Plan Commission delays decision on 74-unit senior apartment at 77 Sirloin Strip, places rezoning on file

The City of Madison Plan Commission on March 3 placed on file without prejudice a rezoning request that would allow a developer to build a 74-unit senior apartment at 77 Sirloin Strip, and referred the related demolition permit and conditional-use application to its March 17 meeting for more study.

The action followed a staff presentation and extended public testimony and questioning. Tim Parks, city planning staff, told the commission the three matters before it were a demolition permit for the existing former hookah lounge/current Pollo Romero restaurant, a zoning change from TRV-2 (Traditional Residential Varied 2) to TRU-1 (Traditional Residential Urban 1), and a conditional-use request for a four-story, 74-unit multifamily building that the applicant says would serve persons 55 and older.

The project team said the building would provide affordable senior housing. "We are proposing a 74-unit development that would house persons 55 plus," said Julian Walters, an applicant representative for Eminent Development Corporation. Walters and Sketchworks Architecture principal Steve Schulfer described amenities they say could include shared community space and a storm-shelter design intended to serve nearby mobile-home-park residents.

Why it matters

The site sits atop a 20–25-foot rock outcropping that the South Madison plan specifically calls out when measuring height for new development on and near the parcel. Staff told commissioners that the comprehensive plan and the South Madison plan recommend a lower height at this location or, when height is considered, that it be measured from the bottom of the outcrop so new buildings do not loom over the adjacent mobile-home park. That recommendation — and how the proposed design measures height relative to the rock outcrop and to the adjacent mobile-home park — was central to…