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Residents press council to remove Quarry Hill Conservancy from proposed TID; council keeps maps but orders protective language
Summary
Multiple public commenters urged the Middleton Common Council to exclude Quarry Hill Conservancy and adjacent wooded parcels from a proposed tax‑increment district, citing ecological, recreational and wildlife concerns. Staff outlined legal and timing constraints; the council directed staff to retain the original TID maps and add project‑plan language to protect conservancy‑designated land.
Dozens of residents urged the Middleton Common Council to keep Quarry Hill Conservancy out of newly proposed tax‑increment financing (TIF/TID) boundaries, saying wooded slopes and rare habitat should not be put at risk "by including them in a TID." Anne Johnson, vice‑president of the Friends of Quarry Hill Conservancy, told the council she and neighbors "are opposed to the development of large apartment buildings, either on conservancy land or on the edges of the conservancy" and asked that wooded parcels south of the skate park and the adjacent parking lot be excluded from the draft map.
Edgar Spalding, who helped organize a citywide birding day that recorded 124 species, said Quarry Hill contains species not found elsewhere in Middleton and warned that volunteers and goodwill would evaporate if the city allowed blasting or other development there. "You will destroy a lot of the goodwill that people" have for parks and volunteers, Spalding said.
Council members heard that including the conservancy in a TID could give the appearance that TIF funds would be available for private development. Staff presented two options: (1) subdivide the parcels with a certified survey map (CSM), amend the comprehensive plan, rezone affected parcels to conservancy and issue conditional‑use permits as needed — a process staff estimated could take about eight weeks just for the comp‑plan amendment notice alone — or (2) remove city‑owned property from the TID while adding privately owned parcels to preserve contiguity. Abby, the planning staff member who presented the options, warned the timeline for the comp‑plan path is "very, very tight" if the council wanted that route in time for the statutorily required public hearing on the TID project plan.
Council members also raised infrastructure considerations. Alder Myers and others said the Quarry Hill booster station is slated for upgrades in 2030 and staff estimated roughly $1,000,000 in needed improvements to separate chemical rooms, add repairs and a generator; drilling and bringing a new well online could cost substantially more. Those utility needs were cited by some members as a reason to preserve the option of TID funding for public infrastructure.
After extended public comment and internal debate about legal constraints and utilities, councilors gave staff direction to "stay with the originally proposed maps" and to draft clear protective language in the TID project plan that would limit use of TID funds on land designated conservancy to conservancy‑related improvements (restoration, maintenance, or acquisition) and to specify protections for areas designated as conservancy by the Conservancy Lands Plan. Staff said they will begin CSM work immediately if the council later chooses the comp‑plan amendment path, but the council chose the project‑plan‑language approach as the near‑term direction.
Next steps: staff will draft TID project‑plan language to carry the council’s conservancy protections and return with the draft project plan and maps for the board’s joint review meeting. The council did not adopt any rezoning at the meeting, and councilors repeatedly noted that private parcels zoned for development would remain subject to the normal rezoning and permitting process.
