The Odana Area and East Towne Area planning efforts got underway just before COVID-19 struck, necessitating changes to public engagement efforts during a time where gatherings of people were prohibited due to public health reasons. However, the initial round of engagement, with “Madison Mall Madness” and a series of eight virtual events that attracted over 450 people, raised awareness of the planning efforts and began collecting initial thoughts and feedback on the future of these two business areas on the edges of Madison.

“The City of Madison is growing rapidly and I applaud the efforts of our planning department in soliciting information from the community to ensure that the City grows to meet the needs of all in the community in a collaborative manner. I encourage residents to participate in developing a vision of the East Towne area that will allow a variety and diversity of businesses to thrive,” said District 17 Alder Samba Baldeh.

Public engagement now continues into the summer with two new efforts getting underway:

1. Outreach and engagement with businesses and landowners in the planning areas, conducted by planning and economic development firm Short Elliot Hendrickson (SEH), which has its Madison office within the Odana Area Plan boundary;
2. Outreach and engagement with residents and employees by seeking feedback via an interactive mapping exercise on improvements that need to be made in the areas of transportation, land use/development, and “green and resilient” aspects of the areas (parks/ stormwater/ sustainability). The mapping exercise is supplemented by a series of poll questions for those who were not able to attend any of the eight virtual meetings that were initially held.

Business owners/managers and property owners interested in participating in a series of roundtables conducted by SEH should sign up via the web. Residents and employees interested in sharing their thoughts on the planning areas and signing up to receive meeting invitations should visit the project web pages for the Odana Area Plan and the East Towne Area Plan.