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| District 6 Capital Projects Underway The 2025 budget includes funding for several projects that will benefit District 6. Last month, I was thrilled to see a project from 2024 come to fruition — the installation of a rectangular rapid flashing beacon, or RRFB, on Pheasant Branch Road at Gaylord Nelson Road (below). The RRFB will make it safer for people to cross between the conservancy and Middleton Hills. If you’ve used the RRFB, you probabaly noticed that only the lights only on the west side are currently working. I reported this to the city and learned that the problem is a software glitch originating with the vendor. The Public Works Department is awaiting some new parts and will fix the lights as soon as the parts arrive.  The preliminary plans for the rehabilitation of two stormwater ponds in the district have been approved by the Water Resources Management and Stormwater Utility Commission, or WRMSUC, and the city is soliciting bids. One pond is the Middleton Hills Southeast pond, which is located along Pheasant Branch Road across from Middleton Glen. The project will restore the basin, make it deeper, and install a liner to comply with current design standards. In addition, the containment berm around the basin will be raised and flood risk to properties to the north will be reduced. At the WRMSUC’s request, the project will add some trees to the area around the pond. The Spring Hill Pond is one that I would bet few people have ever seen. It’s tucked away behind the houses on the north side of Spring Hill Road, west of High Road, and south of the Ziegler farm. The work on this pond will restore the basin and deepen it to improve its performance with regard to infiltration and water quality. Improvements to the access path used for maintenance is also part of the plan. It’s possible the work on this pond may be delayed until the development plans for Pheasant Crossing on the Ziegler farm are finalized. Funding for both of these projects will come from the Stormwater Utility. Readers may remember that Parmenter Street reconstruction has long been on the list of projects affecting District 6. Council funded the project in the 2023 budget and the preliminary design was on the agenda for my first meeting as a member of the Public Works Committee in May 2023. Construction projects of all kinds frequently encounter delays. The reason for delays with this particular project is the need to negotiate with property owners to obtain easements, both temporary ones for when construction is happening and permanent ones for the roadway encroaching upon the property. Unfortunately, those negotiations took longer than anticipated and ultimately weren’t productive. (Read the memo from the consultant if you’d like to learn more.) As a result, the design changed several times to avoid the need for such easements. The original medians as well as the multi-purpose path on the east side of the street have been modified. Perhaps most disappointing is that the multiuse path will be interrupted at Nonn’s. Bikes will be able to use the bike lane, and an RRFB is anticipated to be installed at Graber Road to help pedestrians cross so they can continue walking on a sidewalk. The sidewalk along the west side of the street will be particularly helpful for people living at Cardinal View and the Tribeca apartments. At its meeting on January 27, the Public Works Committee approved the final design for bidding and scheduled a public hearing on the project to take place on February 24 at the committee’s meeting. If all goes well, construction will commence in June. The $4.6 million project will be funded through a $1 million grant from Wisconsin DOT and the city’s Tax Increment District #3. I’ll use E-News on 6 to report on progress with these and other projects affecting District 6 and its residents. Plan Commission Approvals The Plan Commission’s two meetings in January were productive and fairly routine. On January 28, we considered the MCPADS’s request to rezone a city-owned parcel from Conservancy to Parks and Recreation for the construction of new or improved ballfields at Middleton High School. Readers may recall that, back in May 2024, the school district wanted to rezone the property to Institutional so that they could build fields made of artificial turf. I opposed that change, as did six of my seven colleagues on Council. The Parks and Recreation zoning designation allows only 25% impervious surface area, which rules out the possibility of using artificial turf. As a result, the district has committed to use natural grass for the fields. Earlier in the month, we held the required public hearing on this request and received only one comment, which opposed the rezoning. It’s important to note that the existing baseball field at MHS is already on the parcel that is zoned Conservancy. The requested zoning change would apply only to Parcel 2 shown in the image below.  