Plan Commission unanimously accepts 2025 Progress Update to City of Madison Comprehensive Plan

The Madison Plan Commission on Feb. 3, 2025 unanimously accepted the 2025 Progress Update to the City of Madison Comprehensive Plan, approving the report with three technical edits to the land-use and transportation chapter.

The report was presented to the commission by Brian Grady, sole planner in the Planning Division, and Brianna Collins, City staff in the Planning Division. Grady told commissioners the document is the fifth progress update and is intended to show what the city and its partners have done since the comprehensive plan was adopted in 2018. “This is our fifth edition of the progress update,” Grady said. Brianna Collins summarized highlights for each of the plan’s seven elements and described this year’s land-use and transportation spotlight on bus rapid transit (BRT). “The BRT uses larger buses and dedicated lanes and a new fare collection system to move riders more quickly and efficiently through the community,” Collins said.

Nut graf: The update compiles agency actions tied to the adopted plan’s goals, strategies and actions and is used to guide capital budget requests and development decisions. It reports progress across seven elements — land use and transportation; neighborhood and housing; economy and opportunity; culture and character; green and resilience; effective government; and health and safety — and lists lead agencies and status for 209 discrete actions derived from 59 strategies.

Key facts and highlights from the presentation: - Land use and transportation: The report spotlights the construction of BRT lines (routes A and B) and cites major street reconstructions, including Atwood Avenue, Wilson Street and Pleasant View Road. The report also notes that building permits issued between 2023 and early 2024 accounted for 5,639 housing units. - Neighborhood and housing: The Bayview redevelopment converted residential buildings into 130 homes; the Community Development Authority (CDA) plans follow-up work that could add about 800 new mixed-income apartments in the area, for more than 1,200 total homes as described in the report. The report also documents solar installations at the Truax public-housing campus and a new grocery on East Washington Avenue. - Economy and opportunity: The update highlights the Red Caboose Child Care Center expansion, a small-business loan program funded with TIF increment financing, ongoing brownfield remediation supporting Huxley Yards redevelopment and cleanup at the former All Metals recycling site. - Culture and character: The “Flock to State” experiment temporarily converted blocks of State Street to pedestrian-focused space and included volunteer programming and performances; the city added a landmark designation for the Catherine Clarembach House and continued the Madison Is Music summer concert series. - Green and resilience: The Lake Monona Waterfront Master Plan covers roughly 1.7 miles of shoreline between downtown and Olin Park; the plan guided reconstruction work on John Nolen Drive and signals a long-term program relying on federal, state and private funding. - Health and safety and effective government: Public Health — Madison & Dane County’s respiratory-illness dashboard, expansion of CARES teams from two to three to respond to nonviolent behavioral-health incidents, and a $6.3 million federal grant associated with Vision Zero street improvements are among the highlights.

Discussion and follow-up: Commissioners questioned staff on the implementation and next steps. Commissioner Heck asked about the city’s approach to the 10-year timing for the comp plan and specifically about a listed action to “develop and implement a park-and-ride plan to increase accessibility to downtown and the UW–Madison campus.” Grady said the park-and-ride action has not been started and that such work would involve Wisconsin Department of Transportation coordination and community discussion. Grady said, “I would say that we have not started it.”

Accountability and technical edits: The update includes a table of goals, strategies, actions, lead agencies and status. Staff said lead-agency assignments are revisited each report and that some items are ongoing while others have definitive completion points. The commission accepted three technical edits recommended previously by the Transportation Commission and by staff colleagues: add Madison Department of Transportation as a co-lead with Metro on action 1(c) (prioritizing improved service for transit-dependent populations with BRT); remove Traffic Engineering as a listed lead for action 9(c) (parking management technology); and add Madison DOT as a lead for action 9(d) (evaluating technologies to bridge first-mile/last-mile gaps). Cheryl Bridal, a City staff presenter, read the three technical changes into the record and the commission amended the motion to include them.

Formal action: A member moved to accept the report as amended; Alder Duncan seconded. The commission voted by unanimous consent to approve the report with the three technical edits and to forward it to the Common Council.

Ending: Staff said the progress update will be distributed to resident panel facilitators, translated into Spanish and Hmong, posted to the city’s email lists and promoted via a press release; the report will also help shape planning and the next comprehensive-plan update process anticipated to begin in the 2026–2028 timeframe.