such as sites in close proximity to transit, walkable commercial districts, or other neighborhood-serving amenities.
  • I.B.5 is a new policy regarding outreach by developers for zoning code change approvals.
    • Applicants for zoning changes should directly engage with potentially impacted neighbors and local neighborhood groups during the pre-development process to share information about pending proposals, seek feedback and respond to community concerns.
• Under section II. Neighborhood Repair, Connections & Health (previously called II. Social Connections & Health ) (page 41)
  • Policy II.A.9 was updated to reference adopting short-term rental regulations.
    • Adopt new regulations to ensure that short-term rentals (“tourist rooming houses”) are following applicable heath and safety requirements. Continue to monitor the impact of short-term rentals on local neighborhoods and housing markets and adjust regulations as needed explore potential regulations to address negative impacts.
  • Policy II.A.10 is new and is related to the preservation of culturally sensitive areas.
    • Consider establishing customized overlay zones when supported by historically disadvantaged or vulnerable communities to preserve culturally sensitive areas or districts that have been home to those communities.
  • The policies under II.B were originally in section IV. of the policy section, but fit better under section II, so they were moved. No changes were made to the policy text.
• Under section III. Walkable Neighborhoods & Transit-Oriented Development (page 44)
  • The policy that was III.C.5 in the July 2024 draft was removed because was repetitive of policy III.C.2:
    • Explore allowing increased height for new development in areas well served by transit
• Under section IV. Neighborhood Development & Urban Design (page 47)
  • New policy IV.C.2 regarding 3rd floor fire escapes was added based on public input (This also shifts the numbers of the remaining policies in this section)
    • Limit the placement of fire escapes on the street facades of buildings to minimize the visual impacts of the creation of new accessory dwelling units.

5. Commitments to City Goals Chapter

• This is a new section of the plan that explains the City’s commitments and current programs related to homeownership, anti-displacement, and state legislative advocacy on related topics. (page 48)

6. Updates to the Zoning Code to Support Plan Goals Chapter

• This section combined two sections (Recommendations & Implementation) from the July 2024 draft into one section. (pages 52-62)
  • The section contains Zoning Code updates that should be carried out in the near-term or explored further to support housing choice and access. The near-term strategies are actions staff should pursue in the next 1-3 years. The tables in this section contain implementation details, considerations, and other potential zoning code updates.
  • Due to the reorganization, the actions within the tables have been re-ordered. With the exception of adjustments made to reflect the near-term strategy for neighborhood-scale housing (see below) and some clarifying language, the content in the tables is mostly the same as the July 2024 Draft Plan.
• The Near-term zoning recommendation/strategy for neighborhood-scale housing was updated. The chart below explains what is currently allowed to be built by-right in the current zoning code, what the July 2024 Draft Plan recommended allowing by-right, and what the Updated April 2025 Draft plan proposes. (page 53). The most significant proposed adjustment to the Plan was to remove the previous Plan recommendation to allow duplexes, triplexes and 4-unit homes in neighborhoods where they are not currently permitted. While some members of the public supported allowing additional housing options in single-family and two-family zoning districts, there was significant concern expressed about whether these changes may have the effect of encouraging predatory investment or limit future homeownership opportunities within those neighborhoods. While this adjustment to the Plan may limit certain opportunities for housing choice and lower-cost housing options, it acknowledges public feedback, input from Common Council members, and past neighborhood planning calling for prioritizing homeownership opportunities when balancing these policy goals.
  • RS = Residential Single-Family
  • RT = Residential Two-Family

Updated language (page 53):

Near-term Recommendation #1 - Neighborhood-scale Housing: (page 53)

The City will update the Zoning Code to define more types of neighborhood-scale housing. In the near-term, with set standards, allow Accessory Dwelling Units, Cottage Courts, and Attached Single-family Homes (townhomes on separate properties), in all residential districts.

Why? Defining additional housing types and setting standards will improve readability of the existing code and make it more feasible for these types of housing to be built, regardless of whether they can be built by-right or require a discretionary approval. Attached single-family homes are only allowed in some residential districts, but allowing them in more districts could provide more homeownership opportunities.

