Energ!ze Monona: Buildings: Achieving Maximum Efficiency

It's your money: how can Monona save $?

Efficient buildings save the city on energy costs, lowering our tax bills and lessening the harms of wasteful energy use. Please join us for this, the third of six Energ!ze Monona forums, and learn, share, and save!

Buildings: Achieving Maximum Efficiency.
Designer Christi Weber, LEED AP, Design Coalition; and Janine Glaeser, Projects Coordinator and GIS & IT Specialist, City of Monona.

This forum will look at what is being done and what can be done to increase the energy efficiency of existing buildings, and to make new development and housing more efficient from the start. What directions look most promising for the future? What kinds of zoning or building codes would promote building more energy-efficient buildings and homes?

Wednesday evening, November 2, 6:30 - 8:00
Monona Community Center, Main Hall, 1011 Nichols Road
Refreshments will be served.

Please join the City of Monona, the members of the city's Sustainability Committee, and The Natural Step Monona for this forum. Through February, The Natural Step Monona facilitates a forum around energy: a 20- to 40-minute presentation followed by group discussion of Monona's challenges and opportunities and the key actions to consider for moving our city toward ever less reliance on fossil fuels.

Energ!ze Monona forums are part of the City of Monona's outreach efforts around the "25×25 Plan," a blueprint for generating 25 percent of the energy the city uses from renewable resources by 2025. This plan came from Monona's participation in the state Office of Energy Independence's Energy Independent Communities program.

Monona City Council Report

The much awaited report of the June 7, 2011 Monona city council is finally here.

The Monona city council preview was here. Several items of interest are on the agenda.

*b. Consideration of Resolution 11-06-1782 Authorization to Proceed with Planning for Tax Increment District Amendment (CDA). This resolution would begin the process of amending TID #2. City Redevelopment Districts can be viewed here (related but not the same as TIDs). Somewhat dated TID map.TID #2 is at the southern end of the city along Broadway. Approved.

By the way, the State Senate have passed a bill to enact much stricter 'blight' standards for redevelopment. In this case they have taken the nub of a good idea and distorted beyond recognition. One analysis concludes the bill effectively turn out the lights on most redevelopment authorities (“RDAs”) and community development authorities (“CDAs”):

Since a blight finding is necessary for most RDA and CDA activities, the new restrictive blight standard would shut down substantially all activities of RDAs and CDAs, including, for example, lease revenue bond financings for tax increment projects, revolving loan and grant programs, the negotiated purchase of private property on a voluntary basis, providing assistance to private redevelopment of property, and making available conduit double tax-exempt financing to private development projects.

The Renew Monona Housing Loan program would be at risk under this bill.


* c. Consideration of Resolution 11-06-1783 Approval of Proposal from   BT Squared for Design, Surveying, and Construction Engineering Services for 2011 Dredging Project (Public Works Committee). This item is a $54,000 engineering services contract. It concerns me that proposals were not sought from any other engineering firm. I copy the entire resolution below. BT Squared has done the engineering for the Belle Isle street project that is currently underway. Approved.

I ended up voting for the contract after one amendment). I still had strong reservations about the process, but was convinced that BT Squared will provide added value as a result of having been the engineer for the Belle Isle street project. They have developed a rapport and trust with the neighbors and they have developed more data beyond the street project that will be useful for the dredging project.

However, when Alder Wiswell not only supported the contract but also tried to sell the notion that the contract had received a full review through the proper procedures that was too much. City policy calls for getting multiple proposals on engineering services in excess of $15,000 and that was not done here.

Last, this alder just about suffered apoplexy on the council floor when Mayor Miller seemed to indicate a desire to reconsider part of the South Winnequah Road Safety Recommendations (City Administrator). It sounded to me like he was wavering on the necessity of the permanent speed display signs and that perhaps the Public Works Committee should take another look at it. Double apoplexy! The Council approved the plan so only the council can change the plan. We have beaten our heads against that wall too many times. Stop the madness!

The Walker Idea

Once upon a time Wisconsin was a national leader in promoting worker rights. (For an excellent brief treatment of Wisconsin's prominent place in the development of modern labor relations read
this article by Madison attorney Joseph Ranney).

Governor Walker’s budget repair bill, if adopted, would not only reduce public employee compensation, but also roll back worker rights to bargain collectively with public employers. The proposed bill would virtually eliminate the collective bargaining rights of employees of state government, local government and school districts.

This is Wisconsin?

Here is LRB's full 48-page analysis.

The proposal would require state employees to pay about 5.8% toward their pension and about 12% of their health care benefits. As a public employee, when the elections turned state government 180 degrees, I expected to take an economic hit.

I did not expect the nearly total destruction of the state's system of collective bargaining for public employees. As far as I can tell, the elimination of collective bargaining was not mentioned during his campaign. The hit to the pocketbook will hurt, but for many the proposed changes to the collective bargaining law are far more important.
 
The governor's proposal would change the state's labor laws to eliminate collective bargaining on any topic except wages. That means there can be no bargaining over hours or working conditions. And if there is no bargaining on these topics, then there is also no binding grievance arbitration procedure on any dispute except wages.

This is Wisconsin?

The bill prohibits public employers “from bargaining collectively…with respect to…any factor or condition of employment except wages...” The prohibition applies to bargaining with state government, local government, and school district employees. [For state government, see SECTION 292, line 10, page 101, which creates s. 111.91 (3) of the statutes. For local government, see SECTION 223, line 13, page 82, which creates s. 111.70 (4) (mb) of the statutes. For school districts, see SECTION 303, line 22, page 104, which creates s. 118.223 of the statutes.]

While state and local government and school district workers could still have unions, these unions would struggle under impossible conditions. Here are some of the details:

• Annual elections to recertify the union - until the desired decertification result is obtained. The union would have to win 51% of all employees in the bargaining unit - not 51% of workers who choose to vote. If we required elected officials to win votes from 51% of the total eligible electorate, winners would be few and far between. 
• The state would no longer collect union dues through the payroll system. The union would have to try and collect from each member. Maybe the state should try that with income taxes.
• No "fair share" requirement. Non-union members could simply opt out of paying dues. (This practice has traditionally been considered 'free-loading'.)
• Wage increases would be limited to at most the increase in the Consumer Price Index.
• Contracts would be for one year and wages would be frozen when the contract expired (no extensions allowed). So, basically, unions would have no choice but to accept whatever management offered.

The full details are contained in the budget repair bill. (By the way, in my experience the analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau or LRB, which is found at the beginning of the bill, can be counted on to be fair and accurate.)

