Williamson Street Design Guidelines

The City of Madison received two BUILD grants for planning along Williamson (or "Willy") Street.

Willy Street I BUILD Grant

The City of Madison received a BUILD grant in the first year of the program. BUILD awarded the City $26,000 for a redevelopment plan for the 1200 and 1300 blocks of Williamson Street. The Marquette Neighborhood Association and the Greater Williamson Area Business Association initiated the planning effort and provided matching funds.

Town Planning Collaborative and Biko Associates were selected as the planning consultants. A focal point of the planning process led by was a multi-day planning "charrette*." During the charrette, community residents, business owners, city officials and others walked Williamson Street and met in small groups to identify shared goals and visions. Consultants facilitated the process and helped translate the goals and visions, through an iterative process, into graphic displays. The product of the charrette was a common vision for Williamson Street.

View of proposed development at Williamson and Baldwin Streets

The final Marquette Neighborhood Center Master Plan presented the vision and translated the vision into recommended development plan and guidelines. The goal of the Plan is to establish Willy and Baldwin Streets as a Neighborhood Center - a focal point for the community. The Plan identifies infill development opportunities on Willy Street and along Baldwin to East Washington. It proposes building types and development standards that, if implemented, could help create the envisioned neighborhood center. The Neighborhood Center could be further enhanced by the potential for a passenger rail station at Baldwin.

A summary of the plan can be found at http://www.countyofdane.com/build/build_communities/marquette/pg14.htm.

* A charrette, according to the National Charrette Institute, "is a collaborative planning process that harnesses the talents and energies of all interested parties to create and support a feasible plan that represents transformative community change."

Willy Street BUILD II Grant

The BUILD I Plan recommended amending the Third Lake Ridge Historic District Ordinance to strengthen the guidelines for rehabilitation and new construction within the Historic District. The need to amend the ordinance grew after the plan was adopted, as a result of new development proposals in the 800 to 1000 blocks of Willy Street. A growing interest in living close to downtown on a vibrant street in an attractive neighborhood was fueling growth in the area.

Development proposals, however, stalled when neighborhood residents objected to what they perceived as inappropriate scale of the proposals. A lack of clear rules or guidelines for the scale, form, massing and placement of new buildings frustrated all involved in the process.

Consequently, the City sought, and was awarded, a second BUILD grant for Willy Street. In 2002 BUILD awarded a $12,500 matching grant ($25,000 project cost) to the City to prepare guidelines for development in the 600 to 1100 blocks of Willy Street. The goal of the second grant was to facilitate a process that would result in a broad level of agreement on the appropriate form of development and rehabilitation. Broad agreement would be translated into design guidelines incorporated into City zoning ordinance.

A 12-person Steering Committee met approximately 30 times over an 18 month period. The neighborhood and general public participated in an all-day Neighborhood Vision Forum in May 2002. Other community-wide meetings were held at later stages to get feedback on draft documents and plans. The City hired Vandewalle & Associates to assist with the planning effort. However, the City also provided significant staff support to the project.

At the Vision Forum, the participants were asked to verbally identify and rank various aspects of the neighborhood - both physical and non-physical-that contribute to its special character The participants were then asked to relate their goals and values to specific physical attributes of the neighborhood by identifying a palette of desirable building forms, and land uses, that complement or support these values. This was done in the form of an architectural preference survey. Finally, participants were asked to match the desired build types to possible redevelopment sites within the study area, and to construct conceptual models of preferred building groups and block faces.

Key goals identified at the Vision Forum were: Preserve historic structures and building groups Promote pedestrian friendly design Support diversity Support local businesses Allow contemporary, but historically compatible, architecture Allow moderate increases in residential density in appropriate locations Maintain and promote housing affordability

The lego exercise at the first public forum helped in developing height and scale recommendations in the study area.

The Standards for Design and Preservation: Williamson Street 600 - 1100 Blocks will be incorporated into the City's zoning ordinance as an amendment to the Third Lake Ridge Historic District. Property owners applying for city permits will need to demonstrate compliance with the guidelines and standards in the District. Some work will require approval by the Madison Landmark Commission.

The Standards document concludes:

"This Plan articulates a common understanding for the Williamson Street area that is sensitive to the existing historic character of the neighborhood while allowing new development to occur. The vision is translated into a set of design guidelines and criteria that will provide specific rules for renovating existing buildings and constructing new ones that are appropriate for Williamson Street. It also proposes recommendations to be incorporated into the Marquette-Schenk-Atwood neighborhood plan addressing items such as land use, parking, housing affordability, and the environment.

"By actively involving residents, business owners, developers, property owners and other interested parties, a vision emerged that led to a set of principles, design guidelines and criteria intended to foster and achieve the goals stated in this report. The plan should benefit all parties by having the structure in place for preservation and development to occur in a coherent, comprehensive, efficient and fair manner."
 

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Last Modified: September 8th, 2004