Madison is in a vise. All around it, the outgrowths of its livability as a city are pushing back. While it once seemed like it could expand all across Dane County, Madison must now contend with its neighbors. Its suburbs are boxing in Madison. If county officials, namely Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, do not address the situation quickly, the next round of county-wide planning will be border battles.
Dane County is withstanding a blitzkrieg of development. To the northeast, Sun Prairie is checking Madison along Highway 151. Verona is doing the same on the southwest. Meanwhile, Middleton prevents Madison from crawling up the western edge of Lake Mendota, while Fitchburg forces Madison's southern expansion to spill around it. While the isthmus has traditionally been the benchmark for squeezed city life, the city's frontiers are filling up fast.
With space filling up, the open spaces are steadily dwindling for everybody. The east side of Madison used to be marked at Highway 51, which was then pushed back to Interstate 90/94. Now it is Reiner Road. That new line is the one that is likely to stay. Madison is on one side and Sun Prairie is on the other. The administrators of Madison's satellites are well aware of it.
\We have met at the middle,"" Sun Prairie Mayor Joe Chase said. ""There really isn't much acreage left to make a decision about.""
Though Madison is taking steps to annex Blooming Grove, a township to its east, the city has established its border with Sun Prairie.
Chase acknowledged that past planning has failed in keeping the two municipalities apart.
""There had been a green space between Madison and Sun Prairie, and that has been kind of ignored,"" he said.
While Madison will continue to expand to the east, it will soon face Cottage Grove. With developments like Richmond Hills, the city's growth is now firmly east of the interstate.
Along with challenges on the east side, Madison must also contend with the south. John Volker, mayor of Verona, said housing problems and traffic congestion provides some familiar ground for Madison and Verona.
""There's a lot of common things we share, but also a lot of challenges,"" he said.
Those challenges are widespread and come to a peak in Madison's problem child of a suburb-Fitchburg.
In 1983, the City of Fitchburg was deliberately created to prevent it from being annexed by Madison. Fitchburg is currently the second largest city in Dane County in both population (20,501 according to the 2000 census) and square mileage (35 square miles). It also has some embarrassing details that highlight problems Madison's suburbs will have to face.
Weak zoning ordinances have led to recurring fires at Ridgewood Country Club Estates in Fitchburg. One group, Annex Fitchburg, argues that Madison is better equipped to deal with metropolitan growth than it suburbs. David Henry, spokesperson for the group, contends that Fitchburg's rapid growth allowed this to happen.
""I think it is just symptomatic of a larger problem,"" he said. ""You have so many incentives for new developments that you don't take care of older places.""
Along with the Ridgewood debacle, Fitchburg has no high school and splits its students into three separate districts. It also has no library, youth center or physical downtown. It is also showing signs of economic segregation. Ridgewood, like most of the north side of Fitchburg, is generally economically poorer than the southern end of the city.
That economic stratification affects Madison and its suburbs no matter where they are located. The outlying municipalities are wealthier than Madison.
Fitchburg's median family income is $64,106 compared to Madison's $59,840. Verona's figure is $71,098. As is typical with suburbs, money is fleeing to the fringes. However, in Madison's case, there's plenty of wealth inside of its borders but out of its hands.
Two of Madison's suburbs, Shorewood Hills and Maple Bluff, are completely surrounded by the capital city. They also happen to be extremely wealthy. Maple Bluff's median family income is a few dollars away from $130,000, while Shorewood Hills can brag about its $131,265 figure.
Madison is facing plenty of problems inside of its borders. Willy Street is being gentrified, students are being priced out of downtown and urban sprawl has claimed many green spaces. However, that sprawl will soon be checked from the other direction as Madison's suburbs close in on it. Without immediate, county-wide planning, Madison, like the isthmus it is known for, will be constrained and its promising growth will be a thing of the past.
Otherwise, Madison's 76 square miles will not be surrounded by reality, but constricted by suburbs.
opinion@dailycardinal.com.