A summary can also be found on the League of Wisconsin Municipalities website.

This is Wisconsin?

The bill also eliminates collective bargaining entirely for some employees such as those at the University of Wisconsin, the UW Hospital, home health care workers, child care workers, and others would lose any right to collectively bargain at all.

This is Wisconsin?

***

By the way, for reasons that go unexplained, as introduced at least local law enforcement and fire employees, and state troopers and inspectors would be exempted from many of these changes and retain most of their existing bargaining rights. I believe they would be subject to making pension contributions and increased health insurance premiums. Changes to this provision were being considered, but did not make it into the bill passed by the Joint Finance Committee.

History and text of the bill and amendments.

Legislative Fiscal Bureau analysis of the amended bill.

***

I applaud the efforts of the Senate Democrats to obtain changes in the bill with regard to collective bargaining rights. Leaving the state to prevent a quorum may get GOP members to negotiate on the bill. It is clear there are some GOP senators who are very uncomfortable with proposed changes both as public policy and as politics. Whether they will be willing make changes remains to be seen.

***

You can follow the LRB on Twitter.

Monona City Council Preview - December 6, 2010

The Monona City Council meets this Monday, December 6 at 7:30 PM. Here's the agenda. The packet is here.

1. Unfinished Business (Approval Requested Unless Otherwise Noted).


a. Consideration of Resolution 10-11-1740 Approving the City of Monona’s 25 x 25 Plan for Energy Independence (City Administrator).

b. Consideration or Ordinance 11-10-621 An Ordinance Amending Chapter 13 of the Code of Ordinances Concerning Billboards (Plan Commission). City Planner Paul Kachelmeier's report gives an extensive summary of the Plan Commission's discussion at their November 22 meeting.

2. New Business.

a. Convene in Closed Session under Wisconsin Statute section 19.85(1)(g) Conferring with legal counsel for the governmental body who is rendering oral or written advice concerning strategy to be adopted by the body with respect to litigation in which it is or is likely to become involved (Litigation status report, Attorney Cole).

b. Reconvene in Open Session Under Wisconsin Statute Section 19.85(2).

* c. Consideration of Resolution 10-12-1731 Establishing an Ad Hoc Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Committee (Mayor Kahl). Appointments To the Ad Hoc Committee on Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety:

a. Chris Homburg
b. Branda Weix
c. Kathy Thomas
d. Alderman Mike Veserat
e. Alderman Doug Wood
f. Alderman Dennis Kugle
* d. Consideration of Resolution 10-12-1742 Approving the Low Bid and Authorizing Staff to Proceed to Contract to Raze and Remove Parcels at 4505 and 4603 Monona Drive (CDA). These are the two parcels the city purchased in the past year.

* e. Consideration of Resolution 10-12-1743 Approving the Low Bid and Authorizing Staff to Proceed to Contract for Assessment Services (City Administrator).

f. Consideration of Resolution 10-12-1744 Amendment to Independent Contractor Agreement with Foth Infrastructure and Environment for Engineering Services for Monona Drive Phase II (Ad Hoc Monona Drive Advisory Committee).

* g. Consideration of Resolution 10-12-1747 Calling Upon the State of Wisconsin and Dane County to Lower the Levels of Lakes Mendota, Monona, and Waubesa (Ad Hoc Flood Mitigation Committee). This is starred for immediate action, but it is not clear to me why.

***

Jen & Robb Kahl welcomed a new Monona resident to their home this week - Kennedy Hope Kahl, a beautiful baby girl. All are at home and doing well. Congratulations - again! 

Stock-Jobbery and Murder

Here is my  review of A Conspiracy of Paper: A Novel by David Liss (at Liss's website: http://davidliss.com/?page_id=49)

A Conspiracy of Paper was David Liss's first work of historical fiction. The book is set in London during the early 1700's and centers around the South Sea Company or more precisely, the South Sea Company's stock and its struggle against the Bank of England. In it the reader first meets Benjamin Weaver, a Jewish thief-taker and former boxer. Weaver is the central character in this book as well as The Devil's Company: A Novel, The Coffee Trader: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle), and A Spectacle of Corruption: A Novel.

Liss excels in the details of time and place, which allows him to achieve a realistic and factually accurate picture of London during the early stock-jobbing days, Exchange Alley, the Jewish `quarter', Newgate prison, and the most famous - or I should say infamous real-life thief-taker of them all, Jonathon Wild see also http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/lpop/etext/newgate3/wild.htm.

Thief-takers caught criminals and turned them over to the State earning a handsome fee in the process. Our man Weaver was one of the few honest thief-takers. Wild's imaginative business plan, on the other hand, earned him the title, Thief-Taker General as he played both sides of the street. He employed crooks and thieves and then `peached' them when their future value fell below the government's price offer.

Jonathon Wild

Liss sets Weaver to solve the murder of his estranged father and one of his father's business associates neither of whom appeared to have been murdered on the face of it (one died in an accident, the other by his own hand). Weaver soon finds himself caught between some of the most powerful forces in 18th century England: the Bank of England, the South Sea Company, and Wild.



Liss spins an engaging tale with marvelously rich historical detail. Unfortunately, he also has a taste for overly complex plotting. Liss drops heavy hints first that the bank was behind all Weaver's troubles and then that the South Sea Company was his nemesis. And then the bank, the company, the bank - you get the idea. Mix in a healthy dose of Wild and clues strongly suggesting his alliance with one or the other and the reader feels that the game isn't quite a fair one. Still, Liss's works are high quality historical fiction and well worth a read.

***

Henry Fielding, the great 18th century author of the picaresque novels Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones, also wrote a black comedy about Jonathon Wild.

***

Of course, the South Sea Company is rarely mentioned these days without adding the word 'Bubble' on the end. You can view some wonderfully detailed and grotesquely hilarious engravings in Het Groote Tafereel der Dwaasheid (The Great Scene of Folly), a Dutch book published n 1720 just after the Bubble burst. The following photos from the text are found on blaques_jacques photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bjacques/with/30975_66915/

Go to the next picture for the full engraving - and an explanation.



To understand what the heck is going on here,
go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/bjacques/3097566905/in/set-72157611015946994/



CDA Member Responds

A few weeks ago I took the Monona CDA to task for excluding city council members from the CDA's closed sessions. Last week I received a thoughtful response from CDA member John Surdyk and am posting it below:

Hi Doug,

My apologies for the lagged reply! I've tried to map out some of the salient issues below, and your welcome to share this on your blog if helpful.

Our decision on the participants in closed sessions was made after a significant amount of discussion: we wanted to be respectful of people's interests and well as legal and other obligations for CDAs.

