Alder Patrick Heck
Contact Information
Home Address:
123 N. Blount St #303- Phone: (608) 286-2260
- district2@cityofmadison.com
- Contact Alder Patrick Heck
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Council Office
210 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd
Room 417
Madison, WI 53703
Phone: (608) 266-4071
Fax: (608) 267-8669
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Alder Heck’s Updates
Updates & Week of Oct. 10 Meetings of Interest for District 2
District 2 Updates and Meetings of Interest
There are three sections to this week's update:
- District 2 Updates
- COVID-19 Resources & Information
- City Meetings of Interest to District 2
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Project Update: East Isthmus and Yahara River Watershed Study
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Brush Collection Over for 2022 - Brush is woody material you have cut from your trees, shrubs, or bushes that measure at least 18 inches in length. Yard waste & leaf collection starts is underway. Get the dates when you should set out your leaves and yard waste for pickup here.
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Friday, Oct. 14, Madison Night Market again partners with the Wisconsin Science Festival for Science on the Square
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Statement on the Passing of Former City Attorney Michael P. May
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Jeffrey Clay Erlanger Civility in Public Discourse Award - The City of Madison invites you to submit nominations
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Vision Zero Concludes This Year's Speed Reductions with Segoe Rd
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The Madison Senior Center's annual Health & Resource Fair is on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 9am-11:30am, at the Senior Center, 330 W. Mifflin St.
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Walk-tober is back! - This series of planned activities and events hopes to motivate the public to get out and walk during the month of October.
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From Madison Parks: Fall Hiking in Madison Parks
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From the Mayor:
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In-Person Absentee Voting (Early Voting) begins at Madison Public Library on Tuesday, Oct. 25 and continues through Sunday, Nov. 6 in multiple locations. Voter registration is also available during this time (excluding Nov. 5 and 6) and voters can return absentee ballots, as well. Check online for available dates and times here.
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Accessibility to the Ballot - The City of Madison works to make elections accessible to all eligible voters.
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City of Madison Transforms Absentee Ballot Boxes - In the face of the erosion of such fundamental democratic pillars such as truth, voting rights and the rule of law, this week the City of Madison will shroud the drop boxes in the artwork of internationally known artist Jenny Holzer, who lifts the voice of many in hopeful messages about enduring democracy.
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Acceptable Photo ID to Vote - As you prepare for the General Election on November 8, the City of Madison Clerk's Office wants to remind you what types of photo ID you can use for voting in Wisconsin.
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Six Resumes Received for District 17 Common Council Vacancy - Council Executive Committee Will Meet on Oct. 20th to Recommend Interim Alder
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Save the Date: Wednesday, Oct. 26, Downtown Madison Family Halloween
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Community Talk Back Series: Join the Foundation for Black Women's Wellness at noon on Oct. 11 for their Community Powered Policy Session to share your thoughts on the most pressing issues affecting Black women, children, and families. All community members are invited to attend the various sessions. Register here for the upcoming session or future sessions.
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Next Free HUD-Approved Homebuyer Education Class (in person) - Saturday, Oct. 22. The City of Madison, in partnership with the Home Buyers Round Table of Dane County and Consumer Credit Counseling Service, share these Homebuyer Education classes occurring monthly through the rest of 2022. Register here.
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The schedule for the 20th Anniversary Fall Celebration of the Wisconsin Book Festival has been released! Visit wisconsinbookfestival.org to see the full lineup for the celebration taking place October 13-16.
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Heads Up: The UW-Madison Homecoming Parade and Fireworks Show are scheduled for Friday, Oct. 21. The parade will line up on Langdon, head down Langdon to Wisconsin Avenue and from Wisconsin to Gilman, Gilman to State and will end at State and Lake St. The Parade begins at 6pm and will last 1 hour. Fireworks will be after dusk.
Mission Boxes Ordinance to be Considered by Common Council
At Tuesday's Common Council meeting, alders will be considering a new ordinance to create "Mission Boxes" as a permitted use in various zoning districts. I am a cosponsor of this change along with Alder Grant Foster.
Mission boxes include Little Free Libraries, Little Free Museums, Little Free Pantries, etc. Currently, Little Free Libraries and related installations are technically not allowed in our zoning code. Zoning and Building Inspection consider them to be "beneath their notice", so they have not been taking enforcement action against them. While Little Free Libraries have been a local and nationwide success for many years, during the COVID pandemic, mission boxes proliferated and became important methods of providing mutual aid and related community resources. This new ordinance will officially allow Mission Boxes of many types to exist. See Common Council Agenda Item #14 below in "City Meetings of Interest" for more on this item.