Appendices Section

• The summaries of related plans were moved from the Goals & Policies section to an appendix. (page 64)
• The following terms were added to the glossary: commercial node, displacement, fee simple, gentrification, inclusionary zoning, legislative package, low-income housing tax credit, PRO Housing (Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing), Social Determinants of Health, Strategic Action Fund, Tax Incremental Financing (TIF), and Tax Incremental District (TID). (pages 66-69)

To view or download the Engagement Summary as a pdf, click here. The content in the pdf is the same as the virtual content below.

Planning Process Overview

The policies and recommendations in the Draft Housing Element were developed through a comprehensive planning process over two years. Each policy was developed through a review of recently completed planning efforts, adopted City of Milwaukee Comprehensive and Area Plans, engagement, and research of best practices in land use and zoning policies in cities throughout the country. The policies are based on the citywide goals to: increase housing choice and access, support fiscal sustainability and economic development, foster walkable neighborhoods and connectivity, support a healthy and thriving community, and make Milwaukee and more sustainable and resilient city.

Timeline

Total Public Engagement for the Housing Element (as of 5/1/25):

9 Community Open House public meetings across 3 rounds of engagement
4 Webinars with Q&A + a Virtual Kick-off with Q&A
33 “office hour” events at Milwaukee Public Libraries throughout the city­­
24 focus groups & community meetings with neighborhood groups & local developers
20 pop-up engagement events at senior centers, farmers’ markets, and other community events
4 Technical Advisory Committee meetings
4 Community Advisory Committee meetings
2 community-wide online surveys: The surveys were set-up as virtual versions of the Part 1 and Part 2 Open Houses. A shorter version of the same questions were asked at pop-ups, focus groups, and displays at each library.
Displays at each library with new information for rounds 1-3 of engagement.
2,800+ views of meeting recordings (as of 4/23/25)
2,250+ people directly engaged at in-person and online meetings and events (as of 4/23/25)
8,600+ unique visitors to www.engage.milwaukee.gov/GrowingMKE (as of 4/23/25)
Multi-lingual outreach materials throughout the process and Open House Public Meetings in English, Spanish, and Hmong.
Events were promoted through flyers, community partners, social media (Facebook, Instagram, and X), e-notify, the Growing MKE email list (over 1,000 emails), and displays at libraries.

Themes from Public Engagement – June 2023-January 2025

• Affordability
  • Ownership: Homeownership opportunities should be prioritized. First-time and low-income home buyers should have more affordable housing options, including ownership options for a greater diversity of housing style types.
  • Neighborhood Choice: Every neighborhood needs affordable housing options.
• Neighborhoods & Quality of Life
  • Quality Neighborhoods: Vibrant, walkable cities make it easier to walk to bus stops, grocery stores, restaurants, shopping, and health care.
  • Neighborhood Repair & Revitalization: Repairing and restoring existing housing is a critical priority. Repairing existing housing stock, ensuring safe housing conditions, and addressing vacancy is needed to support safer and healthier neighborhoods.
  • Neighborhoods have unique housing needs: The neighborhood planning process should be a mechanism to evaluate future neighborhood specific zoning map adjustments.
  • Anti-Displacement: Ensure that existing renters and homeowners are able to remain in their neighborhoods and are not involuntarily displaced.
  • Meeting Needs: Housing and neighborhoods should meet the needs of Milwaukee’s diverse population including immigrants and refugees, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and individuals returning from incarceration.
• Housing Diversity
  • Housing Variety: There is value of having a diversity of housing styles available to residents. Desirable housing types that are not currently common in Milwaukee including townhomes, accessory dwelling units, smaller homes, and container homes, should be available in more neighborhoods.
  • Housing Supply: There is a need for more affordable, senior, multi-generational, accessible, and mixed-income housing.
• Building Design
  • Quality Design: New construction should be quality design that fits in with the community character.
• Sustainability & Resilience
  • Healthy Environments: New housing should be energy efficient and eco-friendly.
  • Parks: New housing should not sacrifice existing parks and trees.
• Transportation
  • Transportation Options: Be considerate of how walking, transportation options and parking policy impact neighborhoods and housing choice.
  • Safe Streets: Milwaukee has the opportunity to make its streets safer places to walk, bike, and drive.
• Additional
  • Fair & Quality Housing Conditions: Officials must hold bad landlords accountable to provide fair and quality housing for all residents.
  • Accountability & Speculation: Officials should hold absentee landlords accountable and discourage predatory and speculative investment in homes.
• Growth
  • Economic Resilience: Economic growth and development should be distributed throughout the city and contribute to a healthy planet.
  • Density: Population density supports public transportation and shopping, encourages housing diversity, and creates walkable neighborhoods.
  • Livability: Economic and population growth should be carefully planned to benefit and retain existing residents.

