After being on the council for 8 years, and plan commission for 3 years, I was a little surprised to hear that there are some plans the city has been taking a look at for years . . . here’s the report from the EDC meeting.
As Tim Cooley was doing his staff report, he mentioned in passing that they were working on plans for development along John Nolen Drive. Chris Schmidt wisely asked what that was about and here’s the explanation:
Tim Cooley, Economic Development says that they are working with Vandewalle and Associates and Tim Metcalfe on a “big dream”, he says the idea goes back decades with designers and architects. The question is how do you open up the area and make the lake front more accessible? How do you program the lake front from Monona Terrace to the beltline. He says there have been beautiful plans over the years, how do you incorporate the park? How do you work with the county on the arena? There could be a land bridge over John Nolen to connect the two sides of the street. They are saying the area needs it, you don’t see lake until you turn after Olin Turville, there are homes and the medical association and the hotel and it needs to be integrated. They can open the area and enjoy and utilize it, the plan has been around for decades. Tim Metcalfe and his family are doing this from a philanthropic position, they don’t own anything, its mostly public land, they are not going to own it, they saw it and want to work with community. They have been meeting with alders in the affected districts and met with the mayor, he encouraged them to form a nonprofit, maybe private or with the city- Economic Development has been asked to be at the table to look at what kind of development and growth could it spur, what kind of effects could it have. Essentially there are nice sketches, nothing more than that.
Interesting eh? I can’t quite tell what that was all about, but apparently, its a serious discussion. Also interesting that this is the second proposal for public land in the last few weeks (bike path restaurant), I wonder how many more of these deals are out there?
I wonder how the changes on shoreline developments done for the Edgewater may play out here.