Common Council

Greetings and important updates

Hello everyone,

Greetings from your new alder, Lindsay Lemmer. It is a great privilege to represent you.

The Common Council and our new Mayor, Satya Rhodes-Conway, took office on April 16. 

I plan to keep you informed via this email and blog, and am hoping to have regular open "office hours" in the district and will announce timing and location for those shortly.

Here are some community and city updates:

Improvements for Cottage Grove Road and Buckeye Road

The city and county reached an agreement over funding. Here's what's planned.

• Cottage Grove Road's improvements will start next year, and include the stretch from I39 to Sprecher Rd. Improvements include:

  • Expanding to four lanes

  • On road bike lanes

  • Adding sidewalk where there isn't one

  • Curb, gutter, sidewalk, storm sewer

• This year, Buckeye Road improvements will be completed, and include the stretch between Monona Drive and Stoughton Road. Improvements include:

  • Curb, gutter, storm sewer and sidewalks.

Property assessments - What you need to know 

• How to challenge them.
  • Property owners can view their 2019 preliminary assessments at the Office of the City Assessor on business days between 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. through Wednesday, May 1. This is known as the "Open Book" period, and is set aside for property owners to discuss their assessments with Assessor's Office staff before it's finalized.
  • During this time, the City Assessor is allowed to make any changes that are necessary to perfect the assessment roll. When Open Book ends, any change to the assessment roll (property values) requires formal process in front of Board of Assessors/Board of Review.
  • Property owners may schedule in-person meetings with appraisers, by appointment only, for April 25, 30 and May 1.
  • Phone and/or email contact with appraisers regarding values is encouraged and accommodated during this period. Contact information: assessor@cityofmadison.com; (608) 266-4531
     
• Why did they increase?
  • The market value of all properties in the city is established each year by the City Assessor. For more information, please see the 2019 Guide for Property Owners.
  • Residential property assessments are determined primarily by comparable sales in the Assessment Area (complete list of sales by area for 2019), as well as improvements made to individual properties. Commercial property assessments are primarily determined by comparable sales or applying the income approach to value based on income generated by the business conducted at the property.
  • Overall property values have grown 6.4% in 2019 over 2018 on the strength of a 6.3% increase in residential and 6.5% increase in commercial property values (commercial property includes apartments).
  • The average home value is $300,967, which is an increase of 5.7% over 2018, reflecting stronger housing sales. Changes in average single family residential value (excluding new subdivision areas) ranged from a low of a 1.5% decrease in the Westview Hills assessment area (southwest Madison) to a high of a 21.7% increase in the Near East assessment area (Capitol Square).
     
• Breakdown of the percent change in some of District 3:
  • Grandview Commons - 2018 avg: 270k, 2019 avg: 292k, 8.5% change
  • Door Creek/Reston Heights - 2018 avg: 226k, 2019 avg: 282k, 6.1% change
  • Rolling Meadows - 2018 avg: 201k, 2019 avg: 220k, 9% change
  • Heritage Heights - 2018 avg: 229k, 2019 avg: 248k, 8.3% change
     
• More information:
  • http://www.cityofmadison.com/news/2019-property-tax-base-of-the-city-of-madison
  • http://www.cityofmadison.com/news/property-assessment

Parks

• Help clean up the parks! Saturday, April 27, 10 am-12 pm.

  • Celebrate Earth Day with your neighbors by volunteering to clean up an area park.

• North Star Park.

  • In response to requests from a few folks, there is now a garbage receptacle at North Star Park.

  • Dog exercise area coming to North Star Dog Park

    • Construction is slated for this fall for a dog exercise area at North Star Park. More detailed information is anticipated next week.

• Door Creek Park.

  • Four more tennis courts are being constructed to the south of the existing four courts. Additionally, an accessible path is being added to the courts from the southern end of the west parking lot.

  • Per community requests for pickleball lines, I did find that while pickleball lines aren't being added to these courts, plans are underway to rebuild the 2-court complex at Northland Manor Park (District 18) in 2019 – and to dual stripe those courts for pickleball play.  Also, Parks anticipates including the addition of dedicated pickleball courts at Warner Park as part of its capital budget submittal – so there are several pickleball projects are in the works concurrent to the Door Creek project.

  • Mighty Seeds Forest School is coming to Door Creek Park.

    • This is an outdoor pre-school for children ages 3-6. It has a limit of 12 children, and will be at the park for four-hour sessions. Learn more.

    • They are having an open house on Saturday, May 18, 10 am at Door Creek Park.
       

Watch out for ticks

Warm weather has finally arrived, which means it's time for yard work and outdoor activities. People may think of doing tick checks only after coming in from hikes or being in the woods, but due to the increase in ticks in our area they should now make tick checks part of their daily routine, even if they've been in urban areas or their own backyards. Here's what to do to prevent tick bites and what to do if you find a tick on yourself or a family member.

Water quality issues

• On April 11, Madison Water Utility announced detection of PFAS (Per- and Poly-fluoroalkyls) at additional wells in the City. These are very, very low level detections – many are at levels too low to accurately quantify. Currently the Utility does not know the sources of PFAS at these wells.
• You can find more details and well service area maps on at the PFAS Testing & Information Page.
• Wells 11 and 25 serve much of our district. No PFAs were detected at Well 25. Well 11 had preliminary results that indicate the presence of very low levels of PFAS. However, the lab flagged those results due to its own quality control issues, so the well will be re-sampled in the coming weeks.
• Find out which wells serve your home.
• What are PFAs?
  • PFAS are a widespread class of more than 3,000 chemicals used in food packaging, water-resistant clothing, firefighting foams, stain resistant upholstery and carpeting, and nonstick cookware. Low or trace levels of  PFAS have been detected at several city wells. While it's not unusual for man-made chemicals to be detected at very low levels in city water, Madison Water Utility is monitoring PFAS levels to ensure they aren't increasing substantially.
  • More info: http://www.cityofmadison.com/water/water-quality

• Is my water safe to drink?

  (Information provided by Public Health Madison Dane County's Director of Environmental Health and Environmental Epidemiologist)
  
  Given that PFAS levels in Well 15 have been detected are well below the EPA Lifetime Health Advisory level and haven't varied much since monitoring began, the water is not considered a potential threat to health. Public Health Madison Dane County does not recommend that residents invest in filtration systems or use bottled water at this time. The same can be said of the five other wells where trace levels of PFAS have been detected.
  
  This guidance also applies to households that include pregnant women, infants and children, and the elderly since the EPA advisory considers these more sensitive populations when it is formulated.
  
  More information.

City and Local Engagement Events

• Dane County Town Hall with Rep. Mark Pocan, Saturday, April 27, 10--11 am, Badger Rock Neighborhood Center, 501 East Badger Road, Madison.

• Madison Public Market Sneak Peek Feedback and Tour, Wednesday, May 8, 5-7 pm, Fleet Services Building, 200 N. First Street, Free & Open to the Public.

  • Join the City of Madison and the Madison Public Market Foundation on Wednesday, May 8 to share feedback on updated designs for the Madison Public Market and to tour the building that will be the Market's future home.

  • Stop by this open house style, free event! RSVP appreciated, but not required.

• Bus Rapid Transit Public Meeting Tuesday, May 14, 6-7:30 pm.

  1. Attend BRT Public Meeting #2 on Tuesday, May 14, 6-7:30 PM at the Madison Senior Center (330 West Mifflin Street). There will be a presentation and open house focused on route and station location options for the East-West BRT.

Still have sandbags?

• Sandbag call out: City asks public for sandbag information.

The City of Madison Engineering Division would like to gather information about who still has sandbags in the City of Madison in need of collection after last year's flooding.

This information will be used to plan potential curbside collections and sandbag removal strategy. This sign up does not confirm curbside collection. It is to learn how much work and where, if any, there needs to be done to gather remaining sandbags.

The City of Madison posted a form online for the community to fill out. Please fill out the following information fields: name, location, how many sandbags and a point of contact.

Thank you everyone, and stay tuned for more.

Lindsay Lemmer, District 3 Alder