Shiva Sums It Up

Rummel rounded it up yesterday, here is Shiva Bidar-Sielaff’s summary, sent out on Monday and available on her council website as well! 🙂 Enjoy another alder perspective!

Dear neighbors,

Below I share a summary of some key District 5 and city issues:

Traffic/Parking/Bike/Pedestrian Issues
· Digital speed reader boards: Traffic Engineering will be installing a speed board by West High School, in the westbound direction on Regent Street just past Allen Street.
· Kendall Bike Boulevard: RNA Board representatives and I continue to hold regular monthly meetings with David Dryer and Dan McCormick from Traffic Engineering. Come Spring, we hope to be able to present a suggested phased plan to the neighborhood for your feedback.
· Shorewood Hills and the City of Madison have hired a consultant to study and propose improvement options for the University Ave & Farley/University Bay Dr. as well as University Ave. & Ridge intersections. The final report should be available soon. My priority is to improve pedestrian crossings at these intersections and I will share the suggested improvements through the RNA listserve for your feedback.
· Clean Streets/Clean Lakes Program: I am sponsoring an ordinance change to add District 5 to the districts participating in the Clean Streets/Clean Lakes program. The Clean Streets/Clean Lakes program will prohibit parking on Thursdays mornings (garbage collection day) so plows and sweepers can access both sides of the block once a week. It is especially helpful in avoiding the snow accumulation on street blocks with no alternate side parking restriction. We have already implemented this program on Arlington Place and I am working with neighbors on getting this program implemented on Kendall Ave. between Highland and Lathrop. If you are interested in helping with a petition to implement this program on your block, please contact me.

Olive Jones Park Renovation
I was able to successfully include $25,000 in impact fees in the 2010 City budget and funding commitments have been made by the Franklin/Randall PTO. Additional fundraising efforts led by Friends of Olive Jones will be underway soon. An Olive Jones “task force” had been meeting to turn this longtime proposal into reality. Members of the ‘taskforce” are John Wallace, Randall School Principal, Sabrina Frey, Franklin/Randall PTO representative, Jodi Knauss, Friends of Olive Jones, MarciaVandercook, RNA school liaison, Kay Rutledge and Bill Bauer from the City Parks Division and me. Our goal is to have a project timeline and phased plan by early February. I am committed to get phase 1 of the renovation done this summer.

Wisconsin Energy Institute Building
As you know, the University of Wisconsin is building a new facility, the Wisconsin Energy Institute, on the campus at 1552 University Avenue (site of the old University Health Services building) at the corner of University Avenue and Breese Terrace. A second public information meeting is scheduled for January 26 at 7pm in Room 1610, Engineering Hall. The project has also started to make its way through the city approval process. The project website is www.news.wisc.edu/wei. One exciting new development is the discussions with the city engineering to use the opportunity created by this project to reevaluate the Old University Ave. and Campus Drive intersection to decrease traffic flow into Old University Ave. and to improve bike & pedestrian traffic.

Old University Ave. Corridor Plan
One of the most critical issues for District 5 is to finish the University Ave. corridor plan in the next year. I am working closely with the RNA Board and the City Planning Department to make this happen.

Plastic Bag Recycling
The City of Madison joined a nationwide movement to ban and/or recycle plastic bags by starting a plastic bag recycling program in December. There are a number of city drop-off sites as well as about 15 drop-off bins at retail outlets. A complete list of these locations can be found at www.cityofmadison.com/streets

City Budget
The City Budget was approved in November after careful deliberations. We were able to approve a budget that protects basic services and avoid cuts while keeping the tax levy increase at 4.1%. I am particularly proud that we continued our commitment to our city’s non-profit partners by supporting our community services funding at a time where, given our country’s economic situation, the need for social services is at an all time high in our city.

Zoning Code Rewrite
This is a major undertaking for the City since it is our first complete code rewrite since 1966. The draft code text is currently being closely reviewed by the Plan Commission and has also been referred to five boards/commissions for their review and comment. Once the boards/commissions provide their recommendations (likely in January) and the Plan Commission finishes the bulk of their work on the project, there will be a Plan Commission public hearing to receive feedback on the revised draft. It is anticipated this hearing will be scheduled for late February or sometime in March 2010. You may follow the progress of the code by checking the project website: http://www.cityofmadison.com/neighborhoods/zoningrewrite/index.cfm