Eric Murphy
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Alds. Marsha Rummel, left, and Juliana Bennett, co-host the Nov. 6 community meeting in St. John's Lutheran Church, across the street from the redevelopment area.
When downtown Madison residents filed into St. John’s Lutheran Church Monday night to discuss what should replace the two-acre surface parking lot called the Brayton Lot across East Washington Avenue from where they had gathered, everyone seemed to have the same thing in mind: affordable housing. But two sides differed on how best to build it as they discussed a proposal from Ald. Juliana Bennett to raise the height limit on part of the property along East Main Street from four to 10 stories.
“This is a truly once in a lifetime opportunity for us,” said Bennett, who represents the area north of the Brayton Lot, a block bordered by East Washington Avenue, Hancock Street, Butler Street and Main Street. Few other spots downtown offer such a large, unoccupied city-owned property ripe for the development of multiple buildings, which Bennett says is the perfect place for affordable housing, near transit and community amenities.
There is no current development proposal for the site, but Bennett said amending the downtown height map in the Madison General Ordinances, which has a limit of 10 stories on most of the block already, would allow the option of denser development and a greater number of affordable apartments. The property is currently being used as a staging area for construction materials and equipment for the city’s bus rapid transit project. The Plan Commission will consider Bennett’s proposal Nov. 13.
“I’m really excited about this opportunity to take away this parking lot,” added Ald. Marsha Rummel, whose district includes the lot, and who co-hosted the meeting with Bennett. “My goal is maximum affordability, not maximum revenue for a developer or the city.”
The two alders spoke in a room scattered with boxes and supplies as St. John’s itself is in the process of moving out of the building, preparing to redevelop the church into its own 10-story apartment tower with a mix of rent-restricted units.
Helen Bradbury, president of Stone House Development, noted that four- and five-story buildings typically allow for more deeply discounted rents than 10-story towers. “If you zone the whole thing 10 stories, developers are going to be fighting to do towers, market-rate towers. If you keep it at five stories, you’re actually going to kind of force people to do affordable housing,” said Bradbury. If the height limit were changed to 10 stories, “market-rate developers are going to bid up the price of the land to the extent that the city is hard-pressed to say no.”
Stone House developed an East Washington Avenue site with a similar zoning split that now features The Breese, a four-story affordable development on Mifflin Street, and Lyric, a 10-story market rate tower on East Washington Avenue.
Skeptics of the height limit increase pointed back to Bradbury’s comments throughout the meeting. Rummel suggested a compromise to raise the maximum height along the Main Street side of the block from four to six stories.
Young residents were out in force at the meeting, mostly to back Bennett’s proposal to increase the property’s height limit all the way to 10 stories.
“The composition of this room will tell you a lot about how young people are struggling in our community,” noted a speaker named Gregg, who didn’t want his last name to be used. “Ten years ago at public meetings it didn’t look like this at all.”
Eric Murphy
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Members of Madison Is For People, a group that wants to see more housing in Madison. Founder Will Ochowicz is on the far left.
Will Ochowicz, a Blair Street resident and founder of Madison Is For People, tells Isthmus he thinks young people in the city have started to engage more on affordable apartment development because they feel stuck renting and unable to buy. “It sort of feels like this pressure — if you didn’t already get a home, you’re not gonna get a home in the future and you’re gonna be renting,” he says. “I just don’t want to worry about housing so much, and I think a lot of young people feel the same way too.”
While Ochowicz wants as many discounted units as possible on the site, he says that with so many people moving to Madison, more housing of any kind is welcome. “As people are moving here, if they don’t have a place to stay, they will take someone else’s place to stay.”
Some older residents reminded the room that development plans for the lot have been ongoing since the 1990s and that the four-story limit along Main Street, created about a decade ago, was intended to complement the First Settlement historic district, which begins across the street. Plans originally envisioned an office building and a large parking structure on the site, but more recent plans have considered affordable housing and retail for most of the block, while eyeing smaller townhomes along Main Street. The lot is the former location of the Brayton school, named after Louisa Brayton, Madison’s first school teacher.
Even skeptics of the height limit change at the meeting still mostly wanted to see the site used for affordable housing. “The neighborhood has always seen the Brayton Lot as a perfect place for density,” said First Settlement resident Jim Skrentny. “I am happy to see the Brayton Lot become a part of the solution for affordable housing.”
But he added, he was not confident the proposed change has been explained well to the public. It could be a “change with unintended consequences.”
Since the city owns the land, it will ultimately issue a request for proposals from developers for the property and choose a project that fits requirements that the city sets for its development.
Said Skrentny: “I look forward to the day Louisa Brayton’s name isn’t followed by ‘lot.’”