As a group, we felt the presence of alders not already on the CDA who seek to collect information ahead of a vote, while valuable, is insufficient in and of itself to invite them in to closed meetings. It may improve the efficiency of the City Council's review and voting procedure because they are better informed ahead of time, but it could undermine the process by:

1. Reducing the quality and duration of City Council discussion and debate on projects which the public should hear at their meetings.

2. Not explicitly adding value to the CDA deliberations on developer agreements, compromising the precedents established in law and in practice where only people -- and it could be anyone -- who has valuable knowledge on a project may participate in a closed session by invitation or petition.

The Mayor was invited to participate in the meeting you were excluded from because of his ability to provide critical information on prior developments efforts and because he had personal history with the parties involved in the Meriter Clinic proposal. The CDA felt that history was important for its decision-making and a very good use of outside participation in a closed session because his knowledge was necessary for deliberations.

It's important to note that the frequent closed sessions held in the past year are actually an indicator of the CDA's success: those meetings are closed because developments projects are on the table. The fact that many of the meetings have been closed reflects that they are, largely, about significant projects that because of their size and the amount of investment capital involved could place the companies at a competitive disadvantage if their interest in Monona is widely known before agreements are finalized and presented to the City Council. Projects like UW Health, the Princeton Club Express, and Meriter are well beyond the scope of dealing with national franchisors for typically smaller-scale projects.

It would be wonderful if you could remind your readers that the participation of the two current alders is a critical reason for the group's recent success, and that the design of the CDA with their inclusion is another institutional mechanism by which alders with deep knowledge on a project may convey important details on deal history and structure to other members without inviting all of them to take an active role in the CDA. The CDA also includes members of the Monona community, and we'd welcome your readership to please consider serving on the committee as their role is also valuable!

My very best wishes,

John

Less Pie

Give the tea baggers one thing: they are angry. Reading this week's economic news makes me wonder why everyone isn't madder than hell and refusing to take it anymore (Well, everyone except the top 1% or so of the wealthiest Americans). The State Journal reported:

Median household income in Dane County dropped more than 6 percent from 2008 to 2009, falling at a faster rate than the 2.9 percent decrease for the nation, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. The decrease was even greater in Madison.

That is staggering. In Madison one in five people - 20% - live in poverty. Median household income in Madison dropped more than $4000 - in one year. Meanwhile, the Milwaukee JS reported that Milwaukee now has the 4th worst poverty rate in the US at 27%. The state of Mississippi's poverty rate was 21.6% (according to the same US Census report).

In some ways, the news represents a significant acceleration of a long-term trend. The rich are taking an ever larger share of the wealth and income and the poor and middle class are getting less. The difference however is no longer merely relative. The income loss is absolute.

Not only have the rich and wealthy continued to gobble up hugely increased portions of the pie, but everyone else (basically, everyone you know) is making less in actual dollars and not just a relatively smaller piece of an expanding pie, but less pie period.

The two charts from the always excellent Left Business Observer.

More data: http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/IncPov98.html

http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/IncomePoverty2004.html

Monona CDA Closes Its Doors - To the City Council

The Monona Community Development Authority adopted a policy this week that generally excludes Monona city council members from attending its closed sessions. I previously blogged this subject during the debate over the Meriter Clinic developers agreement after I was prohibited from sitting in on the CDA's closed session.

The city administrator relayed the decision in an email that first set forth the policy:

“Attendance at a closed session is limited to the body, necessary staff and other officers, such as clerk and attorney, and other persons whose presence is necessary for the business at hand.”


The email continued with this explanation:

The parent body (City Council) must be admitted to closed session only if meeting is a subunit of a larger body (like the finance committee). The League of Wisconsin Municipalities handbook says that statutory boards and commissions (like the Library Board, CDA, Police and Fire Commission) are “probably not” subunits of the Council. Exclusion of members is covered by 19.89 of state statutes.

The CDA statutes (66.1335 (1)) state that the CDA is “a separate body politic” which clearly distinguishes it from a simple subunit of the Council, and therefore means that Council members should be excluded from closed CDA sessions.

 
I replied as follows:
 

I agree that excluding council members from closed sessions is within the power of the CDA.


One question: Does the policy apply to the Mayor also?

I disagree with your statement that because CDA is a separate body politic that therefore "Council members should be excluded from closed CDA sessions."

The word 'should' expresses a policy choice and I think excluding council members is a very bad choice. For many years the CDA struggled with very little funding. The council finally set up mechanisms to fund the CDA so it could achieve its goals. Now the CDA expresses its independence by choosing to keep council members in the dark about its deliberations and negotiating strategies.

This policy will cause delays in council approval of CDA proposals since we will need time to get up to speed.

I would also note that the CDA has made very extensive use of closed sessions in the past. The Milton case placed stringent limits on the use of closed sessions. I would ask that the CDA use closed sessions as sparingly as possible and take caution that closed session discussions do not stray into other topics that should be discussed in open session.

Basically, I agree the CDA has the power to adopt this exclusionary policy, but that begs the question whether it is a wise policy that furthers the interests of the CDA or the city as a whole. Sometimes the wisest use of power is knowing when not to exercise it.
 
To be clear, I do not propose that council members should take an active role in the CDA's closed sessions, but if an alder wants to sit in for the purpose of gathering information, then they should generally be allowed to do so. Excluding the council could lead to delays and increase costs by making the CDA's consultant attend more meetings.
 
When a TIF development is on the table, the city council is going to have to approve or reject a developers agreement that the CDA has negotiated. It would be useful for the alders not on the CDA (two alders are on the CDA) to understand not just the end point of negotiations, but how the two sides got there.
 
 
Closed sessions are especially important with regard to the CDA because it is a rare meeting that does not include a closed session.
 
As noted above, the CDA has made extensive use of closed sessions. You can see archived CDA agendas here. Unfortunately, the CDA does not conform to the city's policies to post not only agendas and minutes, but also meeting packets.
 
The Open Meetings Law strictly limits the use of closed sessions to the specifically enumerated purposes in s. 19.85 Stats. The degree of this limitation was spelled out by the Milton case. Closed sessions for the purpose of negotiating, particularly negotiating developers agreements, may only be used they are "required". The Milton case states that only having "...a valid reason for desiring to close its meetings that nevertheless fails to establish closed meetings are required." (My emphasis).


State of Wisconsin ex rel. Citizens for Responsible Development v. City of Milton, 2007 WI App 114, 731 N.W.2d 640, 2007 WI App 114.

