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Meetings and Updates Week of March 25th

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  • City meetings:
    • Finance Committee 3/25
    • Plan Commission 3/25
    • Transportation Commission 3/27
    • Housing Strategy Committee 3/28
  • East District Coffee With A Cop 3/26
  • Rolling Meadows Meeting 4/4 re: Potential Rezone Proposal for 205 S. Stoughton Rd
  • Events & Announcements

Boards, Commissions, and Committee Meetings

Note: This is not a complete list of meetings for this upcoming week. All meetings and their details can be found at the Meeting Schedule page.

Finance Committee

The Finance Committee meeting will take place on Monday, March 25, in virtual format at 4:30 p.m. Agenda items include submitting the appointment for the new Planning Division Director, setting the 2024 rates for the Sewer Utility and Stormwater Utility, and directing the Finance Department to issue a report analyzing City operating budgets from 2019-2024 and calling on the State Legislature to authorize local sales tax options.

Plan Commission

The Plan Commission meeting will take place on Monday, March 25, in virtual format at 5:30 p.m. Agenda items include adopting the Lake Monona Waterfront Master Plan, as well as development-related requests (none in District 3).

Transportation Commission

The Transportation Commission meeting will take place on Wednesday, March 27, in virtual format at 5:00 p.m. Agenda items include the 2023 Transportation Annual Report, review and feedback of multiple Public Works transportation projects, and a 2025 budget outlook.

Housing Strategy Committee

The Housing Strategy Committee meeting will take place on Thursday, March 28, in virtual format at 5:00 p.m. Agenda items include amending Madison General Ordinances to allow Accessory Dwelling Units for properties with up to eight dwelling units and remove owner-occupancy requirement for ADUs, as well as combining the duties of the Landlord and Tenant Issues Committee and the Housing Strategy Committee into the newly formed Housing Policy Committee.

East District Coffee With A Cop 3/26

From East District Resource Officer Laura Deloach: “Hello!  We will have our monthly 'Coffee with a Cop', at the East District Station (809 S Thompson Dr.) in the community room. Coffee will be provided for those who join us! For this event and future Coffee with a Cop events we will be continuing our efforts of adjusting when we hold our event to allow for more flexibility across the community. My hope is by adjusting the time for our Coffee with a Cop event we can fit more individuals' schedules. Our next coffee day is scheduled on Tuesday, March 26th, 2024 from 12:00pm-1:00pm. Please feel free to stop in at any time to participate. Parking is available in the front lot of EPD. Please do not pass the fence line or park near the squads. Should the lot run out of parking spaces street parking is available as well as along a side of the EPD driveway. Please do not block the driveway as officers will need to come and go to address calls for service in the community.  As usual, we are excited about this opportunity and ask that you spread the word to anyone who might be interested in this community event.  If you have any questions, concerns or topics you would like to discuss please feel free to email me at  ldeloach@cityofmadison.com.”

Rolling Meadows Neighborhood Meeting 4/4 re: Potential Rezone Proposal for 205 S. Stoughton Rd

Background

Folks may remember some local media coverage in December 2022 of Occupy Madison’s purchase of the property located at 205 South Stoughton Road, where the Stoughton frontage road turns east and becomes Robertson Road. The site’s current Industrial zoning district has supported their recent use of the site to make the parts that go into Occupy Madison’s tiny homes where their residents live at Occupy Madison’s two other sites on the north side of town. My understanding is that Occupy acquired the 205 South Stoughton Rd site as part of an arrangement with Dane County that let them make the purchase with County grant funds and become the site’s owners over time if they begin to house a population of formerly homeless individuals at 205 South Stoughton by December 2024 as a condition of the County grant. However, the current Industrial zoning prohibits residential uses so they would need to rezone through the City’s zoning approval process.

I heard from Occupy a few weeks ago that they intend to submit a rezoning proposal to allow for residential uses, perhaps the City’s Tiny Home Village zoning district, to the City on April 8th. I believe the intent is to place 22 tiny homes, but the proposal isn’t officially submitted yet. Once they submit and once their proposal is available in Legistar, I’ll share an update with more info about the proposal. Following their submittal to the City, the proposal would go through staff review for a few weeks or perhaps a month or two, and then to the Plan Commission and Common Council, both of which would have public hearing opportunities for public input. The timeline for these is not yet final but is likely in late May or early June (watch my blog for updates on these meetings). My understanding is that City zoning staff would make a recommendation for approval or denial based on how the rezoning proposal compares to the City’s approval standards for zoning map or text amendments. These standards are laid out in Madison General Ordinances 28.182, and state that zoning changes "shall be based on public health, safety and welfare, shall be consistent with the Comprehensive Plan, and shall comply with Wisconsin and federal law."

Occupy Madison hosted an initial meeting with their site’s neighbors on March 13th, for which Occupy paid for the Common Council’s office to send 290 postcards to businesses in that business park and to neighbors to the north and northwest of the site up to Milwaukee Street. I made sure to work with Rolling Meadows neighborhood leaders to map the area of addresses that received those postcards. That initial meeting had a decent turnout of about 35 residents, representatives of area businesses, and Rolling Meadows neighborhood leaders. Residents of the neighborhood raised some very real concerns about the appropriateness of the 205 South Stoughton site for housing, pedestrian access, nearby transit service, and concerns about crime in the general area and on the East Side. Occupy Madison’s leadership, their architect, and a few residents of Occupy’s other sites were there to take questions and to try and address those concerns. They described the community agreements that each of Occupy Madison’s residents must follow and the forms of on-site support that Occupy provides residents, based on how their two other sites in Madison have been run over the last several years. My biggest concerns with this proposal are about the safety of pedestrian access as I'm thinking most Occupy residents won't have cars, and this site is importantly in a gap in the neighborhood’s sidewalk network and happens to be located on a road that carries quite a bit of traffic from both commuters and freight vehicles.

Next Meeting

At the request of the Rolling Meadows neighborhood and myself, Occupy Madison representatives agreed to host a second meeting for folks in the neighborhood to join, ask questions, and provide input. This meeting will take place on Thursday, April 4th at 6pm at Occupy Madison’s 205 South Stoughton Road site. I’ll work with the neighborhood leaders to make sure we’re taking notes about the questions and answers and will do any necessary follow-up to try and get all questions answered by Occupy or by the City. Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available through the process.

Events & Announcements & News Releases

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District 3 - Alder Field

Alder Derek Field

Alder Derek Field

District 3
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