[media-credit name=’MEGHAN CONLIN/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]After heightened concerns from neighborhood residents and business owners, Regent Street may see renovation plans in its future.

City officials, local business owners, neighborhood residents and students will meet Monday night to discuss development plans for the Regent Street area.

"This is the beginning of a long and intensive public process," Ald. Austin King, District 8, said. "At the end of the meeting, the goal is to get the outline of a plan."

King termed Regent Street "economically inefficient" for businesses in the area and said the future plan will work as a guideline for developers.

"This meeting is so urgent because of all the interested private-property owners," he said.
Julia Kerr, president of Vilas Neighborhoods, also elaborated on the importance of the local businesses on Regent Street.

"They are critical," she said. "There's a good number of them, and they should be supported."
Roger Charly, owner of Budget Bicycle Center, a local business, said Regent Street was the ideal location for his store.

"The street's got a lot of layers to it," he said. "I totally love it and it's a familiar neighborhood to me."
Charly, a University of Wisconsin alumnus, opened his bicycle store 26 years ago after living on Regent Street for three years.

After watching his business grow over nearly three decades, Charly said the atmosphere remains the same.

"In some ways, it hasn't really changed that much," he added. "It's got room for improvement, but there are a lot of good aspects about it."

Some of those aspects, according to Charly, include the variety of businesses and the sports atmosphere, along with the numerous restaurants and bars.

As president of the surrounding Vilas Neighborhoods, Kerr commented on the diversity of the neighborhood but said Regent Street has not established a specific identity.

"The street has been a demarcation between the near-west neighborhoods and the university-centered sphere of influence," she said. "I think it's really time to see how those can be knit together."
King said some issues of interest include use of commercial space, bicycle and pedestrian use and underground electrical wiring.

While Charly encourages improvements, he hopes future planning will not detract from the diversity of buildings around the area.

"In general, they should make sure that they don't have many restrictions," he said. "Twelve-story buildings look good from a distance and they're efficient, but they don't have a street-friendly appeal."

King said the meeting's success will hinge on gathering ideas from all constituents.
"We're really hoping that we can get a broad cross-section of interested stakeholders," he said. "Nothing's off the table. We want to hear from people about everything."

According to Kerr, the neighborhood association supports improvements to Regent Street and hopes others will do the same.

"It's been a long-time goal of the neighborhood association," she added. "We're delighted that the city is working to put this into action."

The meeting at the Neighborhood House on South Mills Street at 6:30 p.m. is open to the public.