Developers introduced a new Downtown Plan to Madison's Common Council earlier this week, which includes the installation of a bike path along Lake Mendota and redeveloping some downtown neighborhoods.
According to Principal Planner Michael Waidelich, the plan seeks to enhance economic and real estate development downtown.
One major redevelopment in the plan is to "preserve, rehabilitate and modernize" student housing units in the Bassett, West Washington and Mifflin Street Neighborhoods, which according to Waidelich, emphasizes "fairly heavy on conservation."
Waidelich said the redevelopment will impact students who view the neighborhood as a relatively cheap residential area on campus where "you don't have to worry about taking care of [the house] too much."
If people make large investments and fix up units, investors will want to see the units taken care of and prices will probably be higher, according to Waidelich.
"The real recommendation is for the plan to maintain the essential scale and character in the area," Waidelich said. "It would involve rehabilitating some of the houses, moving some of them, demolishing some of them and replacing some with new development."
Waidelich said the plan also aims to promote housing diversity to cater to the influx of non-students, such as young professionals and empty-nesters, who have resided in the Basset Street Neighborhood in the past 15 years.
"Student dominance in the area will change a little if we are successful in encouraging more investment," Waidelich said. "We really want to turn [the neighborhood] around, fix it up and make it more attractive to more kinds of people."
Waidelich said the plan also aims to further connect downtown visitors and the community to the lakes; one element would create a bike path along Lake Mendota from the Memorial Union Terrace to James Madison Park.
"The whole idea of connecting more to the lakes is seen as a pretty clear idea the city could take much greater advantage of," Waidelich said.
Planners intend to "formalize" the existing path located behind properties along Lake Mendota. The path will be "made a little more public" with installations of lighting and the pavement of streets.
