City Meetings and Updates Week of Dec 8

• City Meetings:
  • Common Council 12/9
  • Board of Park Commissioners 12/10
• Fall Leaf Collection Suspended for 2025 Due to Weather
• Door Creek Park Shelter Opens for Winter Recreation Rentals and Concessions 12/20
• Events & Announcements

City Meetings

Common Council

The Common Council meeting will take place on Tuesday, December 9, at 6:30 p.m. in hybrid format. Agenda items include:

• Item 1: an honoring resolution awarding the 19th annual Jeffrey Clay Erlanger Civility in Public Discourse Award to Eve Galanter

• Item 11: Updates to the Transit Oriented Development overlay zoning ordinance, see Legistar #90522.. Here’s the staff memo. This change would: 

  

  Image credit: City Planning

  • Allow a 4-home structure to be built within all residential areas in the TOD overlay.
  • Ensure that businesses incorporating a drive-through window don’t default to a primarily auto-centric design. This proposal would only allow drive-throughs in the TOD overlay if incorporated into a larger building – specifically a 3-story building that covers at least 60% of the lot.
  • Prohibit the creation of new car washes, auto sales businesses, and standalone private surface parking lot facilities within the TOD overlay district. Surface parking lots that are not the principal use of the property, like a parking lot for a business or a residential development, would still be allowed. Note: on 12/1, the Plan Commission unanimously recommended amending the proposal to allow auto rental businesses within the TOD.

• Items 12, 13, 14, 15: Resolutions that would change the zoning district for a handful of properties (not in District 3) within the TOD overlay to be more consistent with adopted future land use recommendations for those sites (I'm a cosponsor). See Legistar #90553,  Legistar #90554,  Legistar #90555, and Legistar #90556. Here’s the staff memo. 

  

  Image credit: City Planning

• Item 16: A resolution changing zoning ordinances to allow for the development of Cottage Courts-style housing in any residential district outside of downtown (I'm a cosponsor). Cottage Courts are eight or fewer detached single-family homes with common management and/or access to the site, allowing for smaller and therefore potentially more affordable homes. These could be condominiums, homes on their own lots, or on a single lot with a single owner. See Legistar #90557. Here’s the zoning staff memo. Note: on 12/1, the Plan Commission voted to approve two amendments that allow some of the “cottage” units to be attached (like duplexes) and another that uses a standard 8-foot rear setback for Cottage Courts rather than whatever rear setback applies in the underlying zoning district.
• Item 52: a resolution awarding a public works contract for the construction of four playgrounds in 2026, including the new playground coming to Kennedy Park in District 3.
• Item 58:  a resolution awarding up to $13,963,000 from the Affordable Housing Fund to support four affordable housing and senior housing development projects: one on the West Side, two on the East Side (not in D3), and one on the North Side (I'm a cosponsor).
• Item 60: a resolution approving the 2026 Urban Forestry Special Charge rates which cover the costs of maintaining and increasing the City’s tree canopy. Here’s a memo about Mad-CAP program rebates on the Municipal Services bill for households who earn less than 50% of the area median family income.
• Item 61: a resolution approving the 2026 Resource Recovery Special Charge rates which cover some of the cost of providing curbside recycling services. Here’s a memo about Mad-CAP program rebates on the Municipal Services bill for eligible who earn less than 50% of the area median family income.
• Item 65: a resolution approving Crisis Intervention and Prevention services funding (about $2 million as authorized in the 2026 Operating Budget) to service providers selected through a competitive application and review process.
• Item 79: the Year End Appropriations Resolution which reappropriates funding between agencies based on actual expenditures. Here’s a staff presentation. Note that the budget is already at the State's Expenditure Restraint Incentive Program limit, so the resolution cannot appropriate additional revenues, see slide 3.

Meeting info:

• Meeting Details
• Meeting Agenda
• Register for Public Comment
• Watch Online

Board of Park Commissioners

The Board of Park Commissioners meeting will take place on Wednesday, December 10, at 6:30 p.m. in virtual format. Agenda items include:

