Dear Friend, Thank you so very much for all that you did in the past two weeks, whether it was writing a letter, coming to a city meeting, or testify

       
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Working to preserve the land west of Lake Waubesa from poorly planned development

Dear Friend,

Thank you so very much for all that you did in the past two weeks, whether it was writing a letter, coming to a city meeting, or testifying! It all helped.

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The NEN from the north, with Lake Waubesa in the background
Photo by Nadia Olker

The bad news

Let's get the bad news over first: we lost the vote in the Common Council last Tuesday, Feb. 26, on the resolution to instruct the planning staff to prepare an application to the Capital Area Regional Planning Commission (CARPC) for an Urban Service Area Amendment for the Northeast Neighborhood.

The vote was 5 to 2, with Alder Denise Solie being absent. Her absence meant that if two more alders had voted no, we could have won, even though the mayor supported it. (The mayor only gets to vote if there is a tie.) Alders Steve Arnold and Dorothy Krause voted no, and Alders Carol Poole, Becky Baumbach, Richard Bloomquist, Swami Swaminathan, and Patrick Stern voted in favor. (In case you want a visual for all of these actors, here's the link to the Common Council page on Fitchburg's website.) Alder Swaminathan started out the discussion saying that he would vote no, and he voted to table the resolution, but in the end he voted with the majority in favor.

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Agriculture in the NEN
Photo by Nadia Olker

The good news

The good news is that Alder Steve Arnold was thinking ahead, and when he saw that he would lose the vote (when his motion to table was defeated 4 – 3), he had three amendments ready to alter the resolution. Only the first one passed, supported by Alders Arnold, Krause, Swaminathan, and Stern. Here's what they adopted:

Amendment 1

Authorizes staff to complete an updated plan for fire protection and emergency services to serve Swan Creek, Uptown, Southdale, and the Northeast Neighborhood with average 5-minute response times, as defined in the Short Elliot and Henderson report, for Common Council approval. The plan shall include an analysis of cost of the options studied.

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Photo by Nadia Olker

So what does it all mean?

Staff, led by City Planner Tom Hovel, will start the process (estimated at 6 months) of creating the Urban Service Area Amendment Application (USAAA) for the Northeast Neighborhood (NEN), including the updated plan for fire and EMS protection with a cost analysis of the various options.

When it's done, someone will most likely make a motion to send it on to the CARPC for approval, and there will be resolutions at the Plan Commission and the Common Council. At that time we'll organize again, looking at the application to see whether all of our concerns have been resolved. (Not likely!)

Were our efforts worth it, since we lost the vote?

Yes, they were! Our allies in county government noticed our energetic opposition, and come out publicly on our side! In the last two days before the vote, Mayor Pfaff and the Common Council received letters urging them not to take this step, from:

Dane County Executive Joe Parisi,
Former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, and
County Supervisors Pat Downing, Chuck Erickson, Patrick Miles, and Kyle Richmond, and Lakes and Watershed Commission Chair Melissa Malott.

It will be so good to have such people on our side in the coming years!

In the media (click here to read them at the fitchburgvoices blog), we had:
• A Feb. 20 Capital Times guest editorial opposing the resolution by Jay Allen, former mayor of Fitchburg and current mayoral candidate.
• Three favorable online comment letters to the editorial, by Fitchburg residents.
• A Feb. 20 Capital Times letter to the editor by Fitchburg resident Rich Eggleston, in opposition.
• A Feb. 25 Wisconsin State Journal letter to the editor by myself.

At the Plan Commission meeting on Feb. 19, there were:

• 23 attendees opposed to the resolution, including 16 from Fitchburg
• 9 of these people testified
• 10 people registered against
• an additional 5 people' s letters were distributed to the Commission.

Only two people spoke in favor: Phil Sveum, the developer who owns 250 acres in the NEN, and a gentleman who owns a smaller parcel.

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Prof. Cal DeWitt

At the Common Council meeting on Feb. 26,

despite a ferocious snowstorm that scared off many who had planned to come, there were:

20 people in attendance in opposition,
8 of these testified, including
Prof. Cal DeWitt, who spoke eloquently about the delicate hydrology of the area.
9 more stopped in to register in opposition, but couldn't stay.
And scores of people had written to their alders and the mayor.

Only one person spoke in favor: Phil Sveum, the developer.

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NEN flowers
Photo by Nadia Olker

"But if we lost, then it was wasted effort, right?"

Not so fast! The fight isn't over yet. Here are several good outcomes that will help us in the future.

Alder Arnold's amendment means that the problem of fire and EMS protection for a NEN development cannot be swept under the rug. Mayor Pfaff is currently trying to reach an agreement with Mayor Soglin for an automatic aid arrangement like merging the departments or contracting for the South Madison firehouse #6 to respond first to the NEN, either temporarily or permanently. If this is not possible, Fitchburg will have to build an expensive new firehouse (which taxpayers may not appreciate), or admit that they are building a new neighborhood where residents will be 8 to 10 min. from a fire engine and 12 to 14 min. from an ambulance.

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Photo by Nadia Olker

Our vigorous opposition forced the mayor and his allies to make a lot of declarations that will we hold them to later.

Here are some close paraphrases of things said by Mayor Pfaff and Alders Poole, Bloomquist, and Stern.

"We care deeply about Lake Waubesa and the wetlands. That's why we are ordering this application to be made: so that staff can study all the excellent points that you have brought up!"

"We would never think of building a neighborhood with inadequate fire and EMS protection!"

"When this application process is done, if we think that this development would be harmful to the lakes or the groundwater, we simply won't send it in to the CARPC!"

Mayor Pfaff insisted that the only way that the city could possibly look into the concerns of the citizens was through doing a USAA application! He appealed to City Administrator Tony Roach to back him up on this dubious point, saying "I don't mean to put you on the spot!" though in fact that's what he was doing: putting an employee on the spot in public.

But Alder Dorothy Krause asserted that it would indeed be possible for the Common Council to instruct planning staff to look into the concerns without creating a USAA application!

It was a good discussion to have just before the April 2 election,

where the Mayor and three alders have opponents, and there is another open seat for alder being contested by two new candidates. Hopefully this has helped Fitchburg citizens to see more clearly where the candidates stand on important issues.

Where do we go from here?

We'll keep on working to make the issues known to the decision-makers in our communities. If you can help, please contact us at westwaubesa@gmail.com. And please invite your friends to learn more about the issues by visiting www.fitchburgvoices.blogspot.com, where we archive the many letters and statements that people make on these issues.

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The southern end of Lake Waubesa, with the NEN in gold
Photo by Nadia Olker

Thank you for caring enough about Fitchburg and Lake Waubesa to take action!

Yours,

Phyllis Hasbrouck,

Chair of the West Waubesa Preservation Coalition

P.S. If you would like to support our work with a donation, click here.

www.westwaubesa.org
westwaubesa@gmail.org

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