City Meetings and Updates Week of September 28

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  • City Meetings:
    • Finance Committee 9/28
    • Plan Commission Special In-Person Policy Meeting 9/29
    • Transportation Commission 9/30
  • 2027 Capital Budget at Finance Committee, Proposed Amendments Include Full Implementation of Body-Worn Cameras in 2027
  • Madison Metro School District Boundary Review Public Meetings Scheduled
  • Reminder: District 3 Office Hours 9/28 and 10/3 in Local Parks
  • Events & Announcements

City 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, September 28, at 4:30 p.m. in virtual format. Agenda items include 2027 Executive Capital Budget deliberations – please see the below section of this post.

Plan Commission, Special In-Person Policy Meeting

The Plan Commission meeting will take place on Tuesday, September 29, at 5:00 p.m. in Room 215 of the Madison Municipal Building at 215 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd. Agenda items include:

  • Item 2: An update on the Data Center Moratorium and City staff research for a new regulatory framework the City may adopt before the moratorium expires in January. Here's the staff presentation and here's a more detailed staff memo. From the memo: “At this time, staff recommends the following framework for zoning regulations related to data centers: 
    • Create three data center uses based on size, as defined below. The recommended framework would include a maximum data center size limit of 100,000 sq. ft. and allow only one data center on a property.
    • All data center types are a permitted use; however, supplemental regulations and limits on where certain data center types are allowed will help control for the predominant land use/development concerns for each data center type.
    • Additional regulation would limit allowance for data centers in the TOD Overlay District, where housing and transit-supportive mixed-use development is a policy priority."
  • Item 3: An update on Wisconsin 2025 Act 173 which impacts local governments' development regulations. Here's a detailed staff memo. Per the memo: “2025 Act 173, commonly referred to as the “Truth in Planning" law, introduces important changes to the relationship between comprehensive planning and zoning. The law, which takes effect January 1, 2028, includes two primary changes that the City will need to develop a plan to comply with: 
    • Requires comprehensive plans to identify where residential development will occur over a twenty‐year planning horizon, broken into five‐year increments, with minimum and maximum residential density ranges for planned growth areas. 
    • Requires the City to approve a rezoning request associated with a proposed residential housing development within 90 days if it is consistent with the comprehensive plan."
  • Item 4: An Overview of Intergovernmental Agreements. I think the presentation will be posted as an attachment to this Legistar item, but it isn't available yet. 
  • Item 5: A presentation on the Neighborhood Indicators Project and some of its data shown using the geography of the City's Area Plans. Here's the staff presentation.

Written comments can be emailed to pccomments@cityofmadison.com. 

Meeting info: 

Transportation Commission 

The Transportation Commission meeting will take place on Wednesday, September 30, at 5:00 p.m. in virtual format. Agenda items include:

  • Item 2: A resolution amending ordinances to rename City Traffic Engineering to the Mobility and Infrastructure Division to better reflect that agency's work (I'm a cosponsor). Here's the staff presentation they will give at the Transportation Commission meeting.
  • Item 5: Potential updates to the Complete Green Streets Guide and related process improvements. Here's the staff presentation. Note: this is item is for a discussion, not legislation up for a vote. 

Meeting info:

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

2027 Capital Budget Hearing at Finance Committee, Proposed Amendments Include Full Implementation of Body-Worn Cameras in 2027

Monday's Finance Committee meeting agenda includes a hearing on the 2027 Capital Budget. The Capital Budget is how the City pays for capital assets like property, buildings, vehicles, and equipment. Importantly, it is separate from the Operating Budget for staff salaries and contracted services, which is the portion of the budget that is severely restricted by State law, and which will be at Finance in October. 

