Your Daily Guide

Last week, the City Council voted to loosen two longstanding zoning rules for nonresidential development or redevelopment projects.

Firstly; residential care facilities such as assisted living facilities, religious residential groups such as monasteries, farmers markets, places of worship and their accessory mission houses, hospitals, libraries, museums, schools, and outdoor recreation places no longer have to be accessible from high traffic streets.

Secondly, nonresidential buildings can be built 50 feet high instead of 35 feet in 15 residential zoning districts if the city Plan Commission approves it. [The City of Madison, 🔒Wisconsin State Journal]

Why make these changes?

A staff planning memo about the first zoning change explains that traffic engineers thought that this restriction could lead to safety concerns. Madison has already seen these concerns play out when it was proposed that Cherokee Middle School’s primary access point be at Midvale Boulevard to align with the zoning code.

The second zoning change was also inspired by an issue with zoning regulations and Madison’s schools, namely that redevelopment plans for Akira Toki Middle School and Orchard Ridge Elementary School would have the schools’ height exceed 35 feet. [The City of Madison, The Cap Times]

Why is this controversial?

Residents raised concerns at the council meeting that these zoning changes would lead to increased traffic on residential streets and change the character of affected neighborhoods. District 9 Ald. Joann Pritchett, the only alder who voted no on the traffic change, also expressed concern prioritizing new entities over maintaining neighborhoods.

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