St. John's Redevelopment Proposal at Landmarks Commission and CDBG Committee This Week
On Monday, the Landmarks Commission will consider the demolition application related to the redevelopment of the site of St. John's Lutheran Church at 322 E. Washington Avenue (see the Landmarks Commission meeting agenda below in "City Meetings of Interest"). St. John's and their development partners, Urban Land Interests (ULI) and Potter Lawson, propose to demolish their current church (built in 1905-1906) with additions/modifications that were completed in 1925 and 1962-1963. The original church was designed by notable Madison architectural firm Claude and Starck in the Gothic Revival style, but only a small portion of the original design remains visible on N Hancock St. As with all demolition applications, the Commissioners' findings are advisory to the Plan Commission, who are expected to make the official determination considering the demolition application in late November. The staff report on the proposed demolition can be found here.
On Thursday, the Community Development Block Grant Committee will receive presentations from the five 2022 applicants for the city's Affordable Housing Fund (see meeting agenda below in "City Meetings of Interest"). Included will be a presentation by the St. John's development team who propose, in addition to demolishing the current building, constructing worship and social service/community spaces on the first floor of a new building with 9 stories of mostly affordable and workforce apartments above, and underground parking below.
St. John's CDBG application indicates that they are seeking $3.5M from the Affordable Housing Fund (of approximately $8M total available) and will also be seeking Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) tax credits to help finance the project. The application states that "Floors 2 through 10 will contain a total of 130 rental apartments, with a mix of studio/junior 1 bedroom, 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom and 3 bedroom units. Of the 130 units, 108 or 83% will be set aside for those earning 60% or less of the County Median Income as follows: 22 units will be set aside for those earning 30% of CMI; 58 units for those earning 50% of CMI; and 28 units at 60% of CMI. As a matter of mission, St. John's will commit to a 40 year affordability period of the 130 housing units."
At Thursday's CDBG Committee meeting, no votes will be taken concerning the Affordable Housing Fund applications; the committee will receive presentations and ask questions. The proposal is expected to be at the Urban Design Commission and Plan Commission for approvals in November. The CDBG Committee, the Finance Committee, and Common Council will also need to approve any Affordable Housing Fund award.
A neighborhood steering committee from the James Madison Park District of Capitol Neighborhoods, Inc., has been meeting with the development team to evaluate the proposal and give input. If you'd like to participate or give input, please email me at district2@cityofmadison.com
N. Butler Street Redevelopment Proposal to Plan Commission on Oct. 24
This proposal by developers Reese Fisher and Blake Fisher is expected to be at Plan Commission on Oct. 24. The developers seek to demolish three existing apartment houses and combine those lots with another lot that is vacant in order to construct a new four-story building with 32 market rate apartments comprised of studios, 1-bedroom, and 2-bedroom units. The developers have applied for a Demolition Permit and a Conditional Use Permit, as well as approval of Certified Survey Map. The Downtown Residential-1 Zoning District in which this site is located allows a maximum building width of 60 feet, while the proposed width of the new building is 104'10", hence the developers are also asking for a rezoning to Downtown Residential-2 that does not limit building width.
In August the Landmarks Commission voted to approve recommendations to Plan Commission concerning the proposed demolitions of the three multi flats at 117, 123, and 125 N. Butler Street to make way for the proposed redevelopment. Landmarks commissioners recommended that the buildings at 117 and 123 N. Butler Street have historic value related to the vernacular context of Madison's built environment, but the buildings themselves are not historically, architecturally, or culturally significant. They also recommended that the building at 125 N. Butler Street has no known historic value. The Landmarks Commission is advisory to the Plan Commission for demolition proposals, so Plan Commission expected to make the official determination concerning the demolition applications at their Oct. 24 meeting.
The James Madison Park District of CNI has met once with the development team to discuss the proposal. I anticipate that the neighborhood will be sending their feedback/input to the Plan Commission in the near future.
Project plans and the development team's land use application can be found here. If you have any questions or input, please contact me at district2@cityofmadison.com.