An article by attorney Christa Westerburg from the State Bar's Wisconsin Lawyer magazine argues that, "With a little care, open government and economic development can coexist, with the public reaping the rewards of both. "

Open Meetings Law resources from the Wisconsin State Law Library. The state DOJ's 2010 Open Meetings Law Compliance Guide.


CDA Meetings with closed sessions in 2010:
 
August 16 http://www.mymonona.com/pages/city_government/committees/doc_includes/export_file.php?id=507
 
August 5 http://www.mymonona.com/pages/city_government/committees/doc_includes/export_file.php?id=516
 
July 27 http://www.mymonona.com/pages/city_government/committees/doc_includes/export_file.php?id=480
 
July 20   http://www.mymonona.com/pages/city_government/committees/doc_includes/export_file.php?id=481 (These are the minutes, which have the year stated incorrectly)
 
June 30 http://www.mymonona.com/pages/city_government/committees/doc_includes/export_file.php?id=471
 
May 25 http://www.mymonona.com/pages/city_government/committees/doc_includes/export_file.php?id=436
 
May 3 http://www.mymonona.com/pages/city_government/committees/doc_includes/export_file.php?id=440
 
April 27 http://www.mymonona.com/pages/city_government/committees/doc_includes/export_file.php?id=385
 
March 23 http://www.mymonona.com/pages/city_government/committees/doc_includes/export_file.php?id=358 (A closed session was on the agenda, but it appears that no closed session was held.)
 
March 18 http://www.mymonona.com/pages/city_government/committees/doc_includes/export_file.php?id=354 This agenda identifies the subject of the closed session as "Consideration of TIF request", which may very well not provide adequate notice.
 
February 23 http://www.mymonona.com/pages/city_government/committees/doc_includes/export_file.php?id=332 
January 26 http://www.mymonona.com/pages/city_government/committees/doc_includes/export_file.php?id=333

Spotted in Superior

While in Superior recently for work I came across this sculpture of James J. Hill, whose "name became synonymous with railroad innovation and visionary business leadership in the last quarter of the nineteenth century"  according to The American Experience.

"Robber baron" or "constructive genius"?

This statue stood in front of the Superior Jr. High for many years and was recently relocated to a spot outside the BNSF offices in Superior.

Cari Fuss' Perspective on Monona's Loan and Grant Programs

I asked former CDA Chair Cari Fuss to add her thoughts and she graciously sent the following:


Hi Doug,

Thanks for the follow up on these programs. These programs are critical to the stability of our tax base, now and into the future.

We do not qualify as a community for many of the programs that larger cities like Madison do, simply because of our population, housing stock, and city staffing levels. The City of Madison has an entire department dedicated to forwarding the cause of affordable housing and working on Block Grant programs (and other things like the ill-fated “IZ” program) that are funded with local AND federal dollars. The last time I visited that office in the course of business it was staffed with four or more full time employees. In Monona, we simply don't have the resources to staff City Hall in that way, and as such, volunteers like those who are appointed to the CDA work on these types of issues in a part time capacity under the direction of City Council.

As I researched options for our community in my time on the CDA, it was apparent to me that we needed to pursue options that allowed us to initiate a program where the rules could be written by OUR community, and not mandated by the federal government (as is the case with many of the HUD programs) due to the fact that it would be difficult for us to accomplish many of the program mandates.

Also, my research led me to believe that many federally funded programs will potentially be at risk in the future as funding sources are strained and budget issues arise - and, many of the programs are competitive, meaning that Monona may not qualify now or in the long term.

As such, using the change to state law that allowed the extension of TIF for this purpose accomplishes much for our community that we wouldn't otherwise be able to achieve. We write the rules and we control the funds. AND, we have a solid, predictable funding source that will grow as we experience continued success in our commercial development areas. Not to mention that there is a pay-it-forward mentality here, in that the monies come back to us when ownership changes occur or in 10 years, whichever comes first. So, we get the money back AFTER the investment in the housing stock is made, and we turn around and lend it out again for further improvement and investment.

And the other poster is right.....it's pretty easy in Madison if you dig, which is why we are building a program now that is easy and will continue to grow for Monona. Please contact City Hall to discuss updated forecasts with our City Finance Director, Marc Houttaker - but when I left the CDA, our forecasts predicted a revolving fund that should grow to several hundred thousand dollars (a boon for a community of our size) within the next 5 or 6 years. I won't go into details here, but I am sure City staff can fill you in.

Which brings me to the business Facade Grant program. Our community relies heavily on our commercial tax base to make things like fire and ambulance service, trash pickup, water and sewer services, road and utility reconstruction, excellent city parks and public facilities such as our pool and a quality school district possible and affordable for our relatively small community. Fostering development and continuous improvement in our commercial tax base is critical to the future of our community, and Facade Grant programs are often successful in creating additional investment, and thereby tax base, than might otherwise occur.

Again, I won't bore you with the details, but as we studied North Monona Drive at the CDA level, it was very apparent that over time, investment and/or reinvestment has not occurred in this commercial area of our community. Call City Staff to discuss how that has negatively impacted the average homeowner's tax bill in our community. You will be very surprised. This lack of reinvestment has created a notable lack of equality in tax assessment growth when compared to other areas in our commercial tax base. We must continue to be proactive as a community about pursuing, funding, and encouraging opportunities for businesses investing in our community, now and in the long term.

Please remember that for every dollar that we invest in our community's real estate and business growth and improvement, there is a return. And, even if that return only guarantees stability (which is probably the case in an economy such as we are experiencing now and which should be accomplished through the checks and balances associated with our application and underwriting processes), that puts us ahead of many (if not most!) of our peer communities state wide.

These issues are difficult and there are many moving parts to both the problems and the potential solutions. I understand where some of the previous posters' "questioning" comes in - isn't it that way it is with any new program? I would encourage people to ask questions and get involved and find out how you can participate and/or benefit. The Renew Monona housing program will be significant for our community and will provide a model for other communities across the state who struggle with the very same issues that we do.

Thanks for the opportunity to provide some clarity on these programs. As I work in communities throughout Dane County, it is apparent that Monona's progressive and aggressive approach to dealing with our aging housing stock and growth in our commercial sector will benefit ALL of us who pay taxes well into the future.

Sincerely,


Cari Fuss

Monona City Council Preview - August 30, 2010

The Monona City Council meets tomorrow (Monday, August 30) at 7:30 PM in the Media Room at the Library. The full agenda.

We will be getting three reports to start the information portion of the evening. Chris James of Dane County Parks Department will speak about the Capital Springs State Recreation Area (this includes the status the proposed bike trail connecting Lake Farm County Park with the Village of McFarland and associated railroad trestle widening).

