USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume I > Part 51
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Bay Windows and Oriels .- In a side yard not less than six feet wide an oriel or bay window not more than fifteen feet wide and without a gable may be constructed to extend not nearer than 41/2 feet from the side lot line.
District Boundaries, How Determined .- The boundaries between districts are, unless otherwise indicated, either the center lines of streets or imaginary lines drawn parallel to and 120 feet back from one or more of the street lines bounding the less restricted s'de or sides of a block. Where uncertainty ex- ists or the street layout actually on the ground varies from the street layout as shown on the use, height, or area district map, the distriet boundary line shall be determined and recorded by the inspector of buildings in accordance with the intent of this chapter.
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Division of Lots by Boundary Lines .--- Where a distriet boundary line di- vides a lot in a single ownership at the time of the passage of this chapter, the regulations for either portion of such lot may extend to the entire lot. but not more than twenty-five feet beyond the boundary line of the district for which such regulations are established.
Effect of Widening a Street .- Whenever a street other than a boulevard or parkway is so widened as to be within 120 feet of a boundary line of a more restricted district, the less restricted distriet shall thereupon extend 120 feet back from the widened street and such change in the district boundary lines shall have the same foree and etfeet as though separately ordained.
Effect of This Chapter Upon Contracts and Agreements and Upon Other Laws and Regulations .- In their interpretation and application the provisions of this chapter shall be held to be the minimum requirements adopted for the promotion of the public safety, health, convenience and general welfare. It is not intended by this chapter to interfere with or abrogate or annul any easements, covenants or other agreements between parties; nor is it intended by this chapter to repeal, abrogate, annul or in any way to impair or interfere with any existing provision of law or ordinance or any rules, regulations or permits previously adopted or issued or which shall be adopted or issued pursuant to law relating to the use of buildings or premises: provided, how- ever, that where this chapter imposes a greater restriction upon the use of buildings or premises or upon the height of buildings or requires larger yards, courts or other open spaces than are imposed or required by such existing pro- vision of law or ordinance or by such rules, regulations or permits. the pro- visions of this chapter shall control.
Enforcement by Building Inspector; Issuance of Building Permits .- This chapter shall be enforced by the inspector of buildings. He shall issue no permit for the construction or alteration of any building or structure or part thereof plans and specifications and intended use for which are not in all respeets in conformity with the provisions of this chapter. In case the intended use owing to its nature or the vagueness of its statement falls within more than one of the classes of uses established by Article 2 of this chapter such building or structure shall not be permitted in any district in which any snel; classes are prohibited.
Certificates of Occupancy .- It shall be unlawful to use or permit the use of any building or premises or part thereof hereafter created, erected, altered. changed or converted wholly or partly in its use or structure until a certificate of occupaney to the effect that the building or premises or the part thereof so created, erected, altered, changed or converted and the proposed use thereof conform to the provisions of this chapter shall have been issued by the in- spector of buildings. It shall be the duty of the inspector of buildings to issue a certificate of orenpaney within ten days after a request for the same is filed in his office by any owner of a building or premises affected by this chapter, provided said building or premises, or the part thereof so created. ererled, altered, changed or converted. and the proposed use thereof. con- Forms with all the requirements of Article 4 of this chapter.
Fees for Certificates of Occupancy. There shall be charged for each cer-
PROSPECTIVE MILWAUKEE-CITY PLANNING AND ZONING 553
tifieate of ocenpaney for a single family dwelling and uses accessory thereto a fee of $1, and for all other uses a fee of $2. Such fees shall be paid into the city treasury and eredited to the general city fund.
Temporary Certificates of Occupancy .- Pending the issuance of a regular certificate, a temporary certificate may be issued for period not exceeding six months. during the completion of alterations or during partial ocenpaney of a building pending its completion. Sneh temporary certificates shall not be issued except under sueh restrictions and provisions as will adequately insure the safety of the oeenpants. No temporary certificate shall be issued if. prior to its completion, the building fails to conform to the provisions of the build- ing ordinance or of this chapter to such a degree as to render it unsafe for the ocenpaney proposed.
