Judith Davidoff
The property at the corner of John Nolen Drive and Olin Avenue, which includes the Coliseum Bar, is caught between two land use planning processes.
Some have portrayed neighborhood opposition to a luxury high-rise redevelopment proposal at the corner of John Nolen Drive and Olin Avenue — and the move to preserve the Wonder Bar in its midst — as anti-development fervor. We are two south Madison neighbors and we can tell you that is not the case. The issue is that this “wedge” of land is caught between two land use planning processes and neighbors have not been involved in either.
The city of Madison launched its South Madison Plan Update in 2019 and on Sept. 9 will unveil three conceptual redevelopment plans for portions of south Madison. The area included in the update forms roughly a donut without the hole. These concept plans focus on the Thorstad site, Perry and Ann streets, and The Village on Park Street. No planning is included for the wedge of land just south of the Bay Creek neighborhood and north of the Alliant Energy Center, which includes the site of the McGrath Property Group’s recent proposal for an 18-story mixed-use luxury apartment building. Bordered by Olin Avenue, John Nolen Drive and Wingra Creek, this wedge is filled primarily with older commercial buildings, while the nearby residential neighborhoods contain low- to mid-density naturally occurring, owner-occupied and rented affordable housing.
Dane County has also spent several years developing a new master plan to guide the expansion of its Alliant Energy Center campus (the hole in the donut of the South Madison Plan Update). Since most of this campus is currently in the town of Madison, the Alliant Energy Center Master Plan does not become eligible for city adoption until late 2022. The Center’s planning also includes a “Destination District” surrounding its campus, which is mostly in the city of Madison and within the boundary of the South Madison Plan Update; it consists primarily of city parkland, including Olin, Turville Point, Quann and Goodman parks, and also contains the wedge that holds the Wonder Bar. The county has stated that the Alliant Energy Center’s expansion will “revitalize south Madison” and “reshape Madison.”
A question many neighbors would like answered is how the changes proposed for the Alliant Energy Center and adjacent lands will benefit those who live nearby and what these changes will entail. A recent Capital Times article quotes Jeff Greger, a city land use planner, as saying, “This [South Madison Plan Update] is going to look at ways that change in south Madison can benefit the community [that] lives there — whether it be affordable housing, jobs or improved public transportation — with minimum or no displacement of people and businesses that are in that area….”
The city has repeatedly refused neighbors’ requests to discuss the interaction between south Madison and the Alliant Energy Center expansion even though the Center’s Master Plan and Destination District Vision & Strategy papers both focus on connections to south Madison. City planners insist the donut and its hole have nothing to do with one another. Dane County, for its part, has refused to provide an opportunity for community review and comment on the three Alliant Energy Center expansion proposals currently under consideration.
The need to plan for this property wedge became blatantly clear this spring, when McGrath Property Group took south Madison by surprise with its proposal for the easternmost portion of the wedge. The building would have been the second tallest in Madison and would have had a dramatic impact not only on the nearby neighborhoods and parks, but also on the avian life that inhabits the area. Nearby neighbors were not informed in advance of the proposal because of an important oversight they now seek to redress; the developer was not encouraged to meet with area residents prior to submitting their plans to the city because the site of their proposed development lies outside the boundary of local neighborhood associations. The wedge is not, according to the city, part of any neighborhood.
Perhaps this is why McGrath’s application for development downplayed the aging South Madison Neighborhood Plan — the only existing area plan — which recommends “increas[ing] homeownership…throughout the neighborhood in appropriate locations” while “...retain[ing] commercial and manufacturing areas.” This plan, developed with extensive community participation in 2005, favors “multi-family, mixed-use, and commercial developments along and/or adjacent to the major transportation corridors [that] incorporate traditional neighborhood design principles, especially regarding pedestrian-oriented features.”
The city’s much more recent 2018 Generalized Future Land Use map, also created with community input, designates the wedge (including the site of McGrath’s development) for employment uses, with a maximum permitted height of four to five stories. It recommends against focusing primarily on residential construction here. Even the not-yet-adopted Alliant Energy Center’s Master Plan calls for “human-scale public realm” development with a maximum of eight stories on the land adjacent to the Alliant Energy Center campus. Instead, McGrath Property Group and city planning staff sought justification for the proposed 18-story building by referring to the not-yet-adopted Alliant Energy Center’s Master Plan and Destination District Vision & Strategy, even though neither of these unadopted plans could be cited by the Plan Commission as a basis for decision-making.
Ultimately the Plan Commission did the right thing and voted unanimously to reject McGrath's proposal on the grounds that it was not in compliance with various city development standards, which include existing planning guidelines, area and neighborhood long-term plans, and the significance of historic preservation. The standards also enumerate specific criteria that a developer must meet to receive approval for a Conditional Use Permit, which allows exceptions to zoning code limits, such as additional building height. McGrath’s proposed 18-story tower would have soared 13 stories beyond the maximum four to five stories currently zoned for an employment site, thus requiring a Conditional Use Permit.
At the meeting, Plan Commission member Anthony Fernandez warned that if approved, McGrath’s project would have become a catalyst for similar high-end growth in the low-to-moderate-income neighborhoods surrounding the Alliant Energy Center. It would have put pressure on the city to ignore the logic of existing plans and those in the making in favor of the vision of a single developer. Fernandez argued that the area targeted by McGrath needed a plan that advances appropriate and community-supported redevelopment, echoing what nearby neighbors have been requesting for several years.
Clearly the wedge is ripe for redevelopment. But development without a plan is folly. We can’t anticipate the impacts of development in south Madison and the ways in which change will benefit — or harm — the community if we don’t view the area holistically. The South Madison Plan Update, led by city planners in consultation with community members, ought to take into account the impacts of the Alliant Energy Center campus expansion and Destination District vision on its nearby neighbors. We should not be relying on developers, whose insistence on return on investment can skew their interpretation of community benefit, to plan for us by default.
We need to take the time now, while the new South Madison Plan Update is still in process — extending its completion date as needed — to plan more comprehensively for the future of south Madison, looking at both the donut and its hole together. The city should work with the community to create a special area plan, with height considerations, to guide development in the wedge as well as consider the impacts of the county’s plans on surrounding neighborhoods. Conversation should include a discussion of the Alliant Energy Center’s desire to utilize already well-used city parks for its own benefit and should focus on protecting and enhancing surrounding residential areas and promoting affordable housing, home ownership, equitable healthy food access, living-wage and long-term employment, and recreation.
This request is not evidence of anti-development sentiment in south Madison — or elsewhere in the city. Rather, the city’s development standards and planning processes should be upheld. Fashioned over decades, they exist to protect all citizens, but especially the most vulnerable and the most likely to be displaced. They are among the reasons Madison continues to be attractive to new businesses, residents, and development proposals. Sustained growth requires a thoughtful approach. This includes community input.
Carrie Rothburd is a Bay Creek neighbor and community activist; Dave Davis is a Capitol View neighbor.