Also on tap:

• Dane County Supervisor Robin Schmidt (RTA, Radio Interoperability, and Other County Issues)
• City Engineer Rich Vela and BT Squared Civil & Environmental Engineering: Belle Isle Planning/Engineering Update.

Also Consideration of Resolution 10-08-1718 Requiring a Referendum on the Levying of a Sales Tax to Fund Commuter Rail (Aldermen Kugle, Wiswell, Veserat). This referendum would ask us Monona voters if we want to use the entire half-cent sales tax increase for commuter rail. What a question! Heck, I don't think anyone would support using all of the sales tax increase just from commuter rail. I sure wouldn't (I might not support using any of it for that purpose).

As I've said before, this referendum is premature and a distraction. We ought to be focused on telling the RTA Board what Monona wants out of a planned regional transit system (like other communitiess are doing).

The Monona Transit meeting did not reach a conclusion and has scheduled another meeting for September 8 when RTA Board members and staff will attend.

I expect the council vote will be delayed until after that meeting (We can approve the referendum at our September 20 meeting and be in time for the November ballot).

See my prior posts on this topic.
http://mononadoug.blogspot.com/2010/08/monona-transit-meeting-on-august-25.html

http://mononadoug.blogspot.com/2010/08/rtas-draft-principles-for-regional.html

http://mononadoug.blogspot.com/2010/08/lets-play-hypothetical-referendum.html

http://mononadoug.blogspot.com/2010/08/dane-county-rta-status.html

http://mononadoug.blogspot.com/2010/08/monona-city-council-preview-august-16.html


The council is also asked to approve at a first reading: Consideration of Resolution 10-08-1722 Approval of CDA Recommendations for “Renew Monona” Program Loans (CDA).


and Consideration of Resolution 10-08-1723 Award of Contract for Demolition at 608 Clear Spring Court (City Administrator). CORRECTION. This building is being razed because it is "dangerous, unsafe, unsanitary, and otherwise unfit for human habitation".  This is one of the properties the CDA acquired in the past year.

The council will have a first reading on changing the status of the Sustainability Committee [Consideration of Ordinance 8-10-616 Reconstituting the Sustainability Committee to that of a Standing Committee (Alderman Wood, Alderman Munson)].

Finally, the Mayor has knocked it out of the park with his nomination of James Pflasterer to the Monona Police and Fire Commission. He is the former General Counsel for the state's Labor and Industry Review Commission.

Little Bits of Unrelated Stuff

Or as the editor said the Wire, "li'l bit".

Unrelated stuff that's been fighting to get out of head through my fingertips.

You should read this article about two billionaire brothers funding attacks on Obama  by Jane Mayer on the
New Yorker. Mayer is also the author of brilliant book The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals (read my review of the book here). The Kochs made their billions in oil and are also funding climate change denials. You can listen to the Fresh Air podcast here.

At the close of the Constitutional Convention a woman asked Dr. Franklin, "Well Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?"

"A republic," replied the Doctor, "if you can keep it." 

***

Ride the Drive is back today. oops, it just started....and the Orton Park Festival continues (hey, it just started again, too!). It's one of my favorite local festivals, except it's always signaled the end of Summer. That might be hard to buy today with temps around 90.

***

For the first time since 1990, none of my children are attending a Monona Grove School District school. Parents of adult children will understand when I say that's a melancholy feeling. I moved by youngest child (?)(offspring?) into his (brand new) dorm at UW-Milwaukee yesterday.

Why is it that in some place in my mind he'll always be the chubby 6th-grader instead of the (often) mature and bearded young man that he is today?

***

I have touted the Left Business Observer before and I'm doing so again. The tastefully named Doug Henshaw offers brilliant fact-based insights into the state of the economy and the related behavior of our political leaders.  the LBO gives us some of its stuff for free, but usually delays posting the newer lead articles. He posted this one right away and it's worth a read: Jonesing for a slump: austerity in the face of weakness. He posits that the stimulus package let us  avoid a worldwide depression, but now Austerity has somehow gotten hold of political-economic reins like a Horseman of the Apocalypse.

Having successfully avoided depression through a massive, largely coordinated, stimulus program, the world bourgeoisie now looks ready to reverse it—some because they think it a success, and others because they think it was a failure. This is a very dangerous business.


Abroad, the austerity party is led by Germany, with some neighboring allies, whose approach to the Eurocrisis is to put the depressed periphery through the wringer and cut budgets modestly at home. So far, the German economy has been holding up well, and German capital seems not to fear a hit to exports coming from a deep recession at the fringes of Europe.

At home, orthodox types across the political spectrum are now obsessing about the horrors of mounting U.S. indebtedness. Although the Obama administration isn’t embracing the austerity agenda passionately, they are taking it far too seriously.

His 1994 and 1998 article on purely ideological efforts to gut Social Security by ginning up a phony crisis is still relevant. The bottom line is that Social Security is not going broke. Period. Full stop. The end.

"GDP growth will, since the size of the economy decades hence will determine how much money is available to pay retirees. The bankruptcy scenario is based on an assumption that GDP will grow at a rate seen only in depression decades."

But none of my 20-something children or their friends expect to collect Social Security because they have been successfully sold the myth. The only way politicians will ever vote to take away Social Security (or shrink to an unimportant levels) is if they think it is politically safe to do so. They have laid the ground work.

He also has a blog with newsier posts (cleverly titled LBO News).

***

Finally, in another example of the weird of the disconnection between the state's largest city and it's state capital, unless you read the Milwaukee JS, you are very possibly unaware of the scandal exposed by the paper at the County's Mental health Complex. The series: Part I of and Part II.

Why is Scott Walker seemingly getting a free pass in the scandalous conditions exposed at the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex? Scandalous but no scandal? It seems pretty clear to me that Walker's mode of governance - taking away the resources to govern - is directly responsible for the horrific conditions allowed to go on there for years.

Yesterday, Walker and a dozen board members announced plans for a new building to replace the 91-year-old facility. That's a start, but unless you fund the place to have a sufficient number of properly trained staff, the same horrors will go on just in a nicer looking place.

To his credit Walker took the blame in Friday's paper:

Walker said Friday he is ultimately responsible for operations at the complex.

"The buck stops with me," he said in a meeting with Journal Sentinel reporters and editors.

That may be the first thing he's said that I agree with. Let's hold him to it, shall we?

Monona City Council Defers Meriter Decision

Addendum: I forgot to mention that we conducted the entire discussion in open session. No one seemed inhibited by that fact and it worked fine. A good precedent for the future.

