“Even with RiverView, we are going to turn away around 1,500 people next year,” Peak said.

Just months before the new RiverView Dorms are scheduled to open, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee officials and local politicians are beginning to think about future sites for university housing.

Scott Peak, director of university housing, said despite the new dorms, the university still needs more student housing.

“Even with RiverView, we are going to turn away around 1,500 people next year,” Peak said.

Alderman Mike D’Amato said he understands the importance of building more housing, but doesn’t want to overstress any one particular neighborhood.

“UWM has to manage its growth,” D’Amato said.

He said the goal is to “provide housing locations and do that in a way that will not overwhelm a neighborhood.”

Using the new RiverView Residence Hall as an example, he said he would like to see more dorms spread across the East Side instead of condensing more students into one area.

He is especially interested in potential development near the old Pabst brewery complex, just east of Interstate 43 and at the UPARK lot off East Capital Avenue and North Humbolt Boulevard.

Mike Mervis, vice president of Brewery Project LLC., which is working on developing the old Pabst complex, said there has been some discussions about UWM building its School of Public Health on three acres adjacent to the project where a former Milwaukee Public Schools maintenance facility is located. So far, nothing is certain.

David Gilbert, president of the UWM Foundation, said a private developer expressed interest in building a residence hall at the Capital/Humbolt UPARK lot, but the public bidding process will not open until spring.

The university has also looked into purchasing the Columbia St. Mary’s dorms when they move out, but the university has experienced intense resistance from Alderman D’Amato and various neighborhood associations.

Michael Rosen, a Mariners Neighborhood Association board member, said he is entirely against adding another residence hall on the East Side because of already high levels of student misbehavior and noise violations in the area.

Comparing overcrowding on the East Side with a sausage, Rosen said, “If you have a sausage and stuff more and more stuff into it, it explodes.”

Currently there are 100 people living in the Columbia St. Mary’s dorms across from Sandburg Residence Halls on North Maryland Avenue, but that building could house more than 900 if the university was able to purchase it.

If the university is not able to purchase the building for use as a residence hall, Peak said it is very likely the university would not be able to afford to purchase the building.

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