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City Meetings and Updates Week of June 1

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  • City Meetings:
    • Finance Committee 6/1
    • Plan Commission 6/1
    • Transportation Commission 6/3
  • Transportation Commission Considering Removal of Milwaukee S/Meadowlark Ln Crossing Guard
  • Eastside Madison Bike Infrastructure Tour With City Traffic Engineering Staff 6/6
  • Potential Sycamore Park Community Gardens Survey – Share Your Interest
  • Events & Announcements

City Meetings

Finance Committee

The Finance Committee meeting will take place on Monday, June 1, at 4:30 p.m. in virtual format. Agenda items include:

  • Item 2: a resolution approving an extension of the provisional appointment of the Interim Independent Monitor from June 8th, 2026 until the position of Independent Police Monitor is filled on a permanent basis or March 31st, 2027. 
  • Item 11: a resolution amending the 2026 City Economic Development Division budget and authorizing the purchase of four properties in the new Starkweather neighborhood (old Voit Farm) for the City's land banking program, using funds from the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District 55 which includes that area. 
  • Item 14: a resolution amending the 2026 City Economic Development Division and authorizing a development agreement to fund a TIF loan to assist in the development of office, manufacturing, and research space for Realta Fusion, Inc at the old Oscar Mayer site, financed through TID 54. Here is the staff presentation with an overview of the proposal and the uses (and many jobs) potentially coming to the Oscar Mayer site, and here is the detailed staff memo. Importantly, the funding would only be distributed in increments after specific investment value and job creation thresholds are met. 
  • Item 15: a presentation of the 2025 Year End (budget) review and an update on the 2027 budget outlook. The presentation will be attached to this Legistar item, though I don't see it yet.

Meeting info:

Plan Commission

The Plan Commission meeting will take place on Monday, June 1, at 5:30 p.m. in virtual format. Agenda items include development-related requests (none in District 3).

Transportation Commission

Map showing the southeast area's high injury network areas and intersections needing improvements. Info relevant to district 3 is described in the post.
Image credit: City Planning
This map shows High Injury Network areas in red and problematic intersections with the blue/yellow dots. 

The Transportation Commission (TC) meeting will take place on Wednesday, June 3rd at 5: p.m. in virtual format. Agenda items include the transportation-related provisions of the Southeast Area Plan. I wrote in more detail about the draft Plan and the legislative adoption process in this recent post. Here's the staff presentation to the TC and here's a detailed memo. Transportation-related plan recommendations relevant for District 3 include: 

  • Install more traffic calming/lane markings on Milwaukee, Kurt, Swanton, and Thompson
  • Consider north/south-running Metro routes across the area
  • Improving pedestrian street crossings of Milwaukee Street, South Stoughton Road, and Cottage Grove Road
  • Improve lighting under bridges and on a few streets in the Hiestand neighborhood
  • Improve bike markings at intersections along Milwaukee street
  • Explore wayfinding sign project for various City paths, including Autumn Ridge
  • Upgrade the Cottage Grove bike lane safety
  • Bring a bicycle share (B-Cycle) stations to the area by seeking public/private partnership funds
  • Continue coordination with Wisconsin Department of Transportation on future Beltline, Stoughton Road, and Interstate projects

In addition, the Commission will review a Traffic Engineering staff recommendation to remove the crossing guard currently placed at Milwaukee Street at Meadowlark Lane. Please see the next section in this post for more information.

Meeting info:

Transportation Commission Considering Removal of Milwaukee St/Meadowlark Ln Crossing Guard

The City's School Crossing Guard program places adult crossing guards at crossings near schools with at least 20 observed student crossings on their way to school based on the Elementary School Crossing Protection Criteria. The number of crossing guards is finite because they are funded from the City's Operating Budget. The City periodically counts these student crossings and removes guards from low-use intersections to use the program's resources most effectively.  

Graph showing single-digit monthly average crossing counts at Milwaukee and Meadowlark
Image credit: Traffic Engineering
This graph shows the most recent school year's observed student crossings at Milwaukee and Meadowlark. Note that it's an average of AM and PM crossing counts, which is why some counts appear to show half a student.