Original post:

At its August 9 special meeting, the Monona city council declined the role of rubber stamp for a proposed $2.55 million TIF assistance agreement with Meriter Clinic for a new two-story 43,000 square foot building with a guaranteed minimum value of $15M plus. The council scheduled a second special meeting on August 16 at 7:30 PM.

The Process

The CDA only approved the TIF assistance and developer's agreement last Thursday (August 5) and the council was asked to approve it last night on a first reading. Moreover, the council meeting was scheduled at 6 PM with the Plan Commission scheduled for 7 PM in the same room. The first 20 minutes or so was taken up with a good presentation about Monona's TIF districts.

The administrator spent a few minutes giving a overview of the project. The Mayor then spent a good 10-15 minutes justifying the deal he (along with the CDA) negotiated with Meriter over the 6 or 7 months. As I recall it was about twenty minutes to seven and the council had not even begun a discussion. When we did, Alder Wiswell went first and used up a good chunk of the remaining time in a Q&A with the developers, including a few stemwinders. One wondered where the question was going as time ticked down. Alders Veserat and I stated some reservations, Alder Busse gave some of the CDA perspective, and - shazam - we were 20 minutes over. The council adjourned without acting on the proposal.

To recap: Mayor negotiates with the developer for months, council gets the proposed deal on Thursday, a meeting is scheduled for the following Monday with what amounted to a one hour time limit.

The deal

Is the deal a good one? In some ways, not only is it a good deal, it's a great deal. The vacant office building and orange storage sheds get replaced with a new clinic (with a good possibility of expansion; Meriter has acquired the former DNR building to the north of the storage sheds).

Does it meet the 'but for' test? Yes. The project would not happen without the TIF assistance. The part that makes me hesitate is the recent history of the property's ownership. In 2009, the city assessed the parcels (6408 and 6410 Copps Avenue) at $1,878,200. In 2010, the city reassessed the property at $3,000,000 based on the September 2009 purchase by Livesey. In 2010, Meriter is acquiring the parcels for $6,000,000. This higher value is justified by the income production of the storage business and the value of the real estate.

So, if we left things as they are, the property should be reassessed to $6M and generate about $120,000 in property taxes (about $30,000 going to the city) without spending $2.55M for TIF assistance. Of course, then we would still have two eyesores at a very visible entrance to the city. Moreover, Livesey could redevelop the front parcel as say a drugstore and keep the storage sheds for an unknown period of time. The city might still be asked for TIF assistance for another project down the road. This stand-pat option comes with a good deal of uncertainty.

TIF money is kind of funny money. The city would get paid back in full for the $2.55M in assistance from the property taxes on the increased value of the site. The TIF district would then continue to receive all of those taxes until TIF 6 is defeased (probably many years into the future since TIF 6 was just created.). TIF 6 will almost certainly become a 'donor' district contributing its excess revenue to other TIF districts. For example, we are using TIF 2 revenues to fund the city's share of Monona Drive Phase 1, which is in an underperforming TIF. That funding allowed the city to avoid borrowing for Monona Drive and is saving the city some $1.2M in borrowing costs. (The utilities are still borrowing for their sizable share of the project.). Perhaps TIF 6 could be used to fund future phases of Monona Drive.

From the developer's standpoint, TIF assistance is free money. It's not really a loan because they pay it back from property taxes that they will owe on the property.

This project will not happen without TIF assistance. There is a profitable business ($460,000 net/year) that has to be acquired in addition to the real estate. To make that transition happen, the project needs the TIF money. So, do we want to use that funding tool to make this project happen?

***

By the way, we are told that defeasing TIF districts (so that the property taxes get split up among all the taxing jurisdictions) does not necessarily help the school district because they would stand to lose state aids based on the increase in non-TIF property value in the district.

***

The state DOR has some very good info on TIFs at this web page:
 http://www.revenue.wi.gov/report/t.html#tif

Including a 2005 report explaining how TIFs work:
http://www.revenue.wi.gov/ra/tifbkg05.pdf

and a 2009 TIF value report (Monona's info is on page 17)

http://www.revenue.wi.gov/equ/09tifrep.pdf




Meriter's plans.

Previous posts: http://mononadoug.blogspot.com/2010/08/special-monona-city-council-meeting.html

http://mononadoug.blogspot.com/2010/08/monona-cda-considers-meriter-clinic.html

http://mononadoug.blogspot.com/2010/07/monona-plan-commission-considers.html

Special Monona City Council Meeting Preview

Special City Council Meeting



Date: Mon - 08/09/2010


Time: 6:00 PM


Location: Monona Public Library, 1000 Nichols Rd., Community Media Room (Lower Level)

The Monona city council meets on Monday evening with one item of business: consideration of a development agreement with Meriter Hospital.

The council will also get a report on the city's TIF districts as requested by alder Wiswell and me at our previous meeting. This item comes after the Meriter project on the agenda which seems odd given that a critical piece of the Meriter agreement is a request for substantial TIF assistance.

The agenda calls for the council to suspend the rules and approve or reject the development agreement at a first reading. It also calls for a closed session under s. 19.85 (1)(e) Wis. Stats. The Open Meetings law is here (go to pages 25-26).

I do not plan to support taking a vote on this agreement at Monday's meeting. The CDA met and approved the development agreement this past Thursday evening (so I am told). And the council is expected to vote on the agreement four days later. The council was still receiving data on the agreement as of late yesterday afternoon (Friday). The agreement asks for a very large public expenditure in return for a very positive and significant new development. I just don't think we should rush to a decision.

More specifically, we are being asked to approve $2.55 million in TIF assistance for the project. Under the development agreement, the project would construct a 43,000 square foot, two-story medical clinic and provide upon completion a guaranteed $15,230,000 in taxable property value. The agreement contains a number of safeguards to limit the city's risk.

This project would be the city's third largest investment by dollar value in at least the past three seven years, after only Monona Drive reconstruction and the Garden Circle acquisition. In my opinion, we can wait a week or so and have a second special meeting after there's been some public airing of the proposal and the council members (especially those of us not on the CDA) time to deliberate before deciding.

Moreover, the public knows basically nothing about this agreement. Maybe they will think it's great, maybe they will think it's outrageous, maybe they will think it's great, but have doubts about the amount of assistance, or maybe they will just have questions. A vote on the agreement on Monday night will preclude public scrutiny before the deal is done.

Is a Closed Session Required?