Part 1 – Engagement – Checking in on the state of housing

What types of housing would you like to see in your neighborhood?

What types of housing would you like to see in the city?

What excites you about this project?

The engagement team asked these questions across multiple platforms – pop-ups, open houses, libraries, focus groups, and online. This is what was heard:

• In their neighborhoods and citywide, people want to see more of what they are familiar with and like – single-family homes, duplexes, and mixed-use multi-family buildings, etc.
• Most people liked the idea of more gentle-density housing types in their neighborhoods, including in neighborhoods where they don’t exist - especially in the forms of duplexes, cottage courts, townhomes, and accessory dwelling units. There was excitement about having more flexibility of what can be done on a homeowner's property.
• There was a recognition by many that people need different types of housing during their lifetime and that we should make sure everyone has access to the housing they need.
• Other comments included concerns of displacement with development; worry of only allowing density in certain areas; a desire for safe and walkable neighborhoods; a need for more housing for seniors; a need for healthy and safe housing; encouraging the development of amenities; and varying views on parking.

Part 2 – Engagement – Goals & Draft Recommendations

Draft Growing MKE recommendations were presented to the public for review. Prompts for feedback were related to whether the draft recommendations helped us achieve City goals in housing choice, economic development, connectivity, and climate resilience.

After reviewing the Growing MKE draft recommendations, participants were asked to rate the recommendations on their ability to help meet our citywide goals in economic development, connectivity, housing choice, and climate resilience.

Many respondents said the recommendations will help the City meet its goals “To a great extent.”

• Overall, responses illustrated widespread support for gentle density in neighborhoods and increasing density on major corridors.
• There was recognition of how changes to the zoning code could make small-scale development easier, how the changes could open up more housing availability, and that growth in the city’s population means greater economic stability for Milwaukee.

Concerns varied:

• Some wanted more emphasis on homeownership in the plan. While this meant single-family to many, we also heard a desire for homeownership opportunities for other housing types like duplexes, condos, and townhomes.
• Some were concerned that multi-family would be oversupplied in some areas and not in others.
• There was also concern that more development could decrease green space.

Part 3 – Engagement – Draft Plan

After analysis of community input, staff drafted the April 30, 2024 Draft Plan. Feedback was requested through open houses, office hours, pop-ups, and online. Zoning recommendations did not change from Part 2 to Part 3, but Part 3 included an expansion of the policies, data, and implementation information. There were over 1,000 visitors to the Draft Plan website and staff engaged directly over 250 people at in-person and online meetings and events.

Overall, community members continue to express a desire for more inclusive, affordable, and diverse housing options. Many comments expressed general support for the plan overall. Comments also reflect a range of community concerns and suggestions, highlighting issues related to affordable housing, accessibility, transit infrastructure, rising rent prices, safety, community amenities, and the need for development across the income spectrum.

In support of the Draft Plan, we heard:

• Desire for more housing choices for all as new housing is built.
• Recognition of the need for additional housing units – There is broad support for low-density middle housing including accessory dwelling units (rear cottages), duplexes, and cottage courts. Additionally, many expressed a desire for more senior housing and ADA-accessible units.
• Recommendations to eliminate Lot Area Per Dwelling Unit (LAPDU) or Floor Area Ratio (FAR) have received support and little to no opposition.
• Many mentioned a strong desire for walkable, bikeable neighborhoods and support multi-family development near transit routes.
• Small, medium, and large developers expressed a need to streamline the approval process for development and excitement about the extent to which the recommendations simplify the process.

Concerns and fears expressed in the comments:

• Some expressed concern that some zoning changes may intensify the speculative real estate practices that have led to increased housing costs and poor housing quality in Milwaukee’s low-income neighborhoods.
• Some expressed concern that allowing triplexes and small multifamily buildings, could lead to more renters and fewer single-family homeownership opportunities. This concern was also expressed specifically to the potential of conversions of homes into student housing in the neighborhoods near UWM.
• Concerns about the loss of homeownership because of zoning code changes comes from two perspectives:
  • Fear that there will be an increase of rental units with lack of property upkeep by transient renters and/or absentee landlords leading to reduced housing quality and neighborhoods.
  • Fear that recommendations will reduce the housing supply of single-family detached homes for owner-occupancy for middle to low-income families.

