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Plan Commission recommends Southwest Area Plan adoption, highlights transportation and housing priorities
Summary
The Plan Commission recommended that the Common Council adopt the Southwest Area Plan, emphasizing corridor-focused land-use changes, pedestrian and bicycle improvements, and actions to support affordable housing and park planning in the area of about 37,000 residents.
The City of Madison Plan Commission on June 15 recommended adoption of the Southwest Area Plan, endorsing staff edits and direction on transportation, housing and neighborhood priorities.
Urvashi Martin and Ben Zellers, co-leads for the Southwest plan, presented a draft that focuses land-use changes along major corridors (Schrader, Gammon, Raymond, McKee) and proposes upgrades to sidewalks, bicycle facilities and specific street cross-sections such as buffered bike lanes on Whitney Way. The staff presentation noted the plan area contains approximately 37,000 residents — about 13% of the city’s population — and is more racially and ethnically diverse than the city overall.
Transportation and safety: staff emphasized sidewalk gap closure and prioritized pedestrian improvements around schools. The plan recommends Vision Zero-style safety analysis for certain corridors and proposes a roundabout at Cross Country/Maple Grove/Nesbitt to improve safety and traffic flow. Staff added detail from BeltLine and Verona Road corridor studies and proposed partnerships with WisDOT where county or state facilities are implicated.
Housing and economy: staff recommended targeted medium-density and mixed-use changes in transit-rich corridors and actions to expand homeownership opportunities (townhomes and small-to-midscale housing), preserve existing affordable housing, and evaluate a potential new TID to support major redevelopment at the BeltLine/Verona Road interchange if significant revenue-generating proposals emerge.
Motion and vote: Alder Eger moved adoption of the Southwest Area Plan and related comp-plan amendment incorporating staff edits; the motion passed by unanimous approval and the commission adopted the related resolution. Staff said the plan and commission recommendation will proceed to the Common Council for final action.
Next steps: with the Plan Commission recommendation complete, staff will include the plan and edits in the Common Council packet and proceed with outreach and implementation steps tied to projects and partner agencies.