• Item 11: a resolution authorizing the use of $125k in federal Community Development Block Grant funds to implement path lighting in Sycamore Park. This improvement was identified as the highest-priority improvement in the Northeast Area Plan’s list (on p. 79) of Community Action Strategy projects for the Burke Heights neighborhood in District 3. The neighborhood has been hoping for this for a long time. I will note, however, that this improvement is contingent upon the City's receipt of its FY25 CDBG formula grant allocation from U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
• Item 15: an interesting informational presentation on the 2025 Summary Report on the Biergarten at Olbrich Park. Here are the presentation slides. Interesting facts about their 2025 operations include: 42,000 visits, similar to 2024 levels; challenges are customer capacity and storage; community benefit events supported 14 local organizations; and the Biergarten was mentioned in Brava Magazine and the New York Times this year.
• Item 16: an informational presentation on the draft Woods Farm Park and Canter Park development plans – these are up for discussion at this meeting with an adoption vote to take place at a future meeting. The presentation slides apparently aren’t available yet, but will be attached to this Legistar item soon.
• Item 17: a Planning Division staff update on the Southeast Area Plan for discussion and feedback. From Park staff: “Our team has coordinated with the Parks Division (Adam Kaniewski) on the parks and open space component of the Plan in the Green and Resilient chapter. Staff will provide an informational presentation to the Commissioners to give an update on this planning effort and share initial draft Actions and Maps.” The presentation isn’t available yet but will be attached to this Legistar item soon.

Meeting info:

• Meeting Details
• Meeting Agenda
• Register for Public Comment
• Watch Online

If you would like more information about becoming a member of a City board, commission, or committee, please visit the page linked here.

Fall Leaf Collection Suspended for 2025 Pending Weather

The snowstorm of November 29, 2025 was significant and more snow has fallen since, creating multiple days’ worth of clean-up work after each snowfall that require staff to be diverted from leaf pickup duties. The same City workers who pickup leaves are the folks that drive the snowplows and responding to snowstorms is a higher priority for safety reasons. On top of that, recent cold weather has frozen the snow and leaf piles, making collecting them practically impossible at scale.

If there is a prolonged period of favorable weather before Christmas that allows the Streets Division the time to perform leaf collection, they will try and will share that news here. However, to be clear, residents should not count on this unlikely circumstance. This is certainly disappointing news to many residents, especially those that had a set out date of November 30, 2025 and those who were hoping for a “last chance” final pickup. The weather had other plans for the late fall season and the period of time between the last leaves falling in mid-November and the first winter storm on the 29th was too short to pick up leaves in every neighborhood. Routine yard waste collection cycles resume in the spring. 

Door Creek Park Shelter Opens for Winter Recreation Rentals and Concessions December 20

Image credit: Madison Parks

Madison Parks has hired 46 staff members for the winter season and staff training began in early December. Cleaning and organizing of Madison Parks winter locations is currently underway. 

Starting Saturday, December 20, winter equipment rentals and concessions will be available from the warming pavilion at the brand-new Door Creek Park shelter here on the Far East Side, weather and conditions permitting. Madison Parks will rent ice skates, snowshoes, and cross-country skis, and sell concessions at this location. Door Creek will also have a new 100-foot by 200-foot NiceRink for ice skating, free of charge for those who bring their own skates.

Beginning December 20th, Door Creek shelter concessions and equipment rental hours of operation will be:

• Wednesday to Friday from 4 PM to 8 PM

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  Image credit: Madison Parks

  Saturday from 12 PM to 8 PM

• Sunday from 12 PM to 6 PM 

The Door Creek Park NiceRink is not open for skating quite yet – see Parks’ Ice Skating webpage for more information. For skiing, anyone 16 years old or older will need to purchase a daily or annual ski permit - more information about ski permits is available here. Staffed hours are subject to change and dependent on the weather and trail conditions.

Also, NiceRink at Heritage Heights Park is also set up and will open later this season.

Find upcoming winter events in Madison Parks at this webpage!

Events & Announcements

• Make Sure Your Home is Winter Ready!: A reminder for home and business owners to make sure your water pipes are protected from freezing or bursting this winter. [posted December 3, 2025]
• Madison Completes the Second Year of the Building Energy Savings Program:  City staff are proud to announce that 85% of required commercial buildings are in compliance with the program. [posted December 1, 2025]
• Metro Transit December Service Updates: Starting Sunday, December 7, Metro will implement several route, schedule, and stop adjustments, including the closure of the South Transfer Point. [posted December 1, 2025]
• Jeffrey Clay Erlanger Civility in Public Discourse Award Winner is Eve Galanter : The award was created by the Common Council to honor Madison residents who exemplify Erlanger’s model of fairness, openness, and civility in public discourse. [posted December 1, 2025]
• City of Madison Economic Development Strategy Public Workshop, Thursday, December 11: The City of Madison, in partnership with EQT By Design and 4th Economy, is holding a public workshop to engage community members in shaping the city's economic development plan.
• Holiday Fantasy in Lights, Saturday, November 15, through Monday, January 5, 2026: Lighted holiday-themed displays set in beautiful Olin Park. Drive through from dusk until 10:00pm to enjoy this magical light show for free, brought to you by The Electric Group.

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.