Parking to be shared with 10 story building of housing? Yeah, the neighborhood will have something to say anout that!
NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING
Please join us for a neighborhood meeting where we will hear about a proposal by Stone House Development to demolish the Madison Dairy Produce building on the 1000 block of E. Washington Avenue to construct a 45,000 square foot, 2,000 – 2,500 seat music venue (to be operated by Frank Productions), a 200-stall parking ramp, up to a 10-story mixed-use building (stepping back from 5-stories on E. Washington) and three to four stories of affordable housing on the E. Mifflin Street block face.
Thursday, July 24, 2014
7:00 p.m.
John Wall Family Pavilion in Tenney Park
402 N. Thornton Avenue
The neighborhood listserves already had these comments on it:
Wish these private enterprises would jump in to help neighborhoods struggling, not just those viewed as up and coming. My neighborhood has seen the sales of single family houses as outrageous and so no families buy here..I would like to see investment in other neighborhoods as well..just a thought.
Sounds good – But can we also have indoor soccer fields – indoor /all-weather exercise space is desperately needed for our neighborhood
In general I think this is a positive development (but yes, indoor soccer fields would be nice…). One interesting issue that hasn’t yet been mentioned in the media is the fact that this development will be directly across the street from Lapham School. Not sure what it means, but certainly there will be traffic issues to figure out.
The project sounds good overall, yet my big concern is the sonic environment of the neighborhood. Will there be increased loud sound coming through the airwaves during concerts?
I think we must also look at parking. 200 spaces for 2,000 patrons, + road crew, + staff etc will not be sufficient.
Ditto to x’s concerns about sound. What will take place on the “balcony” of the major music venue?
Not only traffic but parking is another concern in this residential area.
My concern is also parking–just eliminating Johnson street parking during construction is a headache. Adding more people/cars/traffic to the neighborhood is going to squeeze out those of us who utilize street parking. I already think twice about what time or day I take our car to run errands out of fear of coming back to a jam-packed parking lot.
I’m all about Madison adding another music venue, and I hope Frank Productions will add parking with this development.
Sound will not be an issue. Any modern concert venue has sound abatement such that you can’t hear anyone playing if you walk into the lobby. With 65 apartment units abutting the property, they would not be able to rent to anyone if there wasn’t sound abatement.
That said, I don’t think there is a chance in hell that Frank Productions will pull it off, for one simple reason. There is no parking.
200 spots for 65 residential apartments plus 2000 people is laughable, there is no other public parking available within a mile. A venue like this belongs close to the highway, not in a residential neighborhood.
Residents in close proximity are already concerned about traffic. Add 2000 people driving around, half in the bag, on Mifflin, Dayton, Ingersoll and Brearly trying to get out of the neighborhood at 12:30 in the morning and see how desirable our neighborhood will become.I for one am soundly opposed to a development project of this nature.
In addition to traffic and parking nightmares, I would object to the hundreds of drunks stumbling out into the neighborhood. The bar time vandalism from downtown is enough for me.
Compare this location to the Barrymore, which doesn’t seem to have all of the problems imagined for the E. Wash location. Or how about the Brass Ring complex. Not one bit of parking there.
Note: They both have shared parking options from daytime businesses in the area
The Barrymore and Brink/Brass Ring/High Noon are not 2000 seat venues contained within a larger housing/retail complex. It’s a totally different scale. Not saying that the issues can’t be addressed…but there will be issues, especially concerning Lapham and the strong walk/bike-centric culture. (not to mention parking).
This is a neighborhood of families. I believe -and others I’ve talked to today agree-that what we really need in the ‘hood are more affordable homes for families. The near east side is beyond the reach of many working and even middle class people (I couldn’t afford to buy my house if I were to buy it now). Oh, and a movie theater would be popular since there is no downtown theater and Eastgate is about to close, leaving the entire East side without that kind of venue. I trust that there will be opportunities for the people who live here to provide constructive input to make this development work where it’s planted.
It is great to see all the development around town, mostly downtown, and especially on East Washington. I imagine the low interest rates and very favorable tax policies for high income people and Federal Reserve policy are encouraging this real estate development. Think how often you homeowners have refinanced in the last several years, and of the home improvements those rates have made possible with an esentially flat income, for many of us.
Real estate seems to have boom and bust cycles. I hope these investors are doing their homework, and know with some assurance that the housing supply and growth prospects of Madison will absorb the new units, at the prices they will need to receive; and that there is sufficient interest in and available spending available for more entertainment opportunities. Probably, commercial developments should be designed for accomodate a variety of uses. So far on E. Wash., only the Constellation project has broken ground. I hope all the proposals will happen, including Union Corners.
The brass ring complex had tons of on street parking because it isn’t in a residential neighborhood. The Barrymore is a venue half the size that isn’t tailored to the big names this venue is hoping to attract. People are going to travel from much farther away to see the bigger bands putting a lot of pressure on the neighborhood. Put the venue somewhere that makes sense. This isn’t good land use in a residential neighborhood with tight land constraints.
Indoor soccer fields? Affordable housing? Great, great. Nightclub? Oh hell no. As my neighbor xxxxx, we have quite enough drunk walk moments, with the accompanying noise and vandalism and peeing in driveways. I have seen it all. No thank you. Strongly opposed. And besides that, the Brink Lounge compound is huge and meets many music needs.
It’s worth remembering that Breese Stevens is a 4000-seat stadium, and once the turf upgrade is complete it’s going to get more usage and with it more parking demands.
Now’s also probably the time to flip through the Eash Wash plans, and look at the size of the buildings that were envisioned – and to remember that there’s no way the officespace/residential mix is going to be as skewed towards employment as was imagined in 2007 and 2008. Even with just the 800 block, Reynolds, and now whatever Stonehouse is building beyond the Frank Production, there’s going to be a lot of new neighbors in the next few years. If folks want to change their minds and reconsider the plan, now’s the time to do it 🙂
Tenney-Lapham’s had it pretty easy for street parking up til now, but that’s going to start changing.
I think my big concern is the Mifflin Bike Boulevard and a bunch of late night, out-of-towners with a few drinks not watching out for the bikes, many of whom do not have appropriate lights and dark clothes. Well, that, and how this will affect other popular music venues I know and love! I’d like to think it will enhance those, but fear the competition will have negative impacts, especially since Frank/True Endeavors books in many of those venues.