Virtual Community Sessions on the 2023 Budget
The city's budget for 2023 will be debated and adopted by the Common Council in November. In addition to public comment opportunities at Finance Committee and Council meetings over the next six weeks, there will be two virtual community sessions on the budget. City Finance staff will provide background information on the city's capital and operating budget process, including highlights of the 2023 executive budget. This is a great opportunity for residents to learn more about our city's budget. Electronic copies of budget information can be found at www.cityofmadison.com/finance/budget/2023. Virtual community sessions on the 2023 budget will be held on Thursday, Oct. 13, and Monday, Oct. 24. Both meetings will start at 5:30 PM and end at 7:00 PM.
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2. COVID-19 RESOURCES & INFORMATION
From Public Health Madison & Dane County:
- COVID-19 vaccine webpage
- Learn about the many testing sites in Dane County (in Spanish)
- COVID-19 Data Dashboard
- The latest Data Notes
Dane CORE - for rental and utility assistance. The Dane CORE 2.0 application portal is open for persons interested in submitting new applications and additional funding requests (AFR's). Applications received prior to Sept. 15 will continue to be processed without interruption and eligible claims will be paid. Anyone wishing to review the status of an application that has already been submitted to see if there are any open tasks and that all information is up to date should log into Neighborly.
Free COVID Tests at Home - It's still possible to get free at-home COVID tests mailed to you.
Visit the City's Coronavirus Website for Madison's COVID updates, responses and resources.
Dane County Food Pantry Network from Community Action Coalition.
State of Wisconsin COVID-19 resources and information from state agencies, including the State Dept. Public Health
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3. CITY MEETINGS OF INTEREST TO DISTRICT 2
1) items which have registrants wishing to speak. 2) items which alderperson(s) have separated out for discussion/debate purposes.
– This amendment adds some efficiency to the conditional use process when Urban Design Commission (UDC) input could be helpful to the Plan Commission. The ordinance currently allows for the Plan Commission to refer a conditional use request to the UDC for an advisory recommendation on design. This change would allow the District Alder and Plan Commission Secretary to anticipate the need for a UDC advisory recommendation to the Plan Commission, and advise a conditional use applicant to present at UDC before the Plan Commission public hearing. This code change may provide some time savings for applicants.
The proposed ordinance makes updates related to zoning variances including increased fees associated with variance applications, zoning certificates, and zoning letters. Fee changes are estimated to increase revenues by $17,000. These fees represent a General Fund revenue source.
– This amendment makes dwelling units in mixed-use buildings allowable within the SR-V1, SR-V2, TRV1, TR-V2, TR-U1, TR-U2, TR-P, DR1, and DR2 zoning districts. This change will allow non-residential uses that are already allowed within these districts (daycare centers, places of worship, schools, etc.) to be combined within the same building as dwelling units, where that number of dwelling units is already allowed. At this time, no changes to the permitted or conditional use status for non-residential uses is proposed, meaning that if a non-residential use is a permitted use in the zoning district today, it would remain a permitted use as part of a mixed-use building. If it requires conditional use review today, it would still require conditional use review if it were part of a mixed-use building. Uses not allowed in the underlying zoning districts would not be allowed within mixed-use buildings.
This amendment adds "mission boxes" as a new permitted use in all residential, mixed-use and commercial, downtown and urban, and employment zoning districts. Mission Boxes are structures that are used to provide free items to the public, including, but not limited to, books, food, clothing, and home goods. Mission boxes will be permitted setback encroachments in the front, side and rear yard setbacks. Supplemental regulations for mission boxes include limitations on size and structural limitations such as restrictions against impeding the right-of-way.
Note: Mission boxes include Little Free Libraries, Little Free Museums, Little Free Pantries, etc. Currently, Little Free Libraries and related installations are technically not allowed in our zoning code. Zoning and Building Inspection consider them to be "beneath notice", so they have not been taking enforcement action against them. During the pandemic and otherwise, mission boxes proliferated and became important methods of providing mutual aid and related uses, so this ordinance will officially allow them to exist.
The proposed resolution approves an updated Street Assessment Policy. The current policy uses a defined percentage of the actual construction cost of a project to uniformly determine the special assessment to benefiting parcels. The updated policy creates an assessment rate that weights multiple factors to determine the unit cost. The policy goals for the updated method are described in the body. Adoption of the resolution does not require an appropriation at this time. Any future projects will require separate capital budget authorization. There is a companion file for an ordinance change related to this policy (Legistar File 74079).
Legislative History
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