Changes Requiring Issuance of New Certificate of Occupancy. If the con- ditions of use or oeenpaney of any building or premises or part thereof are substantially changed, or so changed as not to be in conformity with the con- ditions required by a certificate issued therefor, or if the dimensions or area of the lot upon which a building is located or its vards or courts are reduced, said certificate shall be void and the owner shall notify the inspector who shall order an inspection of the building premises or lot. If the building conforms to all the requirements of this chapter and of Chapter WV a new certificate shall be issued as herein provided.
Procedure in Case of Non-conformity .- If. on any inspection, the condi- tions of a building or premises or its use or occupancy are found not to con- form to the requirements of this chapter or of Chapter IV or the conditions of an existing certificate therefor. the inspector shall at once issue written notice to the owner, specifying the manner in which the building or premises or its use or ocenpaney fails to so conform, and the owner shall at onee take steps to make it so conform, as directed by the inspector ; and if it is neces- sary for the proper protection of the occupants he shall order the use or the ocenpaney of the building or premises modified or the building or premises vacated until its condition is made satisfactory in conformity with the require- ments of this chapter and of Chapter IV, at which time a certificate shall be issued as herein provided.
Amendments and Changes in the Districts and Regulations Therefor by the Common Council .- The Common Council may. from time to time, on its own motion or on petition, after publie notice and hearing, as provided by law. and after report by the Board of Publie Land Commissioners, alter, supplement or change the boundaries or regulations herein or subsequently established. Whenever the owners of 50 per cent or more of the frontage in any district or part thereof present a petition duly signed and acknowledged to the Com- cil requesting an amendment, supplement or change in the regulations pre- seribed for sneh district or part thereof, it shall be the duty of the Council to vote upon said petition within ninety days after the filing of the same by the petitioners with the city elerk. In ease a protest against a proposed amend- ment, supplement or change be presented, duly signed and acknowledged by the owners of 20 per cent or more of any frontage proposed to be altered, or by the owners of 20 per cent of the frontage immediately in the rear thereof,
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SOUTH SHORE PARK BATHING BEACH
PROSPECTIVE MILWAUKEE-CITY PLANNING AND ZONING 555
or by the owners of 20 per cent of the frontage direetly opposite the frontage proposed to be altered, sneh amendment shall not be passed except by a three- fourths vote of the Council. If any area is hereafter transferred to another district by a change in distriet boundaries by an amendment, as above pro- vided, the provisions of this ordinance in regard to buildings or premises ex- isting at the time of the passage of this chapter shall apply to buildings or premises existing at the time of passage of such amendment in such transferred area.
Completion and Restoration of Existing Buildings .- Nothing herein con- tained shall require any change in the plans, eonstrnetion or intended use of a building for which a building permit has been heretofore issued and the construction of which shall have been diligently prosecuted within six months of the date of such permit, and the ground story framework of which, includ- ing the second tier of beams, shall have been completed within six months, and which entire building shall be completed aceording to such plans as filed within two years from the date of the passage of this chapter. Nothing in this chap- ter shall prevent the restoration of a wall declared unsafe by the inspector of buildings.
Penalties .- Any person, firm, company or corporation owning, controlling or managing any building or premises wherein or whereon there shall be placed or there exists anything in violation of any of the seetions of this chapter; or any person, firm, company or corporation who shall assist in the commission of any violation of these sections : or who shall build contrary to the plans or specifications submitted to and approved by the building inspeetor; or any person, firm, company or corporation who shall omit, negleet or refuse to do any aet required in said sections shall, exeept where a special penalty is pro- vided, be subject to a fine of not less than $10 nor more than $200, together with the costs of the aetion, and in default of payment thereof, to imprison- ment in the house of correction for a period of not less than one day nor more than six months, or until such fine and costs shall be paid; and every such person, firm, company or corporation shall be deemed guilty of a separate offense for each day sneh violation, disobedience, omission, neglect or refusal shall continue ; provided, however, that said accumulated penalties recover- able in any one action shall not exceed the sum of $2,000.
Validity of Ordinance .- If any article, section, paragraph, subdivision, elanse or provision of this chapter shall be adjudged invalid, such adjudica- tion shall apply only to the article, section, paragraph, subdivision, clause or provision so adjudged, and the rest of this chapter shall remain valid and effective.