Additional Input:

• Community members expressed various opinions about short-term rentals as either harmful to the housing supply or a source of income for families.
• There are diverse views on parking requirements including support and opposition to removing parking minimums with some advocating for parking maximums.
• There were also comments regarding how to support small businesses, the need to improve transit infrastructure, and the importance of safety and environmental quality in building and site design.

July 15, 2024 Draft Plan & City Plan Commission Hearing

Based on public comments received on the April 30th draft, a number of edits were made and were reflected in the July 15, 2024 version of the Growing MKE Plan. Based on feedback, one of the zoning recommendations included in the April 30, 2024 Draft, the recommendation to allow small multi-family buildings in the RT3 and RT4 zoning districts, was removed from the plan and not included in the July 15, 2024.

A public hearing was held before the City Plan Commission (CPC) on July 29, 2024 to review the July 15, 2024 version of the plan. In response to requests from community members to provide more time for engagement, City staff recommended that CPC hold the public hearing, but not take action on July 29th. The file was held to the call of the chair. This delayed the vote to allow for more time for engagement.

Part 4 – Engagement – Proposed Plan

In the fall of 2024 through early winter 2025, Staff engaged with the community in a variety of ways to discuss the proposed plan and concerns. As recommended by residents at the July 29th public hearing, staff is also began working on a Benefit and Harm Analysis to outline the potential impacts of the zoning code changes and respond to community concerns. Engagement during this period helped inform the components of the Benefit and Harm analysis.

Engagement included:

• 2 webinars in November 2024 – total of 179 attendees
  • Over 1000 views of English recordings, over 120 views of Spanish, and over 80 views of Hmong – one of the webinars had Spanish and Hmong interpretation available.
• 2 In-person public meetings December 2024 – total of 56 attendees
• Engagement website unique visitors (8/1/24-1/31/25): 1,881
  • (8,698 unique visitors since July 2023)
• Staff were invited to and presented at 11 community meetings (10 organizations) between September – January and met with around 250 people. Presentations and discussions were tailored based on the timing provided by the organization

Themes from the questions & comments:

• There was discussion about the engagement process and frustration that people didn’t hear about the project sooner.
• People expressed that the plan didn’t seem to be doing enough for affordable housing and it only impacts the middle class. They wanted the plan to include more about how to improve, retain, and build more affordable housing.
• There were also questions about why the City isn’t doing more to bring vacant homes into use and helping homeowners and landlords repair existing housing.
• There were questions about how the proposed changes to the zoning code will impact property values and taxes. This was based on the expectation these zoning changes will lead to a lot of development quickly. People concerned with increased taxes. There were fears of both home values decreasing because of the recommended zoning changes and home values increasing too much because of the recommended zoning changes.
• Questions were asked about protections are in place for people that could be displaced and what the City is doing for anti-displacement.
• There is concern that developers will target development in areas of the city with vacant lots and that this will lead to displacement of Black and Brown communities.
• There were questions about the Benefit and Harm Analysis and requests for what it should include.
• There was frustration with the extent of enforcement for absentee/neglectful landlords and investors and concern that more development will make issues worse.
• There were some questions about how the City will be able to support more people.
• Some community members expressed a desire to retain single-family-only zoning, especially in historic districts, while other community members some are okay with more housing types in single-family districts, like ADUs or duplexes, but not triplexes.
• There continued to be a lot of discussion around homeownership and how the zoning changes could impact the City’s homeownership goals.

Note: A citywide plan update requires engaging the community in many different ways. The project team focused on meeting people where they are and put in-person outreach in lower-income neighborhoods at the forefront. Over 80% of all in-person engagement activities (office hours, focus groups, pop-ups, Open Houses, community meetings etc.) were located in or directly adjacent to Qualified Census Tracts (QCTs) and/or Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Areas (NRSAs).

• Qualified Census Tracts are census tracts in which more than 50% of households are below 60% of the Area Median Income. 53% of the city’s overall population lives in QCTs.
• A Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Area (NRSA) is a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) grantee-designated area targeted for revitalization. The Milwaukee’s NRSA areas include census tracts where at least 70% of all residents are considered low income.