Middleton mayor outlines housing push, shares developer survey and TIF results

Mayor Katie Kuehn described a multi-year push to boost housing supply in Middleton and urged committee members to combine recent subcommittee work into a single affordable housing action plan.

Kuehn told the Community Development Authority and Workforce Housing Committee the city's strategy combined additional single-family construction and apartment development. "We moved from, on average, 10 houses built a year under prior leadership to over 200 houses built a year," she said, framing the increase as the result of council decisions and staff work.

The mayor said staff and volunteers conducted parallel outreach to developers and residents: "We had 500 respondents within a week," she said, describing a resident survey used alongside questions posed to developers. As part of that outreach, Kuehn said the city polled recipients of tax-increment financing (TIF) and compiled development-level responses to ask what projects actually produced for the community.

Kuehn summarized the city's developer responses: "The $43,000,000 in TIF for these 16 developments and, over 1,500 apartment units built," she said, noting that while TIF has raised property values and created tax increments, the next question is what those investments produced for local housing outcomes.

Committee members and staff emphasized that some phrasing in the presentation came from outside consultants: when Kuehn quoted a consultant calling Middleton's zoning update "one of the most progressive" in the state, staff member Daphne Shue clarified the consultant's attribution and the role of prior staff in the ordinance's development.

The meeting also reviewed process improvements intended to speed development: regular leadership check-ins, a transition from quarterly to monthly developer meetings, and a checklist-based permitting process staff said has cut concept-to-dirt timelines in many cases. Kuehn said those process changes and developer communication helped prevent unnecessary project delays.

Subcommittees reported progress on an affordable housing action plan. Jen, representing the housing strategy and finance subcommittee, said the group drafted five strategies and that staff will merge that draft with the education and outreach subcommittee's version before prioritization. The committees agreed to reconvene for combined review and to keep a December joint meeting as a target for further action.

The presentation included quantitative findings the committees said will shape priorities: high resident satisfaction and retention rates (Kuehn cited 89% planning to continue living in Middleton), modal preferences (about 45% prefer walking), and the apparent role of remote workers and regional movers in local demand. Members discussed outreach tools, an FAQ to explain TIF and other financing, and next steps for merging documents.

The committee did not take formal action on policy at the meeting; staff were directed to merge drafts, circulate updates to subcommittees for November review and bring consolidated recommendations back to the joint meeting for prioritization and possible funding decisions.