So, the City of Madison is doing its comprehensive planning update that is required every 10 years. This is what drives most development decisions in the city . . . well, this, and TIF and other government hand outs. Where are we at and what’s next? And how will you get involved? Unless, of course, you don’t care how the city develops (until its next door to you!).
From the Plan Commission last night.
STAFF PRESENTATION
Colin Punt gives an update, the last the Plan Commission got an update was in November. In December they had two phase one meetings, one at the Central Library (100 attendees) and the other at the Villager Mall (65 attendees). They used their iclickers that they purchased for this process for real time polling. That was well received and got good comments. 130 responses to the original on-line survey, that came down in December and now there is an issues and goals survey that is on the website until Mid-February, its a re-creation of what happened at the meetings and there have been 120 responses to that so far. They are also working on getting their resident panels up and running. They have 40 responses from organizations, which was higher then they thought, they contacted 12 groups to go forward. They have 700 email addresses on their list, you can also sign up on the website, they just put out their third update on Friday, have over 100 twitter followers (or 93), 220 facebook likes (222), the website is getting alot of traffic. 526 visits last week. 2300 unique visitors to the site so far. Since October they have been to 33 meetings with 900 people. They have been doing some planning pop-ins (neighborhood meetings, potlucks, boards, committees, commissions, etc), also doing Imagine Madison give-aways for people who participate. They just posted their mini-documentary (series of interviews about hopes for the future) with Madison residents. They tallied 250 responses to the issues and goals through last Friday, they got 750 comments. All of the goals have been very important except the Downtown as a regional center- that is an outlier. They also have been looking at how people think we are doing and the parks and open space is the one people think we are doing the best at. Many people have not been as optimistic about our economic development (groan) or our housing goals right now. Sustainability and equity are two of our major themes and have been commented on alot and people are pleased with that focus. Additional goals people have recommended – education is the one they heard the most – others are public safety, civic engagement and city service delivery. They have done demographic studies to see who they are meeting and there has been alot of great participation 25 – 40 and 55 – 70. Poorer for young adults 18 – 25. African American and Hispanic representation has been slightly lagging city demographics but they think when they get into the resident panels that will improve. Soon Ben will lead them through an areas of change map process which will lead to the changes to the future land use map, they hope to get more input in February and March and publish it around April 25th to coincide with the phase 2 public meetings. They are hoping to have a work session to go over phase one results on Feb 23. They have two tentative dates and plan to add a third date to the phase 2 meetings.
Mike Rewey asks about economically disadvantaged people participating – how are you doing on that. Colin says that they are not tracking that, its mainly age, race and ethnicity. Rewey says he suggests they look at that, its an area they are likely to be missing that badly. Heather Stauder, Planning Director says that two of the resident panels will have that focus and they will continue to try to get more people that are economically disadvantaged to participate in meetings and on-line.
Ben Zellers talks about areas of potential change (see memo here) There is a powerpoint (that wasn’t online yet). The “Areas of Potential Change” are areas that may change land use type, density or intensity. The mapping is not a prediction or recommendation, they are more likely to change due to demographic shifts or economic factors. Many of the parcels in the area may not change, but then some parcels may face some changes. This will help focus future discussions on certain areas. The current comp plan has not done this, this goes a step further. Criteria to be a an area of change started with the 2006 Comprehensive Plan future land use map, and looked at Regional Mixed Use, Community Mixed Use, Neighborhood Mixed Use, High Density Residential, General Commercial and Regional Commercial areas. They looked at those areas because they were areas where they could see change and there was fairly low density development in these areas. They also looked at the 2006 Infill areas, they were very general in nature. They also looked at adopted neighborhood plan areas where there is undeveloped land. They also looked at land within 1/4 mile of Metro Service that is four times per hour and by Bus Rapid Transit route plans. Other criteria included Madison in Motion Activity Center, areas with low improvement value to land value ratios (<80%) - where land is worth more than improvements, aging manufacturing buildings, industrial buildings and shopping center other than 30 years and parcels with large parking lots and underdeveloped outlots. All these factors led them to areas of potential change. They are large aggrigated ares. West Towne, East Town, S. Park St and portions of Commercial Ave heading north. On this Isthmus they designated parcels. They also looked at areas on the periphery and then long term growth areas (20 year planning horizon). The Isthmus has a parcel map. They also compared the areas of potential change and areas of development. The map shows that alot of the developed areas are within the areas they identified.
They did emphasize some areas for feedback from the plan commission. Mobile home parks is one area of discussion. They are not sure if this is going to be in the final comprehensive plan. They thinkt he ones along the beltline have a high degree of interest in redevelopment, but it also is affordable housing. There is a tension there to preserve the affordable housing. They also want to look at the Miffland area, the 6 block area identified in the downtown plan which calls for additional planning which they are doing in 2017.
DISCUSSION
Mike Rewey asks about the northside – he says alot of the area is wetland and he would like the maps to be more specific – the city and county own most of the land and it isn’t a growth area. Zellers says the green shading is not necessarily development but the city may grow in that area. Rewey says that the map doesn’t look credible – since its wetland. Zellers says it is future open space. They argue, the chair cuts them off. Heather Stouder attempts to explain again that the map has different designations. Rewey says “long term growth area” label is confusing. They continue arguing . . .
Brad Cantrell asks about the Isthmus. He lives in the 500 block of Main St. and it appears that they are showing parking lots and apartment buildings build in 60s and 70s with parking in front, but not showing some of the older homes that have been converted to 3 and 4 units that are not well maintained. He would suggest they look at some of those residential structures that should be taken out and combined with some of the less attractive 8 unit buildings to get a large enough development site. At least in the Bassett Neighborhood. He can understand historic preservation and preserving some of the homes, but some of the other blocks are out of scale.
Sheri Carter asks about Madison Mobile Park on the beltline, she is concerned about the people who live there now. They are extremely low income and the possibility of them qualifying for housing in the market is slim and that is why they live there and she would be concerned with redevelopment that threatens their safety net of having a roof over their head. She would caution developers and the owner of the park to proceed with caution.
This will be introduced to the public with the future land use map.
Brad Cantrell says that the downtown plan has some guidance about the Miffland area. He says that is an area that is uniquely located and it could be a mix of uses, high density residential, mixed use research use, not university expansion, but some office use. Plus retail and services. He says that they need to look at this area closely because of the opportunity.
Staff says that they will keep that in the areas of change map based on that.