Monday's meeting provides an opportunity for the council to have a public discussion about the proposal and its merits. A closed session is scheduled. Perhaps there is some part of the discussion that warrants a closed session, but certainly most of the discussion should be held in open session. I will have to be persuaded that circumstances "require" a closed session.

I use the word "require" advisedly. That's the word used in the exception to the Open Meetings Law cited in the agenda for this closed session. A recent Court of Appeals case interpreted this exception quite narrowly and quite forcefully.

The case, State ex rel. Citizens for Responsible Development v. City of Milton, 300 Wis.2d 649, 731 N.W.2d 640, 2007 WI App 114 (Court of Appeals 2007) is relatively short and makes interesting reading, but the following is especially compelling:

The legislature's choice of the word "require" thus connotes its intent to limit the exception under § 19.85(1)(e) to those situations where the government's competitive or bargaining reasons leave no other option than to close meetings. Thus, a government may have a valid reason for desiring to close its meetings that nevertheless fails to establish closed meetings are required. While a private entity with which the government is negotiating might request confidentiality, and such a request might provide a reason for a government to desire holding closed meetings, that request does not require the government to hold closed meetings to preserve the government's competitive or bargaining interests.

***

Permitting the governed to express opinions about prospective purchases may be time consuming, frustrating, counterproductive and might increase costs. But the Wisconsin legislature has decided that complete information regarding the affairs of government is the policy of Wisconsin. We cannot accept the proposition that a governing body's belief that secret meetings will produce cost savings justifies closing the door to public scrutiny.

The court did leave just a little wiggle room in its final paragraph:

Finally, we agree with Milton that portions of meetings that would have revealed their negotiation strategy with United Coop or their negotiation strategy for the purchase of land for the ethanol plant site could be closed under Wis. Stat. § 19.85(1)(e).[7] Developing a negotiation strategy or deciding on a price to offer for a piece of land is an example of what is contemplated by "whenever competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed session." See Wis. Stat. § 19.85(1)(e). However, just because those concerns were present for portions of some of the meetings does not mean the entirety of the meetings fell within the narrow exception under § 19.85(1)(e). Thus, we do not agree that Milton was justified in closing all parts of all meetings concerning the proposed ethanol plant based on the reasons it has asserted.

Whether the Monona council can avail itself of this wiggle room is doubtful. We have a tentative agreement in place. The negotiations are essentially complete. The state Attorney General states in its Open Meetings Compliance Guide (at page 27):

Once a governmental body’s bargaining team has reached a tentative agreement, the discussion whether the body should ratify the agreement should be conducted in open session. 81 Op. Att’y Gen. 139, 141 (1994).

***

You can find the decision here and here (DOJ web site). If you read the caes at the DOJ web site you will notice a couple of familiar names. The author of the opnion was Judge Charles Dykman of Monona and one of the attorneys for the citizens group was former Monona alder Peter Mckeever.

***

For more background, see my recent post.

Monona CDA Considers Meriter Clinic Developer's Agreement and TIF Request

The Monona CDA considered Developer's Agreement and TIF request for the proposed new Meriter Clinic on East Broadway at Copps Avenue.

That is about all I can tell you about the substance.

I went down to city hall to attend the meeting, but was not allowed to stay during the closed session. Who was there? In addition to the committee members, the Mayor, city administrator, city planner, city finance director, and the CDA consultant were at the meeting and, of course, they all stayed in the room for the closed session.

(It's worth noting that unlike most city committees, the Mayor is actually not an ex officio member of the CDA. That's because the CDA is actually a separate legal entity from the city. Under the Open Meetings Law, the CDA can let anyone they want stay in the room during a closed session if they think it would be useful.)

After approving the minutes, I asked that I be allowed to stay in the room during the closed session. It was noted by Chair Bob Miller that the CDA had previously not allowed alders to attend closed sessions (three other times in seven years that I am aware of.). I expressed my hope that the committee would articulate a better justification to keep an alder (me this time) out of the closed session than 'because we did it before'. Committee member and former chair George Lightbourn said something to the effect that 'if we start letting individual citizens stay for closed sessions, then where do we draw the line'.

One might suggest that a good place to draw the line would be to let 'elected officials who are expected to vote on CDA proposals' to stay in the room and hear the discussion. But instead of looking for bright lines, how about just exercising some considered judgment?

My impression (shared by at least one other person) was that by even asking to stay in the room I was viewed as making waves. Of course, it's awfully easy to make waves in our normally placid waters. All I wanted to do was the hear the discussion. CDA has some really smart people on it and was hoping to hear them.

The committee then voted to go into closed session. I left the room (along with the Meriter's folks) to await my fate. The city attorney joined the meeting by teleconference. Some fifteen or twenty minutes later, Chair Miller emerged from the room and told the Meriter group they could go back into the meeting room and then told me that I could not. He said it was his call and not the committee's. He emphasized he was following precedent.

True enough. I was previously excluded from a CDA closed session several years ago and apparently alders Kugle and Veserat have been excluded more recently. Precedent has value, but bad precedent should be ditched.

*** 

I didn't stick around, but apparently the meeting ran until about 10:00 PM. I don't know how much of the closed session the developers were allowed to attend or much of what was said other than a couple of brief and necessarily second-hand reports.

The city council agenda for Monday (which is not on the city web site as of 11 PM tonight) calls for a decision by the city council on this developer's agreement at the first reading next Monday. Without being specific, the developer's agreement seeks a large amount of TIF funding (and in return promises a very good project and a large amount of property value increment).

I missed about three hours of education on the project tonight that would have put me in a lot better place to make a decision about this project.

***

For some background see a Previous post that mentioned the development and linked to the Meriter plans.
Here's the article on the development from the Herald Independent.

Monona Plan Commission Considers Entryway Feature Tonight

Monona Plan Commission Meeting

Date: Mon - 07/26/2010
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Library Community Media Room

Complete agenda

Action on Request for the Monona Business Center Multi-Tenant Office/Warehouse Buildings at 2201 and 2401 Industrial Drive, Represented by Mike Kelly, for Approval of Revisions to the Signage Plan Approved in 1991 for These Buildings. (Case No. S-005-2010) Tabled 6/28/10

Public Hearing & Prehearing Conference for Meriter Health, Represented by Steve Harms, Tri-North Builders and Doug Pahl, Kahler Slater Architects, Proposing the Development of a 45,000 Square Foot Two Story Medical Clinic Building at the Site of the Office Rental Building and Mini Storage Warehouses at Copps Avenue and East Broadway and Stoughton Road. (Case No. 2-012-2010)

Prehearing Conference for Review of Plans and Designs for a New Electronic Community Reader Board Landscape Ground Sign at Broadway and Monona Drive. (Case No. S-015-2010)

Review and Consideration of Action on Approval and Recommendation to the City Council for Approval of Final Concept Plans and Designs for the Monona Entry Features Site at Monona Drive and the Beltline Highway 12 & 18.