The Plan Commission accepted the “findings of fact” prepared by the staff and recommended that Council approve the rezoning request. Council has this item on its agenda for February 4. At both Plan Commission meetings in January, I noted that some portion of this parcel appears to be in the environmental corridor designated by the Capital Area Regional Plan Commission, or CARPC. Our zoning code imposes additional requirements for any construction in an environmental corridor, so the Commission agreed to address this issue and any requirements that should apply when the MCPASD submits the site plan for our review and approval. Also on the 28th, the Plan Commission passed a resolution approving a Conditional Use Permit, or CUP, that will allow stormwater facilities to be constructed on private land zoned Conservancy within the new Pheasant Crossing development in District 6. These stormwater facilities will be critical for protecting the Pheasant Branch Conservancy. In fact, most of these Conservancy parcels lie within the Graber Greenway, which I wrote about in my December newsletter. At the suggestion of Commissioner Randy Bruce, we added a condition requiring the developer “to submit an appropriate and descriptive landscaping plan to be reviewed by City staff for the stormwater outlots.” Our intention in adding this condition was to formalize a request we had made in discussions with the developer to incorporate native landscaping that transitions gradually into the residential lots. The Plan Commission has the authority to approve CUPs without Council approval, so this action is final. The developer, current land owners, and the city are still working out the details regarding the ownership and future maintenance of all the outlots zoned Conservancy. At our meeting on January 14, the Plan Commission approved the site plan for the development of two 3-story apartment buildings on Middleton Beach Road (aka “the soccer field”). As I reported in last month’s E-News on 6, the Water Resources Management and Stormwater Utility Commission had previously approved the developer’s request to pay partial “fees-in-lieu” for the entire development site, which includes these two buildings and two future 5-story buildings with apartments and commercial space along Allen Boulevard. Through its attorney, the MBR Neighborhood Association has requested that the WRMSUC review its decision. Housing and Community Development On January 31, the Common Council held a “Committee of the Whole” meeting focused mainly on affordable housing. Olivia Parry, a senior planner with the Dane County Planning & Development Department, walked us through the components of an Affordable Housing Action Plan. If Middleton were to develop this type of plan, it would guide our efforts to develop more affordable housing throughout the city over a five-year period. Affordable housing is defined as housing that costs no more than 30% of an individual’s or household’s gross income, including rent or mortgage, property taxes, utilities, and insurance. The Workforce Housing Committee, which I chair, spent 2024 developing recommendations for Council on this very subject. The committee’s name refers to “workforce” housing, but affordable housing is also important for seniors who live in Middleton and want to stay here as well as others who would like to move here to be closer to family and friends. We’re advocating for Council to take advantage of a provision in state law that would provide funding for an affordable housing program by extending the life of one of our Tax Increment Districts, or TIDs. If we pursue this option, it would mean we’d have around $11 million in funds available for our affordable housing program starting in April 2026. Under state law, at least 75% of the funds must be targeted at affordable housing, and the remaining amount would have to be spent on other housing-related improvements in Middleton. Although the funding would come from TID 3, which includes the downtown area, the funds can be used for housing in any part of the city. Council President Katy Nelson asked alders to review maps of their own districts and she urged us to think about where we could envision new housing being developed in the coming years. As many readers are aware, District 6 has three significant housing and/or mixed-use developments in varying stages of development. When complete, these developments will bring around 1,900 units of housing to the city. I joined Alder Nelson in encouraging my colleagues to identify opportunities for their own districts to contribute to the city’s goals for housing. According to the Dane County Regional Housing Strategy, Middleton needs to add 318 units of new housing annually, both rental and owner-occupied between 2020 and 2040. The COW meeting was the first opportunity for Council members to discuss the Workforce Housing Committee’s recommendations. The committee will be meeting jointly with the Community Development Authority on February 13 to continue brainstorming about how we can work together to develop an affordable housing action plan for the city. As I mentioned in my December newsletter, housing is one of my top priorities for 2025, so I’ll be reporting on this topic frequently throughout the year. Sustainable Middleton Middleton’s 2023 Comprehensive Plan includes two actions to reduce