Thursday, March 18, 2010

Back to Five Feet

The Ad Hoc Monona Drive Advisory Committee met this morning and conceded to the more-or-less inevitable reduction of the Monona Drive sidewalk between Winnequah Road and Cottage Grove Road from 8' to 5' after the city of Madison recently refused to split the right-of-way for the additional width.

This change, however, is inconsistent with the approved environmental document. The FHWA will have to review and approve the change.

You can argue the merits of 8' versus 5', but the way Madison went about making its decision stinks. The only interests considered by their alder Larry Palm were those of the abutting property owners. Madison's alder-centric policy-making meant that actual users of the corridor, especially young and inexperienced bikers, were handed the wrong end of the stick. And the project has been on hold for  months waiting for Madison to make a decision on the design (Monona had finished re-debating the issue last October).


 

 

See my earlier posts:

Isthmus Mangles Monona Drive Story

 
 
 
More Monona Council Report  September 09, 2009

 

9 comments:

  1. Typical Larry Palm behavior -- and a real problem with, as you mention, the alder-centric way of doing business (which not only allows incredibly deference by fellow Madison city council members to alderoid wishes, but has alderoids over-ruling citizen boards and even city staff). More than any single individual, Palm is responsible for the gates near the MG high school that no one seems to like, save for about 10 residents of one road.

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  2. An ironic twist to be sure. Many of the Monona people pushing for the five foot sidewalk have no love lost for Madison and at least one has espoused the philosphy that if "Madson does it, that's a good reason for Monona not to do it."

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  3. I understand that there might not be room for the full 8 feet without the Madison shift. But if it was to be split, doesn't that mean we could fit 1 1/2 feet extra into the space as planned? For all the same reasons as before, it still makes sense to keep it as wide as possible and 6 1/2 is still a little better then 5.

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  4. The Monona council will have to approve the change in design and could go for 6.5'. That was not discussed at the meeting.

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  5. Alderman Doug Wood,

    I don’t understand why you are whining about Madison not accepting the Monona plan for Phase Two of the Monona Drive reconstruction. The Madison engineering department told the ad-hoc committee in June and July of last year that,
    “The Monona plan was not acceptable to the city of Madison.”
    Another interesting note is the fact that Madison listens to the property owners that are being affected by this reconstruction and yet ninety percent of the Monona people that live in the Phase Two area said with a petition and at the public hearing that they did not want an eight foot multi-use side walk. Why didn’t you listen to them? Madison did!!!
    I noticed also that the Madison's plans were first approved by the Madison Public Works committee and engineering before being approved.
    The Monona Public Works committee has never seen anything on the Monona Drive phase one or two reconstruction. WHY? Why are you keeping the Monona Public Works committee from having anything to do with the biggest public works project in Monona’s history?
    The eight foot multi-use side walk seems to have a safety issue. Has this gone to our Public Safety Committee?
    Is this because the Monona Mayor and Council have their own agenda and don’t want the proper committees to have a say in this?

    Richard H. Lichtfeld

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  6. Hold on a minute! I am not a rocket scientist, but.....Madison looks pretty silly on this one, and Monona has already done the right thing. Having considered the issues and the larger needs of the PUBLIC RIGHT OF WAY, Monona decided that the needs of the people included a 8' sidewalk.
    Those needs, and all of the evidence considered in July and October, have not changed. The only thing that has changed is that Madison looks silly. We did NOT fight for this to be like Madison, or to follow their lead. We did it because it is the responsible way to rebuild this street.
    This has NO IMPACT on the setback requirements on the Monona side of the street. If the Ad Hoc committee had allowed the revised design to be re-centered, then Monona would have gained 1.5', but that was not allowed. (We used this argument last year to show that 5' sidewalk in Monona might gain us only 1.5') So we still need the same amount of land acquisition to rebuild the sidewalk to meet the needs along this corridor.
    Even if Monona is foolish enough to follow the lead of Madison, we still have to tear up all of the Monona properties along the drive to rebuild and widen the street, to accommodate vehicles and cyclists. IF we ignore the obvious needs of everyone else who do not belong in the street, then we have failed to do our job, to serve the public interest, on this public right-of-way.
    So again, nothing really needs to change in Monona. The council approved the 8' sidewalk, the budget has been approved to acquire the land, and we cannot invest so much money and disruption along this corridor, just to maintain the status quo for all of us who would rather walk, jog, take out the family, etc.
    This public corridor cannot be easily avoided, thanks to Lake Monona. This Lake Loop is a great asset, connecting our city to Olbrich Park and all points north, and we need to make sure that we rebuild it for current and future generations, to be able to get around safely without having to drive.
    And imagine Monona standing up for a more sustainable vision, while Madison screams NO! so that a few mature trees can hang on another year. I hate to see a tree get cut down too, but that's why we plant new ones. Trees come and go, just like people, but our species needs to make it easier for future generations to walk again, so that we are not all stuck in vehicles, disconnected, fat, and miserable. Our community needs to do the right thing. That's why we are proud to live in Monona, right? (Or does Jeff Wiswell want to make Monona the 21st Aldermanic District of Madison? Just kidding, :-)

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  7. Mayor Dick: "...ninety percent of the Monona people that live in the Phase Two area said with a petition and at the public hearing that they did not want an eight foot multi-use side walk. Why didn’t you listen to them? Madison did!!!"

    My response: Listening and agreeing are not the same thing. We did listen, we did not agree. As I recall, when you were Mayor, we did not just cave in to what some residents wanted if it wasn't the right thing for the whole community. In my view, the 8' walkway is in the interests of the whole community. The drawback of only listening to the residents along that stretch is that the vast majority of the users of the street and sidewalk are not heard from.

    Mayor Dick: I noticed also that the Madison's plans were first approved by the Madison Public Works committee and engineering before being approved.
    The Monona Public Works committee has never seen anything on the Monona Drive phase one or two reconstruction. WHY? Why are you keeping the Monona Public Works committee from having anything to do with the biggest public works project in Monona’s history?"

    My response: First of all, I know you are fond of conspiracy theories, but there isn't anything nefarious going on. From day one, we have been using the ad hoc committee as the Monona committee to review the Monona Drive project. Sending it to another committee seems like duplication of effort. The contract with the consultant would require us to pay extra for extra meetings. The amount of work required, at least early on, was the equivalent of a full committee so that giving this to the PWC would have either overwhelmed an already busy committee or caused something to get less attention than it deserves.

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  8. MC: "This has NO IMPACT on the setback requirements on the Monona side of the street. If the Ad Hoc committee had allowed the revised design to be re-centered, then Monona would have gained 1.5', but that was not allowed. (We used this argument last year to show that 5' sidewalk in Monona might gain us only 1.5') So we still need the same amount of land acquisition to rebuild the sidewalk to meet the needs along this corridor."

    My response: I will double-check, but I am nearly certain that an 8' walk would in fact require taking another 1.5' from the Monona side. My conclusion is that is just too much additional impact.

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  9. Richard,

    I'm not sure if you were at the council meetings where this was discussed, but there was always at least an equal number (more?) of Monona residents that SUPPORTED the wider side walks. To the best of my knowledge, the renovation of Monona Drive is to benefit all of the residents of Monona, not just those who live along this section. If it were for the sole benefit of those living along this route, I would have expected a) the residents to pay for the renovation instead of the city and b) that the design would look drastically, drastically different. I would hope that I wouldn't have to explain to you that it is the duty of the City Council to weigh the needs of the community as a whole against the concerns of the people whose property is involved. I assume that this is why we have decisions made by an elected government as opposed to a Grecian-style plebiscite where the will of the majority can overwhelm the objections of a few.

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