Protected bike lanes, RiverWalk murals and Pere Marquette Park redesign to get city funds

A new design for planned Pere Marquette Park improvements would be funded under a proposal pending before city officials.
A new design for planned Pere Marquette Park improvements would be funded under a proposal pending before city officials.

Protected bike lanes, RiverWalk murals, and designs to improve King Drive and Pere Marquette Park would be financed through $6.4 million generated by property tax revenue from newer Milwaukee developments under plans before city officials.

The two proposals would amend tax incremental financing districts tied to The Brewery, the mixed-use development at Pabst Brewing Co.'s former downtown complex, and Kinetik Apartments near Bay View's Zillman Park. Both need Common Council approval.

The downtown financing district would spend $4.9 million on public improvements near The Brewery.

Those include extending protected bike lanes on West Highland Avenue from North Sixth Street to North 18th Street; redesigning King Drive to include wider sidewalks and other features between West McKinley Avenue and West Wisconsin Avenue; possible Pere Marquette Park improvements, including a beer garden; median bump-outs, traffic circles and other traffic calming measures, and RiverWalk murals.

The Bay View financing district proposal would spend $1.5 million for a protected bike lane along Kinnickinnic Avenue from Maple Street to Becher Street, and along Bay Street from Becher Street to Lincoln Avenue.

That would build connections between the city's KK River Trail and Milwaukee County's Oak Leaf Trail.

Both changes were endorsed Thursday by the city Redevelopment Authority board.

Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on InstagramX and Facebook.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee to get more protected bike lanes, murals under new plan