In Monday's meeting, members of the Finance Committee will take up the Mayor's 2027 Executive Capital budget proposal and may offer amendments. Non-Finance members can co-sponsor amendments. There are six proposed Capital Budget amendments to be considered in Monday's meeting: 

  1. Purchase property for new North District Police Station and Fire Station, $3.5 million. Funding is available in the General Land Acquisition Fund, which is supported from the sale of City assets. 
  2. Interstate 94 interchanges, $8.6 million, of which $150k is in 2027 for design and $8.4 million is in 2029 for construction. This represents the local cost share for the new Hoepker Road interchange, which is planned to be entirely covered by private contributions. The project is contingent on UW Hospitals contributing $8.6 million, resulting in no cost to the City and no assessments to homeowners. (Note: the potential Milwaukee Street interchange with I-94 is not a part of this project and, if it moves forward, is likely to take place later in WisDOT's multi-decade-long Interstate Corridor Project.)
  3. Streets Pavement Management, $650k from Tax Increment District 48 to resurface West Main Street between Proudfit and Fairchild.
  4. Body-worn cameras for police, $335k (I'm a cosponsor). This amendment advances the full implementation of body cameras from the current three-year rollout plan, to taking place entirely in 2027. Capital Budget funds from this amendment will pay for the actual cameras and equipment. This is partially enabled by the recent news about a $350k grant from the Madison Community Foundation to cover the resulting increase in MPD's Operating Budget expenses (new staff to handle the cameras, manage video footage data, fulfill footage records requests, etc.) in 2027. Note that these added Operating costs will be added to MPD's cost-to-continue estimate starting in 2028, meaning they will be covered by local funds – property tax dollars. 
  5. Portable radios for police, $3.8 million (I'm a cosponsor). This amendment advances funding to replace MPD's portable radios into 2027, rather than a three-year schedule. MPD and City Finance have started to work with the vendor on the contract and has found there are multiple financial and vendor support benefits to paying for all of the radios in one year.
  6. Passenger rail station, no new money – changes the description in the budget to add language about how project funding can be used. 

You can find more information here about each of the proposed amendments. After Monday's meeting, the 2027 Capital Budget will go to Council in November for final adoption. 

Madison Metro School District Boundary Review Public Meetings Scheduled

From MMSD:

“Come early to our in-person sessions to connect with others and enjoy dinner before the presentation begins. Food and refreshments will be available 30 minutes prior to each session.

In-Person Events

  • Monday, September 28 | 5:30 p.m., Steamfitters Local 601, 6310 Town Center Dr.
  • Tuesday, September 29 | 5:30 p.m., Henderson Elementary School, 1201 Tompkins Dr.
  • Wednesday, September 30 | 5:30 p.m., Hamilton Middle School, 4801 Waukesha St
  • Thursday, October 1 | 5:30 p.m., Gompers Elementary School, 1502 Wyoming Way
  • Thursday, October 1 | 5:30 p.m., Boys and Girls Club, 4619 Jenewein Rd.
  • Monday, October 5 | 5:30 p.m., Lake View Elementary School, 1802 Tennyson Ln.
  • Tuesday, October 6 | 6 p.m., Stephens Elementary School, 120 S Rosa Rd.
  • Wednesday, October 7 | 5:30 p.m., Olson Elementary School, 801 Redan Dr.
  • Wednesday, October 7 | 5:30 p.m., Warner Park Community Recreation Center, 1625 Northport Dr.
  • Thursday, October 8 | 5:30 p.m., CENTRO, 2403 Cypress Way (Presentation in Spanish)
  • Monday, October 12 | 5:30 p.m., Meadowlands Apt. Complex, 6834 Milwaukee St. 

Virtual Sessions

Here's the MMSD webpage with more information. 

Reminder: District 3 Office Hours Sept 28 and Oct 3 in Local Parks

District 3 residents, please consider joining me for my upcoming office hours. There will be two opportunities to stop by:

  • Monday, September 28th from 5:15pm-7pm at the North Star Park sun shelter
  • Saturday, October 3rd from 10am-noon at the Kennedy Park shelter

Stop by to discuss local issues, share your vision for the district, or get updates on City business. No appointment necessary!

Hope to see you there! 

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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