City Meetings and Updates June 2nd
posted- City Meetings:
- Plan Commission Special Meeting 6/2, includes Southeast Area Plan Updates
- Common Council 6/3
- Madison’s 2025 Park Index Score released
- Reminder: Topic-Focused City Budget Engagement Events Begin With Public Works Focus on 6/4
- Events & Announcements
City Meetings
Plan Commission
The Plan Commission meeting will take place on Monday, June 2, at 5:00 p.m. in Room 215 of the Madison Municipal Building at 215 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd. Agenda items include staff updates on the Southeast Area Plan (find more information this recent post, which I shared separately due to its length).
Heads up: two District 3 project proposals are scheduled to go before the Plan Commission in June:
- 842 Jupiter Drive, where WellBrook Recovery hopes to establish an addiction recovery care at the Chamomile Assisted Living property they have purchased (legister items 88198 and 88199), planned for the June 9th Plan Commission meeting
- 6004 Commercial Avenue, where Veridian proposes to develop a new neighborhood called Reiland Grove (legistar item 88206), planned for the June 23rd Plan Commission meeting and then the July 1st Common Council meeting
The staff reports (including staff recommendations and recommended conditions) are usually available the Thursday or Friday prior to a Plan Commission meeting. As such, I will share more information about each of these proposals in my Weekly Updates post the weekend before each meeting. Stay tuned!
Common Council
The Common Council meeting will take place on Tuesday, June 3, at 6:30 p.m. in hybrid format. Agenda items include:
- Item 2: An honoring resolution recognizing June as Pride Month.
- Item 17: An item representing the renewal of the Red Rooster bar’s Class B alcohol license on the east side (2513 Seiferth Rd in nearby District 16). The Alcohol License Review Committee voted to recommend that the Common Council deny, or “non-renew”, the alcohol license. The City’s complaint against Red Rooster describes several incidents in 2024 where this business had non-licensed bartenders serving alcohol, was the scene of disturbances to which MPD officers responded, was open after-hours, and had staff involved in a homicide by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle. If you’re interested, here’s a link to the City’s complaint.
- Item 58: a Change of Agent request for a Class A alcohol license for City View Liquor on 6420 Cottage Grove Road in District 3.
- Item 95: A resolution authorizing Olbrich Botanical Gardens to contract with a firm for design services to prepare construction documents for upgrades to the Bolz Conservancy (I’m a sponsor). This presentation includes more information.
- Item 96: A resolution urging Congress to maintain the tax exemption for interest received by investors in the City's debt (I’m a cosponsor). The City issues approximately $100 million to $150 million of tax-exempt municipal debt annually. Repealing the federal tax exemption on municipal debt will mean investors would need to pay taxes on their gains from bonds the City issues for capital projects, increasing interest costs paid by Madison to finance critical capital investments, such as for street reconstruction, stormwater management, sewer infrastructure, facilities, vehicles, and equipment. Higher interest costs could result in higher taxes and fees for residents. Studies have estimated that the cost of repealing the tax exemption for municipal bond interest could increase taxes and fees for every household nationally by over $6,500. Here’s a staff presentation for with more information about this critical topic.
Meeting info:
If you would like more information about becoming a member of a City board, commission, or committee, please visit the page linked here.
Madison’s 2025 Park Index Score Released
Every year the Trust for Public Land releases rankings of the United States’ 100 most populous cities’ park systems that are based on a few underlying factors. We should all be proud of the fact that Madison’s park system ranked 19th out of the top 100 in 2025. Madison Parks staff and volunteers work hard to create and maintain an extensive park system with very limited resources. Here is the ParkScore Index page for Madison.
Image credit:
Madison Parks
Here’s how Madison’s park system scored on each category:
- Acreage: 56 out of 100 points. Madison’s abundance of large “destination” parks helps us here but the median park size is lower than average.
- Access: 97 out of 100, our best category. This score is driven by the fact that 98% of residents live within a half-mile walk of a park.
- Investment: 32 out of 100, our lowest category. The Trust calculated parks and recreation spending across all agencies and organizations within the City, including monetized volunteer hours, amounting to $115 per capita, which is well below average. I think we could view this as Madison getting good value for our money, but also that decision-makers have our work cut out for us to step up investment in order to make sure that our parks system keeps up with Madison’s growth.
- Amenities: 87 out of 100, due to the relative abundance of park activities like basketball, sport fields and diamonds, dog parks, playgrounds, and permanent restrooms.
- Equity: 67 out of 100, representing the fairness in distribution of parks between neighborhoods by race and income. The Trust found that residents living in more racially diverse neighborhoods have access to 21% less nearby park space than those living in less diverse neighborhoods. Residents living in lower-income neighborhoods have access to 70% less nearby park space than those in higher-income neighborhoods.
