City Meetings and Updates Week of April 28
posted- City Meetings:
- Finance Committee 4/28
- Plan Commission 4/28
- Reminder: Please Take Communications Feedback Survey by Monday!
- Public Meeting on Potential 842 Jupiter Dr Rezoning Proposal 5/7
- Madison Community Development Division Celebrates 50 Years
- Madison Public Library Celebrates 150 Year Anniversary with May Events
- Events & Announcements
City Meetings
Finance Committee
The Finance Committee meeting will take place on Monday, April 28, at 4:30 p.m. in virtual format. Agenda items include approving the 2025 Neighborhood Grant Program recommendations (includes a capacity-building grant for the new Hiestand Park Neighborhood Association in District 3!), as well as an update on federal executive orders and directives to pause federal grants and loans and impacts on City budgets and projects.
Plan Commission
The Plan Commission meeting will take place on Monday, April 28, at 5:30 p.m. in virtual format. Agenda items include development-related requests (none in District 3).
Reminder: Please Take Communications Feedback Survey by Monday!
After being reelected on April 1st, I was sworn in on April 15th for a second term representing District 3(opens in a new window) on the Common Council for another two years. It’s a tremendous honor to serve my Eastside community in this role. I’m using the beginning of another term as an opportunity to reflect on my communications about City business and City government topics of interest to residents. As such, I’m asking for your feedback!
Please consider checking taking this online survey, which should take just a minute or two. It asks a few questions about whether you’ve been receiving or using information from my blog posts and about other ways that you might prefer to receive information about City business and City services. Feel free to share this with your neighbors and other District 3 community members who may be interested. The survey will close at the end of the day on Monday, April 28th.
Once again, here’s the survey link. Thank you for taking a couple of minutes to share your thoughts and feedback with me!
Public Meeting on Potential 842 Jupiter Drive Rezoning Proposal Scheduled for 5/7
WellBrook Recovery has purchased the Chamomile Assisted Living facility at 842 Jupiter Drive and intends to convert the facility to a Community-Based Residential Facility to provide addiction treatment care. They run a similar site in Brookfield, WI, and say that their expansion to Madison is intended to serve their growing base of clients who live in Madison. This would require a change to the current zoning rules that apply to the 842 Jupiter Drive property. They haven’t officially filed their rezoning application yet so there aren’t yet City hearing dates scheduled, but I expect those would probably take place sometime over the summer – watch for future blog posts with more information about that.
I’ve been working with North Star Neighborhood Association leaders and the applicant to better understand the proposal and have asked WellBrook to share more information with the neighborhood about their how the facility would be run, including their client admissions policies, security plans, staffing, etc. I’m hosting a neighborhood meeting where WellBrook representatives will give a presentation on their care model and their intentions for a potential Madison site and to answer residents’ questions. Following the meeting I’m hoping to hear neighbors’ feedback on the proposal.
The meeting on WellBrook’s proposal for the Chamomile site will be held on Wednesday, May 7th, at 6:30pm at the Great Dane Eastside, 876 Jupiter Drive next-door to the site in question, in the upstairs meeting room by the Sky Bar.
Madison Community Development Division Celebrates 50 Years
This past week, the City of Madison celebrated Community Development Week to commemorate 50 years since the first Community Development Block Grant was awarded to Madison to support our residents.
So, what does “community development” mean?
President Gerald Ford signed the Housing and Community Development Act in 1974, consolidating eight different federal programs into one block grant and allowed local governments to have more control over where that money went. These funds can be used for a wide range of purposes including infrastructure, economic development, housing, and other community needs like affordable housing and human services agencies. Here’s more information about the block grant funding, and here is more information about the Community Development Division.
- How the Community Development Division Supports Local Childcare: Childcare is one of the biggest costs for families in Madison, and an increasing shortage of childcare providers in the area is causing costs to increase even more. For decades, the City of Madison's Community Development Division has supported a variety of childcare providers across the city while also offering accreditation to offer a sense of trust and peace of mind to parents, and open the door to additional funding opportunities and partnerships for childcare providers. Some childcare providers in Madison have been partnering with the City for 50 years. The City of Madison has accredited Red Caboose Child Care Center since the early 1970s. Here’s the current list of City-accredited Child Care Centers, and the list of City-accredited Child Care Providers. You can read more here about Child Care Tuition Assistance.