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CHAPTER XXXH
THE MILWAUKEE COUNTY GOVERNMENT
Milwaukee County was the name of a political division in 1834, two years before the erection of the Territory of Wiseonsin, when what is now Wis- consin was yet a part of the Territory of Michigan. The Michigan Territorial Legislature had passed an act on September 6, 1834 "to establish the counties of Brown and lowa, and to lay off the County of Milwaukee." The seat of justice of Brown County was established at the Village of Green Bay. Mil- waukee County remained attached to Brown County for judicial purposes until August 25, 1835, when it was given an independent organization.
The Territory of Wisconsin having been established April 20, 1836, the Territorial Legislature, which convened October 25, of that year, then pro- ceeded to subdivide all the territory south and east of the Wiseonsin and Fox rivers into counties, the boundaries of which coineided in the main with those of the then existing counties with a few exceptions, among which was that Milwaukee County, as then formed, was coextensive with the present boundaries of Milwaukee and Waukesha counties.
In 1846. Waukesha County was created by taking from Milwaukee County all of the territory west of Range twenty-one. This reduced Milwaukee County in size and left it with limits exactly the same as they are to-day. The aceount of the beginnings of the county has mainly been derived from Col. J. A. Watrous' " Memoirs of Milwaukee County," published in 1909, though many of the details given in that excellent history have been omitted.
The County in Territorial Days .- Mr. Otto Broecker, in an address delivered several years ago deseribes the earlier history as follows :
Upon the admission of Illinois into the Union in 1818, all the territory of the United States lying west of Michigan Territory and north of the states of Indiana and Illinois, was attached to and made a part of Michigan Terri- tory, by which act the whole of the present state of Wisconsin came under the jurisdiction of Michigan Territory and was set off as Brown County. Mil- waukee remained under the jurisdiction of Brown County until August 25, 1835, when it was organized and took its place among the separate and dis- tinet politieal divisions of the State of Wisconsin. The aet was approved on August 25, 1835, and was entitled an aet to organize the counties of Alegan and Milwaukee.
At a special session of the Michigan Territorial Legislature held on Sep- tember 6, 1834, an aet was passed to establish the boundaries of the counties of Brown and lowa and to lay off the County of Milwaukee. By this act all
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HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE
that country bounded north by the line between townships eleven and twelve north, the line being just north of West Bend, east by Lake Michigan, sonth by the State of Illinois and west by the line which separates Green and Rock counties extending north mftil it intercepted the northern boundary between townships eleven and twelve, was included. On August 25, 1835. an act was approved by the Michigan Territorial Legislature to organize the County of Milwaukee which reads as follows:
Section 9. That the County of Milwaukee shall be, and the same is hereby declared to be organized, and the inhabitants thereof entitled to the same rights and privileges in all respects whatever, with the inhabitants of other organized counties within the said territory.
Section 10. There shall be a county court established in the said county. which court shall hold one term on the first Monday of May, and one term on the first Monday of October of each and every year, at the Village of Mil- waukee, which is hereby declared to be the county seat of said county.
During this same session of the Michigan Legislature, and in fact on the same day upon which the act of organizing Milwaukee County was approved, Governor Stevens T. Mason, the boy governor of the Territory of Michigan, appointed and commissioned the following gentlemen as the first set of of- ficials for the county: Chief Justice William Clark ; associates, Joel Sage and James Griffin : conuty clerk. Albert Fowler: sheriff, Benson W. Finch: judge of probate, Gilbert Knapp.
Land in Milwaukee County was sold by the Federal Government at the statutory price of $1.25 per acre. Fractional townships 7, 8. 9 and 10, range 22, embracing almost the entire City of Milwaukee were offered for sale at Green Bay, August 31, 1835, at that price. In August. 1836, the first eensus was taken and the population of this large county was found to be 2,893.