This year the Trust also shared this report about how parkland can be a unifier across political divides. They say that “parks are omni-partisan: Americans of all stripes deeply value and desire more time in their local parks, where they experience joy, connection, and strong civic engagement”.
Reminder: Topic-Focused City Budget Engagement Events Begin With Public Works Focus on Wednesday
Image credit:
City of Madison
The first of five engagement events for the 2026 City Budget takes place this Wednesday, June 4th. This one will be at Central Library (downtown) will feature an update of the 2026 budget process with City Finance Director Dave Schmiedicke and presentations from the Engineering, Parks, and Streets divisions (collectively, “Public Works”). The goal of this public meeting is to provide an opportunity for residents to speak directly with City staff about your ideas, concerns, and priorities for Madison’s future.
- Where: Central Library, 2021 West Mifflin St
- When: Wednesday, June 4th 2025 at 6pm
- Register here.
Future budget engagement events include:
- June 11th, Warner Park Community Rec Center, focus: Administration & Public Facilities (event link)
- June 16th, Sequoya Library, focus: Public Safety (event link)
- June 18th, Pinney Library (Eastside), focus: Transportation (event link)
June 24th, The Hub/South Madison Black Business Hub, focus: Community & Economic Development (event link)
Image credit: City of Madison
In addition to these, County Executive Melissa Agard will host a listening session on the County Budget on Wednesday, June 4th at 5:30pm at the Alliant Energy Center. For more information see the County's press release.
Events & Announcements
- Madison police welcomes 71st recruit class: MADISON, Wis. —The Madison Police Department welcomed its 71st academy class this week. There are 35 recruits in this year’s class, including three accelerated academy officers. On Tuesday, they took an oath to serve and protect the people of Madison. [posted May 30, 2025]
- New Testing Sites Added as Public Health Beach Monitoring Season Begins: This week, Public Health Madison & Dane County kicked off its beach monitoring efforts in Dane County. [posted May 30, 2025]
- Walking Tour to Gather Business Feedback in Southeast, Southwest Madison: Teams of local business and local leaders will take part in a walking tour of the Southeast and Southwest Madison business community on Tuesday, June 3rd, from 9:00am – 12:00pm. [posted May 30, 2025]
- Madison Celebrates Nature Everywhere Day 2025 : The City of Madison continues its commitment to support the health and well-being of children, families, and the environment through equitable access to nature. [posted May 29, 2025]
- Christof Spieler Selected as Madison’s Director of Transportation : Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway is pleased to announce the appointment of Christof Spieler as the City of Madison’s new Director of Transportation. [posted May 28, 2025]
- Madison Fire Seeks Community Participation in Firefighter/EMT Interviews: Have a say in who serves you. Join a Community Panel to interview firefighter/EMT candidates! [posted May 27, 2025]
- Madison Bike Week, Monday, June (This Event Occurs On Multiple Days): Bike Week celebrates riding to work, to the grocery store, to a park, to the library—or biking just to feel the warm wind blowing through your hair. Events happen all week long at various locations throughout the city.
- RoundTrip Commuter Station — Bikes, Buses, and Treats!, Tuesday, June 3: Join RoundTrip, the Greater Madison MPO, Metro Transit, City of Madison Traffic Engineering, and Madison BCycle for an afternoon commuter station on the Cap City Trail! This event celebrates car-free mobility with plenty of resources, treats, and giveaways to support your ride.
- Black on the Wisconsin Frontier, 1725 – 1868, Wednesday, June 4: Presented by UW Madison Professor Christy Clark-Pujara. Black people have lived, labored, and raised families in the region that became the Midwest since the 16th century. This presentation will explore the histories of Black people in what became the state of Wisconsin, from the French colonial period in the 1720s through the American Civil War.
- Wear Orange Weekend, Friday, June 6 (This Event Occurs On Multiple Days): Public Health Madison & Dane County is hosting a series of Wear Orange Weekend events raising awareness about the urgent need to end gun violence. Wear Orange Weekend is part of a nationwide campaign supporting Everytown for Gun Safety. It's an organization dedicated to ending gun violence, led by parents, students, survivors, educators, and more.
- Bird & Nature Adventures | Tenney Park, Saturday, June 7: Join Naturalist Robin Kling for a free welcoming family-friendly guided walk to look for and learn about native trees and plants at Tenney Park. The Tenney Lagoon borders and other areas are being restored with more native plants for pollinators, birds and wildlife. Native plants also have many human benefits. Long before synthetic drugs were created to combat illness and disease native plants provided chemical compounds used by healers and physicians to deal with heart disease, vitamin deficiencies and to fight bacterial infections. Learn to use the Seek app to identify plants and learn more about them.
Please visit the City news webpage to find additional news and announcements and to subscribe to receive notification of news releases as they are posted. Additional upcoming events can also be found on the City events calendar.
