VNA Council Minutes
Wednesday, July 27th, 2022, at 7:00pm – via Zoom
Term Ending 2022
Sarah Bahauddin – President
Ben Biltz
Bonnie Gruber
Pat Scheckel
Term Ending 2023
Rachel Bennett, Treasurer
Regan Botsford, Secretary
Doug Carlson
Wendy Fearnside
7:00 Meeting Called to Order.
● Meeting Rules: Stay on mute unless talking.
● Approval of June Minutes: unanimously approved.
● Announcements
o Join the listserv: Send an email to VilasNA+subscribe@groups.io
o Website: vilasneighborhood.com
o Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vilasna
o Donations: (Dues no longer required for membership) https://www.vilasneighborhood.com/take-action
7:02: New Business:
● Proposed Liquor License: Ms. Filion and John McCune
o Laura Garden LLC, 1403 Regent St • Agent: Xi Wang Filion, Class A Beer, Class A Liquor
o Will have prepared foods and sounds more like a restaurant to Tag. Tag recommends that she change the application for a restaurant, and reach out to Clerk’s office for clarification.
▪ Also, he recommends that she meet with Captain Friedman who will be making a recommendation. Concerned with what residents are thinking- mainly with liquor license on Regent Street.
▪ How will you work to curb alcohol problems in the area?
o Only sell to over 21.
o Hours: Potentially 9AM-10AM to 9PM/9:30PM.
o Applying for liquor/beer license, mostly food. Only a small portion will allow for beer/liquor sales.
o Tables all inside.
o Square footage: Approximately 2,400 square feet.
o Ran Koi Sushi at 502 State Street, and had a liquor license here too changing business model- before restaurant with bar. Now moving to prepackaged food with liquor store.
o Tag recommends a business plan with a visual model. More information can be found here: https://madison.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=11033587&GUID=B99CCA50-5773-401F-95A0-CD8442E284DF
o Tag concerned because there’s already a liquor store on Regent Street.
o Ms. Filion feels liquor sales will be better for business.
o Mainly grab and go business model. Using majority of the space for retail.
o Will update the application per recommendations. Would go to next ALRC meeting in August, and then also meet with Greenbush Neighborhood Association as well.
o Question regarding space- refrigerated space for grab and go in diagram. Did receive license before and the reason they didn’t move forward before is because of COVID. And this time, they want to include liquor.
o Historically, VNA had reviewed initial license and wanted to cap alcohol sales.
o Tag’s inclination would be to oppose liquor license.
o Ben notes that we might want to request restrictions from 2019 submission. Alcohol beverage laws can be found here: https://www.revenue.wi.gov/Pages/FAQS/ise-atlicns.aspx
o VNA Council- The VNA moves to recommend that the ALRC place this license on file without prejudice (unanimous approval).
7:15 Alder Report
● TOD (Transit Oriented Development) overlay district: circumstances whereby a single family home could be torn down and turned into apartments.
● As city grows, a successful transit system means that people can choose to live there who don’t own a car. This is a healthy way for a city to grow.
● The Overlay District would loosen some current restrictions.
● We need more housing as a city.
● Staff is trying to manage the growth successfully.
● If you have concerns, Tag encourages you to attend meeting of Plan Commission on Monday.
● Updating regulations on Dark Sky, work being done on shared use paths, concern with E-bikes and speed. Please reference Tag’s blog for more information: https://www.cityofmadison.com/council/district13/blog/
● City seeking designation of Glenway Woods- area has potential of becoming a dog park.
● Redistricting question regarding voting location.
7:20 Existing Business
● Zoning Committee: Ben Biltz and Wendy Fearnside
○ TOD overlay (see additional document) would make a number of changes to underlying zoning.
○ Changes it would make are the ones summarized in handout. In Single Family Zones- those would be called TRC2 and TRC3.
○ ADU can be attached but need to have separate entrances. Tag suggests asking staff for more specifics.
○ Questions: Several different historic districts in area. Review committee received a charge from Landmark Committee to come up with a code so there’s more predictability amongst them. Historic Districts viewed differently than federally recognized districts. There are some people who don’t want anything done to impact historic districts, and then others who feel like there should be changes that are modest and incremental.
