Old Sauk Road development approved by Plan Commission despite local pushback
The redevelopment of the Essen Haus block and rezoning for Occupy Madison's third tiny house village also cleared the commission. The city Plan Commission has approved a proposal to build apartments on the remaining four acres of the Pierstorff farm on Madison's West Side. The project, by Stone House Development and New Madison Development, would replace two houses, duplex and barn with a three-story, 138-unit apartment building. Many area residents argued that the apartment building is too big for the neighborhood and will increase traffic and congestion. However, the commission found that the development met the criteria for approval. Other approved projects include rezoning of a Far East Side property set to become a new tiny house village and the redevelopment of the Essen Haus block Downtown. The commission also advanced a request by Occupy Madison to change the zoning of the property from "Industrial-Limited" to the "Tiny House Village" zoning district.
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The city Plan Commission signed off Monday on a proposal to build apartments on the remaining four acres of the Pierstorff farm on Madison's West Side.
Roughly two dozen area residents spoke out against the project by Stone House Development and New Madison Development — which would raze the two houses, duplex and barn now standing at at 6610–6706 Old Sauk Road and replace them with a three-story, 138-unit apartment building — during a lengthy public hearing Monday evening.
Many of the project's opponents said they believe the apartment building is too big for the neighborhood, will increase traffic and congestion and will reduce stormwater drainage, increasing the area's flood risk.
But the commission found that the development proposal met the criteria for approval, leaving the final major sign-off in the hands of the City Council.
All of the other projects that cleared the commission on Monday will also have to be considered by the City Council, including the rezoning of a Far East Side property set to become a new tiny house village and the redevelopment of the Essen Haus block Downtown.
The commission advanced a request by Occupy Madison to change the zoning of a Far East Side property from "Industrial-Limited" to the "Tiny House Village" zoning district.
The project, which would be the nonprofit's third tiny house village in the eastern part of the city, would include 22 portable housing units and a shared building at 201–205 S. Stoughton Road in an industrial area on the Far East Side.
Occupy Madison intends to manufacture wooden tiny houses for all three of its communities at the site. It expects to begin replacing the temporary huts at its 1901 Aberg Ave. project with the wooden structures and moving those huts to the South Stoughton Road property. The first residents would move into the new location by early next summer, and all of the wooden tiny houses would be finished by 2029.
"As the city, county and country look to find solutions to affordable housing, we have to look at an array of housing models," said Linda Ketcham, executive director of JustDane, formerly the Madison-area Urban Ministry. "The only way out of the housing crisis in the city and county is to build more affordable housing units. Occupy Madison's tiny home villages are part of the solution."
Opponents of the project expressed concern about drug use and safety issues at Occupy Madison's two existing tiny house communities and argued that an industrial area is the wrong place to build new housing. City staff noted that there is limited pedestrian infrastructure near the site but deemed the existing and planned sidewalks and streetlights sufficient to support rezoning.
Ald. Derek Field, whose district includes the South Stoughton Road property, said he spent some time looking into Occupy Madison's two existing tiny home communities and heard "pretty positive feedback" from nearby residents. "I do think that they will be good neighbors," Field said.
JCap Real Estate's plans to redevelop the block that holds the Essen Haus German restaurant Downtown were also greenlit by the commission on Monday.
The Eau Claire developer's proposal would preserve the Hotel Ruby Marie at 524 E. Wilson St. and raze the rest of the block, including 506, 510, 514, 516 and 518 E. Wilson St. and 134, 140, 148 and 150 S. Blair St. JCap would replace them with an eight-story, 178-unit residential building on South Blair Street and a six-story, 100-room hotel on East Wilson Street, and would rebuild the facades of the Come Back In and J.B. Drives Store Building as part of the hotel.
The project is the fourth redevelopment effort for the block since 2000 and has advanced further through the city's approval process than any of the previous three.
City staff attributed JCap's relative success in part to its decision to replace the existing properties with two buildings, only one of which falls within the boundaries of the First Settlement Historic District.
"The Planning Department has advised so many to build on the site — but yet so few have been willing to do so — with a two-or-more-building approach to the site, given its unique configuration," said City Planner Tim Parks.
JCap has made substantial changes to the exterior design since the project was first proposed, including setting the apartment building's higher stories farther back from South Blair Street and reducing the amount of sheet metal that would be visible to passersby.
Much of the discussion on Monday concerned the "living street" that JCap plans to build between the apartment and hotel. Some of the commissioners questioned whether the space would be able to accommodate pedestrians, outdoor dining and open space in addition to vehicular traffic but concluded that the project still met the criteria for approval.
"Generally, I'm in support of this project," said Ald. Marsha Rummel, District 6, whose district includes the site. JCap "figured out how to deal with all the barriers ... that all the other proposals ran into," Rummel said.
The push to build an apartment building on Old Sauk Road has met considerable resistance from the surrounding community. Many residents have put out red-and-white "NO REZONING" yard signs to signal their opposition to the proposal.
Last fall, the developers came in with tentative plans for a four-story, 175-unit building. They scaled it back to three stories after finding that many people thought it would be too tall.
"Listening to the neighbors, this is a very desirable area of Madison," Stone House's president Helen Bradbury told the commission. "And renters don't all want to live downtown. So this is an area that attracts attracts many people, and there's not a lot of opportunities for them."
The rest of the 160-acre farm has been converted to houses, condominiums and the smaller Settlers Woods apartments.
Those types of development better align with the scale and character of the neighborhood, said Lynn Green, a nearby resident and former director of the Dane County Department of Human Services who has helped organize the community members pushing back against the project.
She wishes the last four acres would be used for more "missing middle" housing, such as condos, townhouses or duplexes, and could find a way to preserve the barn.
"We always knew that that land would be sold, it would be developed, and we're not opposed to development," Green said before the meeting. "We just believe that the proposal across the street is just totally inappropriate for this neighborhood."
Residents made similar arguments during Monday's public hearing. Size, traffic, noise and flooding came up again and again.
Chuck Nahn, a civil engineer hired by local property owners to review the developer's stormwater management plan, said he had "a number of concerns" about how the changes to the property would affect its neighbors.
"We ask that you defer decision on zoning change until further detail becomes available regarding the proposed stormwater facts of this development," Nahn said. "The risk of increased flooding in already flooded areas ... definitely should be considered in more detail before a decision to change the zoning and demolish existing structures is made."
But according to planning staff, Stone House and New Madison — which submitted an initial stormwater plan in early April and an updated version in late May, both of which were completed by an external engineering firm — have already done an unusual amount of analysis of stormwater impacts for this stage in the process.
"It is rare in staff’s experience for a stormwater management plan to be submitted prior to the Plan Commission’s consideration of a project like the one proposed, let alone for the applicant’s civil engineer to provide an amended plan in response to comments received," the staff report said.
"It is very unique to have an almost four-acre site in this area, and that does allow the building to have significant setbacks and also to be at a lower height," said Commissioner Nicole Solheim. "There are no significant natural features of the site that would merit this development inappropriate. And the stormwater information is above and beyond and will continue to be reviewed at a very detailed level by the city."
The commission also allowed several other development initiatives to advance, including: