Resident raises questions about REDI 2 housing project on Vaughn Drive, citing floodway concerns

At the April meeting of the Madison City Planning Commission, resident Charlie Ricketts addressed the commission during public comment to ask questions about the proposed REDI 2 housing project on Vaughn Drive.

Ricketts said he was raising questions “for the interest of transparency” and read a list of concerns and queries. He asked whether the project would be rental or owner-occupied housing, whether it would be classified as “affordable” housing or subject to rent controls, and whether units would be apartments, condominiums or single-family homes. He asked for an approximate unit count and raised setback questions specific to the Vaughn Drive area.

Ricketts also said the site is in the floodway and told the commission that the project “wouldn't have to be constructed approximately 11 feet up in the air” as one of the flood restrictions he cited; he asked how the project would meet flood restrictions and said a similar rezoning request on East Vaughn Drive was recently denied. He suggested the Vaughn Drive parcel could instead be preserved as parkland—“complement Fireman's Park with just some grass and trees and park benches,” he said—and noted he understood funding had not been secured.

Commissioners did not engage in extended discussion during the public-comment exchange; the meeting record shows Ricketts’ remarks were offered as questions for commission consideration rather than a formal agenda item. No formal action or staff response is recorded in the transcript on the topic.