At the first session of the Legislative Council which convened at Belmont, by an aet, which was approved on December 7, 1836, the County of Milwaukee was divided and the counties of Walworth, Racine, embracing the present connty of Kenosha. Jefferson. Dane, Columbia, Portage, Dodge, Rock and Washington, embracing the present county of Ozaukee were created. Thus shorn of a great portion of its original territory, Milwaukee County was re- dueed in size to that now embraced in the counties of Milwaukee and Wauke- sha. This arrangement existed until 1846. when at a fourth annnal session of the Fourth Legislative Assembly, which convened at Madison on January 5th, the County of Waukesha was formed. Thus Milwaukee Conuty was finally reduced in extent of territory to its present limits.
At the second session of the First Territorial Legislative Assembly con- vened at Burlington (in the present state of lowas. on November 6. 1837. the Connty of Milwaukee was divided into two towns, the Town of Lake and Town of Milwaukee, for the purpose of local government. The Town of Lake com- prising the present towns of Franklin, Greenfield. Lake and Oak Creek and the Town of Milwaukee comprising the present towns of Granville, Milwaukee. Wauwatosa and the City of Milwaukee.
At the adjourned session of the first session of the Second Territorial Leg- islative Assembly, which was held at Madison, an act was passed on March S.
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THE MILWAUKEE COUNTY GOVERNMENT
1839, dividing the Town of Lake and creating the Town of Kinnickinnie, com- prising the present towns of Franklin and Greenfield. The next division was made December 20, 1939, dividing the Town of Kinniekinnic by creating the Town of Franklin. By an act approved January 13, 1840, the Town of Mil- waukee was divided and the Town of Granville created. By an act approved on April 30, 1840, the Town of Milwaukee was again divided and the Town of Wauwatosa ereated and by another act on August 13, 1840, the Town of Lake was again divided and the Town of Oak Creek created. This marked the last division of the county into towns and on February 19, 1841, the name of the Town of Kinnickinnie was changed to Greenfield.
Milwaukee County was now fully organized so far as township govern. ment was concerned, the divisions and names being exactly as they are today. The population of these towns in 1840, according to United States census, was as follows: Franklin, 248; Granville, 225; Greenfield, 404; Lake (which then included Oak Creek). 418: Milwaukee (including the City of Milwaukee). 1.712; and Wauwatosa, 342, making a total of 3,349 as the population of the territory now included in the county, and out of this small beginning grew the great and flourishing county of Milwaukee of today with about 500,000 inhabitants and an assessed valuation of $586,177,942 in 1915.
Twenty Districts .- Among the laws enacted by the Legislature during the session of 1921, the County Board of Supervisors was hereafter to be com- posed of the representatives of twenty districts, one from each district into which the county was divided. These districts also corresponded to the representation in the State Assembly. This law is to take effect after the spring elections of 1922.
The twenty districts are described as follows :
First Distriet- First and Third wards of the City of Milwaukee.
Second District-Second and Fourth wards of the same.
Third District-Twenty-fifth Ward.
Fourth District-Twenty-first Ward.
Fifth District-Fifth and Twelfth wards.
Sixth Districts-Sixth Ward.
Seventh District -- Seventh Ward.
Eighth District-Eighth and Fourteenth wards.
Ninth District-Ninth and Tenth wards.
Tenth Distriet-Sixteenth and Twenty-third wards.
Eleventh Distriet-Eleventh and Twenty-fourth wards.
Twelfth District-Twenty-second Ward.
Thirteenth District-Thirteenth Ward.
Fourteenth District-Seventeenth Ward.
Fifteenth District-Fifteenth and Nineteenth wards.
Sixteenth District-Towns of Granville and Wauwatosa, and the cities of Wauwatosa and North Milwaukee.
Seventeenth District-Towns of Lake and Oak Creek, and the cities of Cudahy and South Milwaukee.
Eighteenth District-Eighteenth Ward of the City of Milwaukee, the Town of Milwaukee, and the villages of Whitefish Bay and Shorewood.
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Nineteenth District-The Village of West Milwaukee, the City of West Allis, and the towns of Greenfield and Franklin.
Twentieth Distriet-The Twentieth Ward of the City of Milwaukee.