○ Comment: troubling that local historic districts are different from national historical districts. How can some historic districts differ from others? Seems like it will open up several issues. Concern about what is happening in Greenbush: https://madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/developer-win-approvals-to-raze-church-historic-building-for-regent-street-project/article_cf96adef-4129-5197-91f2-28b574a308ff.html
○ Only use Airbnb in a home that you live in. You cannot rent out half of it- only the part that you actually live in. Cannot build an ADU in your backyard and rent out- have to live in the building to use for an Airbnb.
○ Support equity housing, concern that it’s shortsighted and not taking into account preservation of the homes/neighborhood.
○ We live in a neighborhood with special important character and it will be important to preserve it.
○ Think about appropriate spaces for development such as E. Washington.
○ Concern that we preserve every square inch of green space to absorb the rainfall. Families are not going to want to live in a crowded neighborhood.
○ Additional comments: Why not preserve the national historic district as it is? People have torn down homes in Dungeon Monroe for lot and put up a new house- that could happen in our neighborhood and put up a duplex.
○ Tag shared more information in the Listserv. How can we grow with diversity, equity and inclusion in mind? https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/14/upshot/housing-shortage-us.html and https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-housing-is-so-expensive-particularly-in-blue-states/id1548604447?i=1000570446982
○ Concerns: concept in TOD good, but not for every neighborhood. Seems inconsistent in a lot of ways. This neighborhood has charm, convenience, and walkability.
○ Neighborhood Survey Results 2018/2021: https://www.vilasneighborhood.com/vilas-neighborhood-surveys
○ Plan Commission Discussion is on August 8 and then send to Common Council. If we want to have input while they are deciding what to do, now is the time. More information: https://www.cityofmadison.com/dpced/planning/plan-commission/1577/
○ Sarah suggests that we take a vote on the issue. In looking at the survey, there’s not enough responses that are not favorable that are against development for 2-3 units in the interior. Her opinion is that we don’t take a position in support of retaining the exemption for National Register Historic Districts from the TOD overlay. Considering that the council is split, it was agreed to not take a position at this time.
● Social Report: Bethany Nelson
○ 4th of July Recap – Sarah
○ Book Club – tomorrow night. Sarah
○ Back to school treat table- Regan and Ann
○ Possible table at Farmer’s Market? Lee Lazar is getting a table there for neighbors to sell home grown produce. Will be a fundraiser for VNA. If there’s interest for neighbors, please let Sarah know.
○ Possible Garth’s event- interested in additional support on August 18.
● Treasurer’s Report: Rachel Bennett
○ Rachel working on issue.
● Vilas Ink: Pat Scheckel
● District-13 Alliance – Dana Scheckel and Sarah Bahauddin
○ September 11: Good Neighbor Gathering
● JCAC: Doug Carlson
○ JCAC updates
○ UW Football schedule updates- first football game September 3 is a night game. Couple more TBDs.
● Edgewood Liaison Committee: Sarah Bahauddin, Shawn Doherty, and Craig Stanley (No report)
● Zoo Liaison Committee Report: Bonnie Gruber and Ann Rivlin
● Ann notes that she hasn’t received any feedback about the private event. Please share feedback if you have it. Ann and Bonnie feel like Liaison Committee going very well.
1. Increased trash collection in the Randall parking lot—it’s a city lot but the zoo is having their janitor collect trash
2. Bike racks—we’ve pushed for better bike racks, and the zoo is investigating potential actions here (with our help)
3. Private event—the zoo held a private corporate event on the 20th and is open to feedback regarding any impact the event had on the neighborhood.
4. Bus parking—the zoo is increasing efforts to get buses to park at Bowman Field, and they have been sending zoo staff out to speak with bus drivers about where to park.
5. Vilas Park Drive—the vehicle free section has made it easier for adults dropping off their kids at zoo camp.
6. Game day parking—we plan to discuss Badger game day parking at future meetings.
8:30 Other Business:
● Compost bin giveaway application/reference Sarah’s email.
● Wendy: would love to see plants in the planters that are serving as barriers along the water. Interested in volunteers for next year please reach out.
Adjourn: Meeting called to a close at 9:02PM.
Upcoming Meetings: Aug 24, Sept 28, Oct 26, Nov 16*, and Dec 14*
