County

MIDDLETON–The disruptive effects that Covid-19 brought to nearly everyone’s lives in 2020, was certainly reflected in the recently released State of the City address subtitled, “A Year Like None Other.”

Beginning in mid-March, the state’s ‘Safer at Home” directive closed in-person K-12 schools and nonessential businesses. While the state Supreme Court struck down an extension of that directive in late May, Dane County largely re-instituted it.

City Hall, the Senior Center and the Public Library also were closed to the public and many employees worked from home.

Adjustments were made to continue offering city services but in a way that avoided spreading the virus among the public and city employees.

The library responded by offering curbside check out and return of books and materials that totaled 88,500 last year. 

MIDDLETON–The City of Middleton Plan Commission reviewed a concept proposal calling for redeveloping the site of Captain Bill’s seafood restaurant into a seven story, residential building with 107 units parallel to Lake Street. The Plan Commission provided feedback to the developer but did not take any action on the concept proposal. 

Captain Bill’s closed in June 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and has remained vacant. Director of Planning and Community Development Abby Attoun said the site is one of the city’s first uses of a planned development district (PDD), a zoning ordinance that is written specific to a particular site and use.

Attoun said the PDD is written specifically for a 4,000 square foot restaurant with about 100 seats. A rezoning would be necessary for any proposal that does not have those same attributes, Attoun said. 

MIDDLETON–The Middleton Common Council approved a rezoning ordinance to change an R1 single family lot at 7103 Twin Sunset Road to a planned development district (PDD) which creates zoning regulations specific to the development. The rezoning request came to the council for a proposal which would split the lot and create two duplex buildings. Despite ardent calls from neighboring residents in single family homes in the Town of Middleton and the Hidden Oaks subdivision to deny the rezoning, the council approved the request to support infill development and increase the variety of housing types.

The motion to approve the rezoning passed on a four to four split vote on the council triggering the mayor’s tie breaking vote, who voted in favor of the request. 

TOWN OF MIDDLETON – Did a private landowner put a gate across a town road? That was a question the Town Board fenced with Monday night.

Capitol Court is a short road extending north from US 14, dividing the town and city of Middleton. It also extends between the PKK Lighting and Batteries America properties, continuing about 200 feet to the property of DRS Ltd., an asphalt paving firm, that apparently installed the road-blocking gate.

The gate has been there as long as Town Engineer Rod Zubella remembers but hasn’t been previously looked into, he said.

DRS has run heavy trucks over the road and without town approval, repaved it south of the gate in 2019. It then sought reimbursement from an adjoining property owner, which brought the matter to the town’s attention.

MIDDLETON–The City of Middleton Plan Commission approved a recommendation to the Common Council to rezone a property across from the Hidden Oaks neighborhood at 7103 Twin Sunset Rd. from R1 single family residential to a planned development district (PDD) for a proposal calling for two duplex buildings on the site.

Neighboring residents in single family homes have been outspoken in their opposition to the proposal for various reasons related to the density and scale of the project. The lot which the duplexes would be built on is roughly the size of the adjacent lots which have single family homes.

Planning and Zoning Administrator Mark Opitz said the property owner Koteshwar Katukam revised the plan orienting the garages of the connected units on opposite sides of the building so that it appears as a single family home from either side.

WISCONSIN–The People’s Maps Commission will hold a virtual public hearing for the 2^nd Congressional on Thursday, March 11, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. to seek public input on the upcoming redistricting of legislative maps. All Wisconsin residents are encouraged to watch and participate. 

The hearing is one in a series of at least eight meetings, one for each one of Wisconsin’s eight congressional districts. The virtual public hearing will include testimony from subject matter experts and also provide Wisconsinites the opportunity to express how they have been affected by legislative redistricting and share their ideas for how Wisconsin can work together to achieve fair maps.        

MIDDLETON–The Airport Master Plan Advisory Committee (AMPAC) last week completed a review of the document’s final chapter in preparation for a public presentation at a date to be announced.

In a nearly 5.5 hour discussion of narrowing alternatives to lengthening or realigning runways and adding hangers, AMPAC reiterated its opposition to a longer runway that would accommodate more jets.

The east-west runway could be lengthen by 440 feet to the west at most and still keep the runway protection zone on the airport property, said Greg Stern of Mead & Hunt, project director. 

A 1,440-feet extension would satisfy insurance requirements for business-type jet operations during slippery conditions, but navigation easements would have to be acquired for a runway protection zone for the longer landing strip, Stern said.

MIDDLETON–The Middleton Plan Commission reviewed two conceptual proposals for mixed-use, multi-family, residential-commercial redevelopment projects, granting concept approval for a four story, 81-unit building on University Avenue and referring a proposal from The Bruce Company to redevelop its Parmenter Street location into a multi-phase, multi-building project with up to 600 units.

Planning and Zoning Administrator Mark Opitz said the developer Prime Urban Properties is requesting feedback from the plan commission for a proposal which calls for redeveloping two buildings at 6230 and 6236 University Avenue near the intersection with Allen Boulevard. The site currently has a multi-tenant building with a Milio’s Sandwiches, Queen’s Way Laundry laundromat and a former tattoo shop and another building formerly a Mexican Restaurant. 

TOWN OF MIDDLETON–Middleton Municipal Airport-Morey Field remains Dane County’s second biggest source of lead emissions and the Middleton Town Board last week heard about its harmful effects on people.

“Lead in the air is the motherlode of lead exposure in the human body,” said Dr. Beth Neary, a Clinical Adjunct Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at UW-Madison.

Neary went on to say that there is no safe level of lead in the blood system; that lead is a neuro toxin that damages the developing brain permanently, leading to lower IQ scores in children; lead is toxic to all cells and that society pays a deep cost for each child who is lead poisoned.

Incidents of lead poisoning in children have decreased since unleaded gasoline became universally available in 1976. Twenty years later, the Clean Air Act banned the use leaded gasoline in new vehicles other than aircraft, racing cars, farm equipment, and marine engines.

MIDDLETON–The City of Middleton Committee of the Whole (COW), made up of the Common Council and Plan Commission, met for its annual retreat Jan. 30 to review the city’s ongoing major projects, TIF finance model, state of the real estate market and planning goals and strategies. 

Planning and Zoning Administrator Mark Opitz said work on the airport master plan is resuming and will now include an environmental setting chapter which will review ways to reduce aircraft noise and improve air quality for residents living nearby. The city will survey city and town residents to review feedback. Once that is complete an open house can be scheduled, Opitz said. The goal is to complete the master plan by summer.

The North Mendota Trail long Century Avenue has remaining work, Opitz said, but he is confident the project can be completed within the $1.4 million budget. Once completed the trail will extend from Branch Street to the Highland Way traffic signals.