LakeWay vote for tonight

Hello neighbors,

I'm aware of the local blog post that shares information on tonight's Common Council agenda item related to the Madison LakeWay project.

I admit that this item was not at the top of my list for engagement: I’m not a member of the Board of Parks, and I wasn’t a member of the committee that brought us to this point. I also don’t fully understand everything in relation to the exemption that’s proposed, and I’m looking forward to learning more tonight. But I do know that there was one aspect of the blog post that was patently false: construction is not imminent. This project is probably 20-30 years away from coming to fruition. The reason is it’s really, really costly. The City of Madison does not have the resources to fully support the project, so it will be a public-private partnership. To my knowledge, no major donor has yet stepped forward to underwrite the project, and it will likely take many years until the funding has been acquired.

What is being planned in the near future is the reconstruction of John Nolen Drive. And since we have dreams of the LakeWay, it makes sense to get to the next phase of planning that project while we’re undertaking the street reconstruction, so we don’t inadvertently do something with the street that precludes an option we might want to take forward for the LakeWay project in the future. We’re doing the same process with Regent Street. Again, I don’t fully understand the exemption yet, but what I have been told is that because the LakeWay project will occur in multiple phases, it would be unwieldly to take each phase to referendum, so we need an exemption to move to the next phase now. That doesn’t mean there won’t be a referendum at some point in the future when the plans and funding are closer to reality. Again, I’ll be listening closely tonight to our City Attorneys, as I do want to understand the precedent this might set, and potential downstream effects of anything we do or do not decide to do in relation to the exemption.

I hope everyone interested in this topic will review the memo we received from staff to better describe the rationale and precedent for what is being proposed. I still have questions, and I look forward to getting them answered this evening.

Best wishes,

Regina Vidaver