- How Community Development Block Grant Funds Support Madison Homeowners: One of the first programs the City of Madison created after receiving its first federal community development funds in 1975 was the Housing Rehabilitation Services Program. This program provides financial and technical assistance to low- and moderate-income property owners to repair deteriorating homes in Madison's older neighborhoods. Since then, the program has helped more than 2,200 homeowners with those repairs, maintaining and improving more than 3,400 homes across the City. Today this program is administered through Project Home. Another way that community development funds help homeowners is through the Home-Buy the American Dream program, which provides down-payment and closing cost assistance to low-to-moderate income homebuyers (more information here).
We have yet to see how the shifting federal funding and policy landscape will affect Madison’s community development funding from the federal government.
Madison Public Library Celebrates 150 Year Anniversary with May Events
From the Madison Public Library:
“The community is invited to attend 150th Anniversary parties at all nine Madison Public Library locations during three Saturdays in May: May 10, May 17, and May 31.
Image credit:
Madison Public Library
“The first Madison Public Library opened with just two rooms and 5,000 books on May 31, 1875, so it’s only fitting that during the month of May - 150 years later - we would commemorate Madison’s early commitment to literacy and lifelong learning, thank our many community supporters over the years, and celebrate this momentous anniversary while looking forward to the future of library service in the City of Madison,” said Library Director Tana Elias.
Each celebration will include a slideshow of historic photos, the opportunity to compete in a fun trivia game to win gift bundles, and an invitation to sign up for a Madison Public Library card. Attendees can enjoy birthday cake and coffee at each library location and have the opportunity to reflect on what Madison’s libraries have meant to them with a colorful art cake created by new Central Library Artist-in-Residence National Velvet. The art cakes are interactive ways to collect stories and include candle-shaped prompts asking people to share their first library memory, their favorite thing about the library now, and their hopes for the library of the future. […]
See the full schedule of events and activities below and online at madpl.org/150yearparties.”
Pinney Library’s celebration will be May 31st from 11am-1pm and will include a program on the history of East Side branch libraries, live music thanks to Yid Vicious, face painting, meeting Artist-in-Residence Ellie Braun, trivia for prizes, and more!
More information is available in the Library’s news release.
Events & Announcements
- Metro Transit North/South BRT Public Information Meeting (Virtual), Wednesday, April 30: Come learn more about a proposed second Bus Rapid Transit route proposed to run north to south through the community. South Park St. will also be reconstructed in conjunction with North-South BRT. Information will be presented on both projects.
- Safety plans in place for Mifflin Street Block Party: MADISON, Wis. – The city of Madison has spent months preparing for this weekend’s Mifflin Street Block Party. The celebration typically draws thousands of people to the 400 and 500 blocks of the street and surrounding area. For months,… [posted April 25, 2025]
- MPD adopts amnesty policy to prevent underage drinking citations during medical emergencies: MADISON, Wis. – The Madison Police Department is introducing a new policy that shields people from underage drinking citations if they call for help during a medical emergency. The Amnesty Through Responsible Action program goes into effect Tuesday.… [posted April 23, 2025]
- Food Scraps Recycling Drop-off Returns to Eastside Farmers’ Market on April 29, 2025: Free food scraps recycling drop-off will be back this year at the Eastside Farmer’s Market. The first date food scraps will be accepted is Tuesday, April 29, 2025. Look for the free food scraps drop-off tent at the market to drop off your coffee… [posted April 22, 2025]
- MPD hosts egg hunt, offers free family photos: MADISON, Wis. -- The Madison Police Department hosted a special Easter egg hunt for kids who live at the Harmony apartments. Dozens of kids participated in the fun. Residents were also given the chance to have free, professional family photos taken… [posted April 21, 2025]
- Roots Cause Sanitary Sewer Overflow, City Teamwork Leads to Fast Cleanup : An area on the east side of the City of Madison is clean after 300 gallons of sewage overflowed Friday morning. The City of Madison Engineering Division received a report of wastewater spilling from a sanitary access structure at the… [posted April 21, 2025]
- City Visioning for Economic Development Planning, Tuesday, April 29: Join the City of Madison(link is external), EQT By Design(link is external), and 4th Economy(link is external) for an interactive workshop reimagining economic development. We're shifting our approach to put community members' needs first while building an inclusive and sustainable vision for our shared economic future. Learn about our strategy and what lies ahead.
Please visit the City news webpage to find additional news and announcements and to subscribe to receive notification of news releases as they are posted. Additional upcoming events can also be found on the City events calendar.
