Southwest Area Plan Public Meeting

media release: Residents, community organizations, businesses, and others are invited to join in the second phase of the planning for the Southwest and Southeast Area Plans with a series of public meetings in the coming weeks.

Since the Southwest and Southeast Area planning processes began in 2024, City staff have received community feedback through survey responses and interactive mapping comments, as well as during in-person and virtual meetings. Now residents have another opportunity to connect at the next set of virtual and in-person meetings to see what the City has heard so far during the planning process.

These meetings will provide an overview of issues and opportunities in the planning area and offer a chance to review and comment on draft plan actions. Presentations at the virtual meetings will be followed by discussion and feedback. In-person meetings will have a short presentation followed by an open house.

Three public meetings have been scheduled to discuss draft actions and maps for the Southwest Area Plan:

1. October 23, 6-7:30 p.m., Chavez Elementary School Gym, 3502 Maple Grove Dr.
2. October 29, 6-7 p.m., virtual - registration required. 
3. October 30, 12-1 p.m., virtual - registration required.  

A draft of actions and maps will be released for public review about a week prior to the in-person meeting.

Survey Results Available

The results of two surveys conducted earlier in the planning process in collaboration with Ph.D. students from the UW–Madison Sociology Department are now available.  The first survey focused on housing, jobs, and transportation.  The second survey focused on development and mobility.

After the kickoff events, there will be many opportunities to share your thoughts with City staff over the next year: a resident survey will be sent out to a random sample of the people living in the planning areas in January 2025, a second round of public meetings to summarize feedback received from the community will be held in February 2025, and City staff will visit businesses in the spring. Initial draft recommendations will be presented at a third set of public meetings in the summer of 2025.

Members of the public will have the opportunity to give feedback along the way, which may lead to further edits to the draft plans. Final drafts of the Southwest and Southeast Area Plans are expected to be up for review and approval by City Boards, Commissions and Committees and the Common Council by the first quarter of 2026.

Throughout this process, City staff will share updates on what they’re hearing from residents during engagement events, and develop informational pieces to help describe some of the more technical topics that will come up during the planning process. These materials, along with informational slides and recorded meetings, will be posted on the project web pages.

More details about future public engagement events will be announced at a later date. In the meantime, those interested in updates on the area plans can subscribe to receive e-mail newsletter updates on the City of Madison web pages for the Southwest Area Plan and Southeast Area Plan.