Highways and Roads .- In the early day the building of plank-roads was regarded as the solution of the problem of bad roads. "Plank-road meet- ings" were held in many towns throughout the state in the '40s and the news- papers of the day generally advocated their construction. The Milwaukee Sentinel, in its issue of February 19, 1848, had an editorial on road-making. and in a volume by W. M. Gillespie which, in 1855, had reached its eighth edition, it was said, "that plank-roads are the farmers' railroads; that the farmer profits most by their construction, though all classes of the community are benefited by such an improvement. *
* The peenliar merit of plank- roads was that the great diminution of friction upon them made them more akin to railroads than to common roads, with the advantage over railroads that every one eould drive his wagon upon them."
A company was formed in 1846 to construet a road "of timber or plank" from Milwaukee to Watertown. Other roads of a similar character, as well as turnpike roads, were incorporated by the Territorial Legislature with au- thority to collect tolls for their maintenance. Sixteen of these roads were on routes some part of which were in Milwaukee County. The growth of Mil- waukee County and the surrounding territory required the construction of improved roads, and the plank-roads were regarded as more practicable and better adapted to the wants of the community than any other form of publie roads. The shares in these corporations proved for a time to be a remunerative investment.
"The plank-roads leading into Milwaukee, " says J. S. Bnek in his " Pioneer History of Milwaukee," "had a very decided effeet in adding to the pros- perity of the towns through which they were constructed. They radiated from the city as a center towards the north, northwest, west and southwest, thus affording facilities for the people of nearly all parts of the county to transport their surplus prodnets and supplies by the use of their own teams.
"Many. of these roads were changed from plank to gravel roads: as the plank gradually decaved, gravel was substituted, thus making a much more permanent and valuable road. Though plank-roads were thus of great value to farmers along their course, enabling them to do their marketing within their own means and increasing the value of their lands, they were generally but poor property in the hands of the stockholders who built them," says Buek.
Even the local poets became enthusiastic on the theme of plank-roads. one of them in the carrier's address of the Milwaukee Sentinel for New Year's day. 1850, calls enraptured attention to the city's advantages: "Her Plank Roads, smooth as earpet floor. bring daily produce to our door."
Where the plank-roads entered cities the planks eventually furnished a reliable foundation for street car tracks, and in Chicago, North Clark Street. having been previously planked, the rails were laid directly upon the planks to which they were spiked.
A writer in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, for April. 1917, says of the plank-roads which had been built from Chicago to various
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THE MILWAUKEE COUNTY GOVERNMENT
points tributary to that city that these plank-roads "proved to be good busi- ness propositions to the corporations owning them," thus differing with the Milwaukee historian cited above. "From no other improvement," says a writer in Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, "has Chicago derived more direct and manifest benefit in proportion to the capital invested than from plank- roads which connect it with the adjacent country."
Good Roads in Wisconsin .- The past few years have witnessed great ac- tivity in the construction of a vast network of improved highways through- ont Milwaukee County and the state at large. In fact the country in general has awakened to the advantages of building good roads on an unprecedented seale, and the various states have expended immense sums in their construc- tion. Naturally a variety of "slogans" have come into use inspired by the enthusiasm of their advocates and promoters. One of the leading banks of Milwaukee carries on its stationery the motto, "beautiful roads to beautiful places." Another favorite saying is, "see Wisconsin first," and an enterpris- ing newspaper has issued a guide for the use of tourists, entitled, "The Call of the Open Road." This guide contains some two seore maps with a great deal of condensed information accompanied by "rules and regulations" neces- sary for the use of those who travel over these roads.
An editorial in the Milwaukee Journal of October 5, 1921, takes a broad view of the whole subject of good roads and improved highways, and urges in addition to the good work already done that the planting of trees along these highways,-"the finest specimens of Wisconsin's native trees"-should be included in the great plans now being carried out. "Spots rarely beautiful and picturesque." says the writer, "must be dedicated to publie use and made accessible from the main roads. Villages and cities ean well afford to assist in this great work by establishing small publie parks, even if they have to go beyond their corporate limits, a thing that Milwaukee has already done. Coun- ties, moreover, may well establish still larger parks, parks enelosing water- falls, wooded hills and vales, banks of streams, part of the shores of some of Wisconsin's many hundreds of lakes or any other spot of scenic beauty."
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