Traffic Engineering staff have done such a review based on the and are proposing to remove four crossing guards, one of which is at Milwaukee Street and Meadowlark Lane. Here's the staff presentation with recommended actions; see slides 48 to 51. The criteria policy states guards can be removed due to “Low numbers of elementary school aged students utilizing the crossing (less than 10/shift over two years)". I requested the actual crossing count data from staff and learned that student crossings at this intersection have been in the single digits, below that threshold for removal, consistently for the past several school years. Please see the graph to the right for those numbers. Staff shared: “there were numerous days this school year where the guard did not cross any students going to Kennedy".

Milwaukee Street is a busy road that sees hazardous driving speeds and behavior. This crossing is one way that kids living at The Salvation Army's temporary shelter at the old Karmenta site could take to school – though the student count data suggests that's probably not how most actually get to school. (Note that students who live at The Meadows are in the Shenk Elementary attendance area, not Kennedy's, so they primarily do not cross here.)

Kennedy Elementary School Principal Vanessa Kent shared this perspective on the proposed removal: 

“One significant factor impacting foot traffic at this crossing is that Kennedy Elementary and our community partners have intentionally invested substantial time, funding, and resources into transportation supports for students and families living on the opposite side of Milwaukee Street, particularly families connected to the Salvation Army family shelter. Over the past several years, families have consistently communicated that they do not feel comfortable having their children walk across Milwaukee Street independently to get to school.

As a result, we have worked proactively to coordinate alternative transportation options whenever possible. In many ways, the reduced crossing numbers may actually reflect those mitigation efforts rather than an absence of safety concerns or need for crossing support.

While the number of students currently utilizing the crossing may fall below the established threshold, I do worry about the potential impact of removing the crossing guard should transportation supports fluctuate or become unavailable in the future. Given the transient nature of housing at the shelter and changing student enrollment patterns throughout the year, the need for safe pedestrian access can shift quickly."

It's hard to stomach the notion of removing a safety support for some students who cross here on their way to school, based on data that may be low because local advocates have been working so very hard to remove transportation barriers to improve school attendance. At the same time, other, higher-traffic intersections need crossing guards too, and the dollars are limited. 

Residents wanting to weigh in can register their position (support, oppose, neither) and optionally register to speak during the virtual meeting, at this link. Select the June 3rd Transportation Commission meeting and item 5 on the agenda. Residents may also send commissioners an email: TransportationCommission@cityofmadison.com.

Eastside Madison Bike Infrastructure Tour With City Traffic Engineering Staff Next Saturday 

Map of the intended eastside bike infrastructure tour.
Image credit: Madison Bikes

As part of Madison Bike Week, City Traffic Engineering is hosting a bike tour to highlight bike infrastructure on the East Side. The tour will be a roughly 11-mile ride along bike paths, and neighborhood streets highlighting some recent projects, future projects & planning efforts, and plenty of discussions around street lighting, traffic signals, traffic signal operations, geometric designs of streets and opportunities for discussion.  

For more information, visit the event page here.

Potential Sycamore Park Community Gardens Survey – Share Your Interest

Neighborhood-serving community gardens are some of Madison residents' favorite features of our City.

A motivated group of folks in the Burke Heights neighborhood are working with the City and Rooted, Inc. to potentially add a community garden at Sycamore Park. This project is one potential use of Community Action Strategy funds available to the Burke Heights/Sycamore Park area neighborhood as recommended by the 2024 Northeast Area Plan - see page 79 of the Plan, “Potential CAS Projects" where a community garden for Sycamore Park is priority #2 (after lighting and safety improvements in Sycamore Park, priority #1, which is also in the works).

They want to hear from you about your potential interest in participating, getting a garden plot, and volunteering to make this project happen – especially if you live near Sycamore Park. (Reminder: the new Autumn Ridge path and bridge means many Hiestand Park and Rolling Meadows neighbors are a short walk or bike ride from Sycamore Park!)

Here's the survey where you can weigh in: https://forms.gle/fimdqNBQZYRH6Pjp7

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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Portrait of Alder Derek Field

Alder Derek Field

District 3
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