Oak Creek Out $300K for Lakefront Land Purchase

Oak Creek's progress on redeveloping its lakefront was dealt a setback after the state Department of Natural Resources declined to award a $300,000 grant without the city allowing hunting and trapping.

Lakefront plans are still moving forward, but city officials say money has to be reallocated and it will negatively impact the development of 250 vacant acres along Lake Michigan, where uses are planned.

"It's going to take away from other things we can do on the lakefront," City Attorney Larry Haskin said.

Oak Creek had applied for a DNR stewardship grant to help pay for the purchase of 30 acres along the lakefront at 9006 S. 5th Ave.

The $300,000 grant, for which city officials say they received tentative approval last August, would have paid for half of the city's costs to acquire the property.

Under state law, however, those receiving stewardship grants must allow hunting and trapping on the land. For Oak Creek officials, who are planning a lakefront park and recreational uses on that property, hunting simply isn't feasible.

"We felt it was imprudent to have our residents potentially sharing that property with bow hunters, and trapping and firearms would have had to have been permitted," City Administrator Gerald Peterson said.

"We certainly don't like to give back $300,000."

The city appealed to the highest levels of the DNR, state legislators and the Natural Resources Board but were unsuccessful in getting the agency to waive the hunting requirement.

That prompted a harsh response from aldermen and city staff.

"What they fail to recognize is that we are in neither a highly-urbanized area nor a rural area," Haskin said. "This is an area where there's going to be a lot of people. There's going to be people biking, walking. Children. And to say that we have to allow hunting and trapping as a condition, it's just ludicrious. But that's what we're faced with."

'Our hands were tied'

But a DNR official said the agency was simply following state law, and that time was another factor working against Oak Creek.

"Our hands were tied," said Lavane Hessler, a DNR financial assistance specialist.

The law allows exceptions for public safety and the protection of unique plants and animals in the area, Hessler said. However, the city's application did not meet the public safety exception because the state is not allowed to look at future usage, she said.

Related coverage: Milwaukee County faces the same problem in its attempt to expand Bender Park.

In addition, all stewardship grant money essentially must be obligated by the end of May, Hessler said. That means Oak Creek, in addition to the hunting issue, was also running out of time.

The city could come back next year and continue working with the DNR on a solution, Hessler said. So far, Oak Creek officials have not indicated they will do that, and Hessler said the DNR was unable to come up with alternative grant programs for Oak Creek's lakefront project.

"We would have worked with them and tried to come up with what we could," Hessler said.

Two aldermen, Mike Toman and Steven Kurkowski, voted against withdrawing the city's application in a May 7 Oak Creek Common Council meeting, saying they wanted city staff to spend more time trying to resolve the issues.

But with the DNR not budging on the hunting requirement, other aldermen and city officials felt more time wouldn't solve the city's problems.

"It's clear that the DNR ... is only looking to spend money where hunting and trapping will be allowed," Alderman Tom Michalski said. "They're not interested in improving a park along the lake. I don't know how many times we want to beat our heads against the wall with this. It's clear they've got an agenda and this is what it's going to be."

The full $600,000 cost of purchasing the 30-acre parcel will now come out of the city's $1 million budget for lakefront redevelopment work, Haskin said.

For more on the city's lakefront redevelopment plans, see Patch's archived coverage.