[media-credit name=’Zhao Lim/The Badger Herald’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]

Following an abundance of public input, a city committee approved a preliminary plan outlining the city’s sustainability initiatives with a five to three vote at a meeting Wednesday evening.

In September 2004, a task force Mayor Dave Cieslewicz formed developed the blueprint for Madison’s Sustainable Design and Energy Future. When the city adopted the “Natural Step” sustainability framework, it began updating and expanding its blueprint, forming the Sustainable Design and Energy Committee.

The new Sustainability Plan outlines 55 goals covering three broad areas: the environment, economic prosperity and social and community initiatives. It is meant to serve as a guideline for “current and future decision makers, city employees, committee members, residents, businesses, NGOs and other entities,” the newly released plan said.

Still, community members said the plan should become a regulatory document rather than merely an advisory.

Madison resident Davi Post said the city should consider adding onto the plan through creating a subcommittee that would work with the City Council to determine the key points that need to be addressed. He said there were clearly five or 10 items in the plan the council might be able to actually pass as policy.

Post also said the plan should address contingencies of national and economic issues, such as lack of funding.

“To me sustainability means securing our future, regardless of what that future may hold,” Post said. “The value of this document is showing how we look at the future as a city.”

The committee had a number of concerns about the updated plan, including a goal requiring events with an anticipated attendance of more than 200 people have a Transportation Demand Management plan. The committee also took issue with a second goal that would require downtown toll zone and congestion pricing.

Madison resident and Madison Peak Oil Group spokesperson Ed Blume said the committee did not address some pertinent issues in the transportation portion of the plan, which focuses on the increased use of alternative and sustainable transportation.

Blume said the plan neglects the urgency of the peak oil pattern, which protects oil as a limited resource.

“Urban transportation needs to be essential in planning, and planning needs to become essential now,” Blume said. “The lack of urgency is reflected in the document’s definition of sustainability – ‘to pass on to our children and grandchildren a world that is good.’ But it’s much more urgent than that – this isn’t far off.”

Post said the document seems to be a “pie in the sky” because everyone who wanted something sustainable was able to have their piece put in, but he said it is difficult to see where the “teeth” are.

“As a general citizen, it’s difficult to weed through,” Post said. “The document is overwhelming, and it’s unclear how the public is meant to plug into this.”

The plan was approved by the committee, but with the motion to remove the TMD and toll zone pricing goals, as well as clarification of a number of outlined initiatives.

There is an online message forum available for public comment. The City Council is scheduled to take on the plan for approval in May.