single-use plastic in the city. The reason we included these actions in the plan is to reduce plastic pollution and the harm it causes in Middleton and beyond. In another attempt to address plastic pollution, last month, the city joined a “Plastic Bag Recycling Challenge.” The challenge runs for one year starting today and ending on January 31, 2026. It’s sponsored by NexTrex, a composite decking and railing manufacturing company that makes use of recycled bags in its products. If we collect 1,000 pounds of plastic bags, we’ll receive a new bench made of recycled materials. Read the NexTrex factsheet to learn what can be recycled, and drop off your bags at Metro Market or the Middleton Recycling Center. After we hit our goal, it would be a good idea to take any plastic grocery bags in good condition to WayForward Resources for use in the food pantry, and recycle the rest. In other city sustainability news, nominations are open for the annual Sustainable Middleton Awards. Launched in 2022 by the city’s Sustainability Committee, the awards recognize individuals, businesses, and organizations that take “significant sustainability actions” in the areas of energy, land stewardship, environmental education, food, transportation, waste reduction, water conservation, and runoff reduction. Award categories for 2025 also include student leaders and city employees. Nominate yourself, a neighbor, or a business/organization that you think is a model for sustainability. And if you’re a modest person and feel uncomfortable nominating yourself, consider this: one purpose of the awards is to spread the word about actions that can make Middleton more sustainable. So don’t view a self-nomination as patting yourself on the back. View it as a way to plant a seed for someone else who might be inspired to follow your example. February 28 is the deadline to apply. The application is on the city’s website. Finally, long-time readers may recall me writing about my experience to make my own home more sustainable and the many, many challenges I encountered when trying to replace my aging gas furnace with an all-electric heat pump. I’m happy to say that the heat pump I installed in 2023 has been running like a charm! It kept the house cool all summer and, with help from its backup heat, it kept us warm through the recent cold spell. This year, we’re getting a heat pump minisplit unit for our four-season room to make that room more comfortable in both winter and summer. (This room is an addition to our house, so it has always had HVAC issues, even when we had a gas furnace and separate AC.)Our electric panel is almost full, so we’ll be getting an upgrade to make sure we can accommodate the new heat pump and future appliances, like a heat pump water heater. We bought a used EV in January (see my Chevy Bolt EUV below), and a second electrical panel will make it possible to install a receptacle in our garage for Level 2 charging. We’re also considering adding to our solar array this year. We installed solar in 2020, but now we’re using much more electricity than we did back then, so it’s time to add more panels.  The Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, passed during the Biden Administration is still law, so we’re hoping to be able to get a tax credit for the new heat pump, the used EV, and added solar when we file our taxes for 2025. And when we file our 2024 taxes later this spring, we’ll get a $600 credit for the energy efficient blinds we installed last year. I know readers may have doubts about the future of these IRA tax credits under the climate-change-denying Trump Administration, and that is completely understandable — especially after the chaos caused this past week by the administration’s decision (later rescinded) to temporarily suspend disbursements of all federal financial assistance. But as Dane County’s climate tsar Kathy Kuntz advises in her blog, I’m focusing on the work, not the noise. I encourage readers to try to do the same. Thank you! Thank you for reading “E-News on 6.”. Feel free to email me or call/text me at 608.630.7500 if you need help with a city matter, want to relay your thoughts on an issue, or have questions about city decisions and my votes. I’m not active on social media, so the best way to reach out to me about anything official is by phone or using my district email. If you find this newsletter helpful, I hope you’ll share it with friends, family, and neighbors who live anywhere in Middleton. Just please make sure to ask them not to unsubscribe you and not to report this email as spam. Thanks! Not receiving this free e-newsletter directly? Sign up here. Important Stuff to Know I produce this newsletter all on my own,* at my own initiative, to help District 6 residents stay informed. This is not an official city publication, I don’t speak for the city, and producing this newsletter isn’t one of my official responsibilities as a member of the Common Council. If you’d like to reproduce or create new content from this material, please ask me first and make sure to cite the source. *Shout out to my husband Ed Janairo for his invaluable assistance with editing and proofreading! |