It’s almost always a good thing when your largest local employer needs more parking. That’s certainly the case with Caterpillar.
The mining equipment maker — which continues to be in growth mode locally — has been in discussions with the city for some time about finding solutions to its parking crunch.
And here is where we’ve ended up: Potentially leasing a small piece of city-owned land at 1701 10th Ave. to Caterpillar, which would pave it and do whatever else it takes to get the site ready for up to 50 parked cars.
The city’s Public Works & Public Property Committee discussed the item at its meeting on Monday night. I’ll keep you posted.
The city has owned the site for some time, and it has already put around $20,000 into the property in acquisition and demolition costs. Leasing the land will help us recoup some of that money — while still allowing for future development there, even if that is unlikely given its odd shape and location. And it shows our willingness to do what we can to make it easier to do business in South Milwaukee.
That’s why I support this. What do you think?
South Milwaukee Blog 
By all means, do it! We have to support the few employers the city still has.
This wouldn’t be the same company that moved jobs to Texas, moved it’s headquarters to Oak Creek and promised to keep the Bucyrus name when the buyout was announced, is it?
Now that we got that out of the way, what property are you talking about? Is that the little strip of grass between the gas station and that private parking facility (which – ahem! – the company SOLD because the DIDN”T want parking)? I assume that this would be a renewable rather than long-term so that if there were a development proposition we could jump on it.
Let’s make a deal with them, do as is proposed in your post, but tell them we will now start enforcing the parking regulations that are posted on many streets that enter the city: No truck parking on city streets. In other words, get rid of the semi trucks that think it’s OK to park on 10th all weekend.