News Archive

December 17, 2022

Happy Holidays! 

There’s been a barrage of meetings and developments! 

December 5 the City of Verona Plan Commission heard public comment on the Ardent Glen project and voted unanimously 6-0 approving the resolution to approve the project and recommend it to the Common Council. Adam Sayre summarized the many objections raised in his memorandum summarizing the Plan Commission meeting this month. 

Monday, December 19, 2022—7:00 p.m. the City Common Council will meet for ‘Discussion and Possible Action Re: approving a preliminary and final plan for Ardent Glen and rezoning of Marty Farm property for residential development’.

Relevant to this: This week the AECOM engineers presented the current plans for expanding Hwy PD from Shady Oak lane to Country View Rd. AECOM engineers said they were not coordinating their plans with the Veridian developers although traffic from these proposed developments will surely have a major impact on PD. This planned expansion will cut into the southern border of the Ardent Glen project and take about 2 acres of the proposed green space, exposing the community directly to the highway, and not allowing for the landscaping buffer called for in the initial proposal and required by the CoV Northwest Neighborhood Plan.

We plan to continue voicing our objections to the proposed plan and we hope you will let the City of Verona know how you feel about this project. The proposal is likely to be adjusted for the final plat since it is still lacking crucial, required information (the floodplain study, traffic study, The HWY PD expansion, etc). 

Your chance to speak out will come as part of the Public Comments agenda item, following roll call at the 12/19 Common Council meeting.

You can also send comments by emailing adam.sayre@ci.verona.wi.us or in writing to Common Council, 111 Lincoln Street., Verona, WI, 53593. You can also address your comments directly to the City alders responsible for this area, Christine Posey christine.posey@ci.verona.wi.us  and Chad Kemp chad.kemp@ci.verona.wi.us

We, as individuals and VRPA, and with other area residents, have tried to bring concerns about the Ardent Glen project to the attention of the City. It’s a sad commentary on the City’s planning that they ignore their own ordinance requiring them to follow their comprehensive plan, and repeatedly deny good land use principles in their eagerness to push urban sprawl into our beautiful countryside. City justification appears to have devolved into “we must provide housing everywhere we can.” and “if we don’t develop it someone else will.” (Untrue – per City of Madison and the Town of Verona.)

Of interest are recent statements from the Mayor and plan commission members that the cost of the new development may outweigh the revenues. What a strange way to approach development and how detrimental to the City, Town, and region!

MMSD Lower Badger Mill Creek Interceptor meeting 12/08/22

Representatives from Madison Metropolitan Sewer District, including project engineers from raSmith and AECOM, were present for the open house at the Verona Town Hall. Maps, engineering proposals, and aerial views of the neighborhood were available, and staff made efforts to describe and explain the preliminary plan.

The current sewer interceptor currently ends with a pumping station on MidTown Road (across from the Dreger Farm) which sends material uphill and East to the sewer that runs along Hwy M. This was always meant to be a short term solution until the Southern leg of the new line could be built. There are no indications that other routes have been or will be considered.

The new proposed line will involve the construction of a 36” buried pipe to run South from MidTown Rd along the creek and through the ravine to Shady Oak Lane. The line will be run beneath Shady Oak Lane from NorDel Hill Rd just South of the bridge, past Shady Hill Rd, past Oak Hill Rd, then will cross South through the Marty Farm to connect with the Southern leg of the line at Hwy PD. Construction will necessitate the temporary closing of Shady Oak Lane between these intersections.

There were many concerns raised by the residents, especially by those whose property adjoins the ravine. The width of the finished interceptor right of way will be 30’ that will have to be kept permanently clear of large plantings or structures to allow for inspections and maintenance, but the construction could possibly require a temporary right of way of up to 100’ which would necessitate the removal of a considerable number of established trees.

There are also some maps (see Map 10) from Madison’s Shady Woods Neighborhood Plan that indicate a desire to put a permanent shared use path along the interceptor route through private property along the ravine.

Residents were advised to consider legal representation to negotiate the terms of the right of way easements that the City of Madison/ MMSD will control.

Resources are available to be reviewed here. 

MMSD is accepting comments at: Cory Horton, Senior Project Manager, raSmith, 4001 Felland Road, Ste 108, Madison WI, 53718-6459 or at cory.horton@rasmith.com

December 3, 2022

The City of Verona has posted the agenda for December 5 Plan Commission meeting. It will start 6:30 pm with discussion and Ardent Glenn public comments to be item 6.

Of particular interest is a letter from Sarah Gaskell, Planner/Administrator, Town of Verona regarding this development.  It is a detailed observation of the flaws and problems the Ardent Glenn project

We hope you will make your presence known, either by public comment or email.

Our objections are on record for the many past meetings. Here are a few of them

• This plan does not conform with the City Northwest Neighborhood plan.
• It creates a remote city island without connection to the City of Verona.
• It is high density development out of character with the locale or the NW plan.
• Floodplain studies and traffic studies are still pending
• It is an unnecessary surplus of housing that far exceeds the current needs and available units.
• Twenty one new houses with driveways border Shady Oak including the corner contrary to NW plan
• Lot size and setback have been drastically reduced below the plan minimums.

August 12, 2022

There are two upcoming meetings of interest regarding our shady neighborhood.