Monona Drive Preconstruction Slideshow

A lsideshow of my preconstruction photos taken almost exactly one year ago on July 19, 2009.

Monona City Council Approves Livesey/UW Health Developres Agreement

The Monona city council approved a Development Agreement with Livesey Company for UW Health Yahara Family Medicine Clinic . The agreement provides a $1.1 million TIF loan for the development of the new UW Health Clinic on East Broadway with a guaranteed asessed value of $10 million. The clinic will be be housed in a two-story, 32,810 square-foot building. Construction is expected to start late this summer. TIF loan payments begin in 2013 and are completed in 2021. See the Herald's earlier story.

The council also approved the appointment of former alder Bob Miller as the new chair of the CDA, replacing Cari Fuss who did a great job on an array of projects in a short amount of time.

The city administrator also announced that Meriter plans to construct a new clinic on Copps Avenue at East Broadway.

Monona is Developing

Here is an excellent summary from city planner Paul Kachelmaier on a number of significant development projects underway in Monona. This list pretty remarkable given the state of the economy.

(By the way, Paul has to be one of the longest-serving Monona city employees, but it not true that he wrote the minutes of the first Village Board meeting in 1937. I think he's been around since 1989-ish.)

Commercial Development Summary

April 30, 2010

Menards Expansion and Remodeling at 6401 Copps Avenue

-Menards has completed construction of a new 67,000 square foot drive-thru warehouse to the west of their store building which was opened in late December;

-Menards just completed the remodeling of the south side of the store facing East Broadway to add a new garden center and it opened about two weeks ago.

-They also removed the large screening walls along East Broadway and replaced them with short concrete walls, decorative wrought iron fencing, and decorative lights and new landscaping. 

-Menards said that they will next finish remodeling the interior part of the store that was the drive-thru warehouse into more retail space and re-merchandise the store, and renovate the front façade to look like other new stores, but will wait to do this work until late summer this year since this is their busiest season.

-The construction value of the warehouse built in 2009 was included in TID No. 2, and the value of construction of the store remodeling in 2010 will be part of the proposed TID No. 6.  (See attached photos)

Aldo Leopold Nature Center at 300 Femrite Drive

The Aldo Leopold Nature Center has submitted plans for the development of a 11,161 square foot addition to the center’s educational facilities, on the 20 acres of land they lease from the City of Monona.

-These plans were on hold over the winter but they are now going ahead with them, and just resubmitted plans 4/12/10.

-A revised lease with the City has been approved and they have said they think their funding will go ahead. 

-The building is being partially funded by MG&E which will be building large photovoltaic panels on the roof to produce solar energy.

-The plans are scheduled for approval at the next Plan Commission meeting May 10, 2010, and they want to start construction in late May or early June, and they plan to complete the addition by the end of the year.       

(See attached complete set of plans.  They will also be placed on the City Web site.)

The Princeton Club Xpress Proposed at 6400 Monona Drive

-The Princeton Clubs and owner David Gerry along with Homburg, Inc. have submitted plans to develop a new 5,100 square foot Princeton Club Xpress at 6400 Monona Drive, just north of PDQ.  This is a new express health club concept for them, and the first one is proposed to be built in Monona.

-PDQ bought the site of this old retail strip center and most of the tenants have relocated, many to other locations in Monona including the Right Step Dance Studio, Tobacco Outlet, and USA Nails.

-PDQ will sell the lot to Homburg, Inc. which will develop the site for the Princeton Clubs and own it. 

-The Xpress Club will be open 24 hours a day and members can also have access to the two larger clubs on the east and west side.

-The site plans are scheduled for approval at the next Plan Commission meeting May 10, 2010.  The applicants have said they want to demolish the buildings and start construction in May, and open in October, and coordinate the opening wit the completion of the first Phase of Monona Drive.

-Homburg, Inc. is also requesting TIF assistance from the City for the development project.  (See attached drawings of the building.)

      

PDQ Expansion at 105 E. Broadway

-PDQ at the corner of Monona Drive and East Broadway has submitted plans to remodel and enlarge their building with a 2,100 square foot addition with a deli and larger convenience store, and add another pump island.  The store will be similar to the PDQ that was recently enlarged on Buckeye Road and Hwy. 51 they said.

-PDQ will also upgrade the exterior of the building and are going to request a matching $10,000 façade grant from the Façade Improvement Program.

-They are shifting their driveway on Monona Drive further north too to provide better access to their pump canopy islands.

-The site plans are scheduled for approval at the next Plan Commission meeting May 10, 2010.  They plan to start construction soon too and finish the project this summer.

(See attached drawings of the buildings.)

UW Health Yahara Family Medical Clinic at the vacant lot at 1050 East Broadway

-The Livesey Company has submitted plans to develop a 34,000 square foot two story UW Health Yahara Family Medical Clinic at the vacant lot at 1050 East Broadway, just east of the retail center owned by Richard Fritz and west of the Chief Auto Parts site.  This new facility will combine the Monona and McFarland Clinics.

-The Livesey company is purchasing the property from Richard Fritz and will develop it and lease it to UW Health.  They have hired Kahler Slater Architects to prepare site and building plans.

-The family medicine clinic will include an imaging department, lab and health education support spaces, and space to be leased for UW Physical Therapy.  The clinic will incorporate new trends in health care the applicants have stated including being designed for patient self-rooming, and containing UW Health’s design for the Medical Home.

-A prehearing conference was held at the Plan Commission meeting 4/26/10.  The Livesey Company said they want to submit detailed plans in early May and request approval by the Plan Commission at the meeting May 24, 2010.

-They want to start construction later this summer and be open in the summer of 2011. 

(See attached set of plans and building elevations which are also on the City web site.)  

Easter Seals Moving to 4201 Monona Drive

-Easter Seals is going to lease the remaining vacant 1,600 square feet of space for their offices in the Medicine Shoppe building at 4201 Monona Drive owned by Bob Rubin.

BD Diagnostics at 2801 Industrial Drive

-BD Diagnostics, which manufactures supplies for the medical and pharmaceutical industry is going to construct about a 360 square foot addition to house a new water filtering system they need for the processing they do.

	PAUL KACHELMEIER
	City Planner / Community Development Coordinator 608.222.2525 PH 608.222.9225 FAX pkachelmeier@ci.monona.wi.us