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City Meetings and Updates Week of Sept 15

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  • City Meetings
    • Plan Commission 9/15
    • Common Council 9/16
    • Board of Public Works 9/17
  • Water Utility Well 15 on the Northeast Side Reopens PFAS-Free!
  • Reminder: Woods Farm Park and Canter Park Development Survey Closes 9/18
  • Events & Announcements

City Meetings

Plan Commission

The Plan Commission meeting will take place on Monday, September 15, at 5:30 p.m. in virtual format. Agenda items include a resolution adopting the 2025-2030 Park and Open Space Plan as a supplement to Madison’s Comprehensive Plan, see my August 9th blog post for more information about this, as well as development-related requests (none in District 3).

Common Council

The Common Council meeting will take place on Tuesday, September 16, at 6:30 p.m. in virtual format. Agenda items include:

  • Item 2: an honoring resolution Recognizing September 15-October 15 as Hispanic Heritage Month
  • Item 8: a resolution appointing Lydia McComas for confirmation of a five-year contract as our new City Clerk. The new Clerk joins us from Hennepin County, Minnesota where she was the Voter Engagement Division Manager. Read more about her in this City release.
  • Item 9: a resolution appointing Jamie Action for confirmation of a five-year term as Transit General Manager. Jamie joins us from Anchorage, Alaska where she lead the Public Transportation Department. Read more about her in this City release.
  • Item 28: a resolution changing ordinances related to filling vacancies on the Common Council, requiring candidates to gather elector signatures as part of their application to fill a vacancy on the Common Council (I’m a cosponsor). This is currently required of candidates who seek election on the ballot, but not of candidates being considered to fill vacant seats. I think it’s a good thing for candidates to be talking to their neighbors/potential constituents.
  • Item 33: a resolution approving the allocation of City and pass-through Federal funding through a Request for Proposals process according to a funding allocation for homeless services and housing services in 2026. Here is a link to the proposed allocation plan as recommended by City Community Development Division staff, which recommends funds for programs in these categories: Housing Resources, Emergency Shelter, Street Outreach, Extreme Weather Respite Hotel for the Unsheltered, Rapid Rehousing Program, Homelessness Prevention, Permanent Supportive Housing, and an “other” category. I’m a cosponsor. Note that some organizations applied for funding through this process but are recommended for zero funding, including Madison Street Medicine’s proposal for “Dairy Drive 2.0”.
  • Item 35: a resolution that extends the City’s contract with MACH Onehealth, Inc., also known as Madison Street Medicine, to continue providing housing and services at the Dairy Drive urban campground on the East Side. I wrote at length about this situation and resolution in a separate blog post, which you can find here.
  • Item 37: the Quarterly Crime Report for 2nd quarter 2026 from Chief John Patterson.

Meeting info:

Board of Public Works

Rendering of 102 S Sprecher project
Rendering of the forthcoming building at 102 South Sprecher Rd, originally approved in 2022

The Board of Public Works meeting will take place on Wednesday, September 17, at 4:30 p.m. in virtual format. Agenda items include plans for public works improvements related to a private construction project at 102 South Sprecher Road in District 3 (the northwest corner of Milwaukee Street and Sprecher Road). This project was originally approved in 2022 and the developer told me in 2023 that they decided to delay construction because higher than expected interest rates complicated the project’s financing. Looks like they’re ready to move forward. This item approves the Certified Survey Map for the lot, including a stretch of right-of-way for the future extension of Ethos Lane running north-south along the western edge of the lot, as shown in the drawing on page 2 of this link. Apparently a separate, future developer agreement will cover the construction of the street, utilities, and stormwater improvements.

Water Utility Well 15 on the Northeast Side Reopens PFAS-Free!

Prior to its closure in 2019 due to PFAS contamination concerns, Water Utility Well 15 on the Northeast Side of Madison served multiple Eastside neighborhoods. With the PFAS filtration now system up and running, all measurable PFAS are now being removed from the water and Well 15 can now safely be put back into the distribution system. 

PFAS, or Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances, are a class of chemicals used in everything from food packaging and cookware to upholstery, clothing and firefighting foam. The chemicals do not break down naturally in the environment and are therefore termed “forever chemicals.”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently finalized regulations for PFAS in drinking water, in which new enforcement standards, or maximum contaminant levels (MCLs), were established for PFAS compounds. All Madison wells have been meeting those standards, with the exception of Well 15. With the treatment system in place today, the Madison Water Utility fully expects to meet those standards. PFAS were first discovered at Well 15 in 2017 and the well was later shut down in 2019 amid community concerns and has not operated since.

With a total project cost of $5.9M, the project is funded through Wisconsin’s Safe Drinking Water Loan Program, which is made possible through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Half of the funding is in the form of principal forgiveness (grants); the remaining half will eventually be paid for by funds from PFAS settlements. This project does not ultimately use any water rate revenues.

“The PFAS treatment at Municipal Well 15 highlights Madison’s commitment to providing safe, high-quality water for our community,” says Madison Water Utility General Manager Krishna Kumar.

Please visit the Well 15 Project Website for more information and sign up to receive email updates and alerts . Check out the latest Annual Drinking Water Quality Report(opens in a new window).

Additional information is available in the Water Utility’s news release from this past week.

Reminder: Woods Farm Park and Canter Park Development Survey Closes next Thursday, September 18

How Woods Farm and Canter park properties look right now
Image credit: Madison Parks
Not-yet-developed park properties at Woods Farm and Canter Parks

Park improvements are coming to two new City parks are coming to District 3! Madison Parks is starting the design process for both Woods Farm Park and Canter Park on the far northeast side of the city. Each park is approximately 5 acres. In anticipation of further growth in nearby neighborhoods, a master plan will be written with resident input to guide the development of these two park properties. 

The first Public Information Meeting for this project was held on September 4th; the recording of that meeting is available at this City Media Site link.

The online survey is open. Please provide your input on these parks! Link to Survey, which closes on Thursday, September 18, 2025.

As a heads up, another meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 29th at 6pm to review and get feedback on design ideas for both parks. I’ll share more information in a future blog post prior to that meeting.

Events & Announcements

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.

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District 3 - Alder Field

Alder Derek Field

Alder Derek Field

District 3
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