City of Verona Plan Commission will hear a presentation of the proposed development of the Hexagon property, the land between Woods Rd and the east side of Shady Oak Ln. Wangard Development LLC has submitted a plan for 656 units on 58 acres, comprising apartment buildings and townhouses with a continuation of Northern Lights Rd across hwy PD. The initial proposal can be viewed here.

The Plan Commission will discuss this proposal at their Thursday, November 3rd meeting at 6:30pm. (Their regular first Tuesday meeting date was moved ahead due to elections.) The agenda and schedule should be posted this Friday, Oct 28. We’ll update the VRPA website with links when they’re available.

The Town of Verona will hear a presentation from City of Madison for the Shady Woods Development Thursday, October 27, 2022 – 6:30pm.  Many of us have heard Madison’s Zoom presentation already. We don’t know if new information will be presented and the agenda states that public comment is reserved for items not on the current agenda. We’ll update the VRPA website with any new information on the presentation if it becomes available, too.  Links to the plan and its maps can be found here.

October 25, 2022

In the August 11 meeting, the CARPC commission met to discuss and vote on the City of Verona Urban service amendment. Sadly, the final vote was six to four to recommend the USA and send it to DNR for review.

July 21, 2022

Thanks to everyone at the July 14^th CARPC meeting. Your presence and participation meant a great deal. We think important issues were raised and heard. We know CARPC staff is researching  questions about these issues since the public hearing.

The  CARPC commission will vote on the City of Verona request but the date is unsure. It will likely be August 11^th but the agenda is not published yet. When the agenda is published we also expect to see a full CARPC staff report on the planning and water quality topics.  We will post more when we have more information. 

We do know the Wisconsin Dept of Natural Resource will have the final say about the City amendment after CARPC has made its recommendations. This decision is typically made and issued a month after CARPC’s recommendation is made.

The July 14 meeting can be viewed or listened to from the CARPC website. It includes a description of the City USA (urban service agreement) request by agency director, Steve Steinhoff and a presentation by Adam Sayre of the Cit of Verona, as well as the public comments. We thought Mr Steinhoff’s description was interesting and he noted a number of problems with the plan as it stands. Later, many more issues were raised about: the fact that the development will be isolated since other neighbors do not wish to sell their land; water drainage on the Marty farm; the extent of the flood plain; risk to private wells;  and, the presence of geological features that are a potential risk for sinkholes, bedrock collapse and possible contamination of ground water.

The Shady Wood Neighborhood Development plan: 

The City of Madison planners met with local residents March 16 via zoom to share its revised Shady Wood Plan which will affect much of Town property north of Shady Oak Ln. We’ve summarized the first meeting and our followup questions. 

July 14: CARPC hearing for Veridian/Marty Farm development

The Marty/Veridian development project is advancing to the next step. CARPC is hearing the City of Verona request for development on July 14, 2022. This is for the purpose of public input on a proposed amendment to the Dane County Water Quality Plan revising the sewer service area boundary and environmental corridors in the Verona Urban Service Area. This is a link to the official notice. 

The commission’s goals are very relevant to the nature and location of this project. Their newly adopted Planning Framework calls for project design that:

1. Reduces greenhouse gas emissions and fosters community resilience to climate change
2. Increases access to jobs, housing, and services for all people
3. Conserves farmland, water resources, natural areas, and fiscal resources

These environmentally positive priorities give us hope that a case can be made for better planning and modifications of the Veridian proposal. 

We have spoken to members of CARPC and have been told that public participation in these hearings is very influential and important. Unfortunately, it often doesn’t happen, and projects are often passed without public objection.  This is a receptive and important forum to make a stand and make our opinions heard. This is vitally important to our neighborhood, so we are asking you to please participate in any and every way possible. We know that many members of the commission are sympathetic to our reasoning, but they need to hear from the community for support.

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These are some areas of concern we think are relevant to the discussion:

• The creation of a city urban island in the middle of countryside, bounded by farms with little chance of urban connection or transit
• Imposing a type of development and density out of character with the surrounding neighborhoods and land uses
• Placing a large development on a flood plain with potential for surface and ground water contamination and property damage
• Destruction of valuable farmland that is listed as ‘of national importance

The formal application is submitted by City of Verona with the heading URBAN SERVICE AREA AMENDMENT REQUEST:VERIDIAN ARDENT GLEN NEIGHBORHOOD. Its worth reviewing the 31 pages. The commission will respect a factual rebuttal and counter argument, so its good to be as informed as possible

October 23, 2021 The Town of Verona Natural and Recreational Areas Committee (NRAC) is hosting a guest speaker from American Farmland Trust (AFT) at its October 26, 2021 meeting.  AFT is a national organization that seeks to protect agricultural land, promote environmentally sound farming practices, and keep farmers on the land. The AFT presentation is meant to be informational, both for the committee and for any members of the public who wish to attend.  It is part of the NRAC task to investigate the possibility of having a Town program to help willing landowners protect their land with conservation easements and/or development rights transfers and purchases.  No decision to implement a Town program will be made at this meeting, as the NRAC purpose is to collect information and provide recommendations to the Town Board, and other speakers are planned as part of the process.

Members of the public who wish to make comments or ask questions can do so during the public comments period at the beginning of the meeting.