Planned Development Rezoning Public Meetings

Two public meetings scheduled 

Sixteen of Madison's twenty alder districts have at least one planned development All residents living in one or two-family homes in a planned development will be receiving postcards inviting them to a virtual public information meeting. Zoning staff will explain the goals and process for rezoning planned developments to a standard zone. District 19 has one of the highest concentrations of planned developments. 

To attend one of the meetings, you will need to register using one of the following links. Registrants will receive a link to the virtual meeting.

• Monday, June 22, 2026, at 6:00 pm – Registration Link
• Thursday, June 25, 2026, at 6:00 pm – Registration Link

Background

In the 1980's and 1990's development was hindered by Madison's antiquated zoning code. The solution for Madison, developers, and eager homebuyers was to establish a “planned development" which was a kind of special and personalized zoning code for a specific neighborhood. These planned developments established their own unique lot sizes, setbacks, and minimum home size among many other characteristics. Once Madison updated its zoning code, the reason for planned developments evaporated except for some large commercial and industrial projects.

The motivation for considering replacing planned developments with standard zones is different than the numerous recent zoning changes coming from Madison's “Housing Forward" initiatives. Those changes have been focused on making it easier to develop all forms of housing to alleviate our city's housing shortage. In this case, Madison's motivation for rezoning planned developments is to increase the efficiency of the permitting process. It takes substantially longer to process a building permit for even simple improvements like adding a deck or a room addition in a planned development. Staff has to locate all of the relevant documents for that planned development and research any unique requirements that may affect the permit request. Madison is growing with lots of demands on the permitting staff. Replacing the planned developments with standard zones will let the city process requests quicker and with less pressure on adding staff.

More background and detail are presented in a Rezoning Planned Development web page.

Benefits of Rezoning PD's

In addition to permitting efficiency, rezoning could have multiple benefits, depending on the details of each PD.

• Making sure everyone has the same opportunity to make changes to their property
• Making zoning rules clearer, more objective, and easily accessible
• Creating consistent standards for the same types of development
• Making the building permit approval process standardized, fair, and faster for similar single- and two-family properties throughout the city
• Allowing neighborhoods to evolve to fit residents' needs over time
• Allowing more properties to take advantage of recent zoning changes, like allowing two-unit homes or Accessory Dwelling Units in more areas

Rezoning does not replace the covenants which were part of many PD's. Covenants are actually agreements among residents that require some activities and preclude others. They are enforced by homeowner associations or neighbors, not the city. For instance, although a standard zoning code may allow an Accessory Dwelling Unit, a covenant may still prohibit it. The process for modifying covenants is usually delineated in the original declaration and would typically require a majority of residents in the PD or residents having a majority of assessed valuation to agree on and record an amendment with Dane County.