Members of several campus-area neighborhoods will meet today to discuss the possible construction of a new high-rise apartment complex at the corner of North Bassett and West Johnson Streets.
Developers, project architects and city officials are looking for student input on the preliminary plans at their meeting, which will take place Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Double Tree Hotel on West Johnson Street.
Project architect Gary Brink said in a previous neighborhood meeting that housing in the new project would not only be geared toward undergraduate University of Wisconsin students, but also young professionals and graduate students.
Though the site for the proposed project currently houses two restaurants — Milio's and Casa Bianca — those establishments would be completely destroyed to make room for new space, Brink said, including a retail space on the bottom floor, a health club on the second floor and 197 condominium units.
Jeff Erlanger, district chair of the State-Langdon Neighborhood Association, said students sometimes do not express interest in new neighborhood developments because oftentimes they only live in the area for one year.
"I think it's an interesting project, and I know it's very near finals … but I really hope that people come," Erlanger said. "It's going to affect [students] if they live near campus in one way or another."
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said many neighbors have already met more than five times in a steering committee to discuss the building plans in great detail, but more input on the project is always welcome. There may even be a final vote today on the project plans among neighborhood members, he added, as the developers would like to break ground this spring.
"It would really be awesome to have adjacent residents to the proposed development attend the meeting," Verveer said. "I would suspect most people aren't terribly familiar with the project despite this being the second full-scale neighborhood meeting."
After being presented to the city's Urban Design Commission last month, Erlanger said some concerns among the State Street and Langdon Street neighborhood residents remain. The biggest of these concerns, he added, are the aesthetic value and the sheer size and height of the building, which will be greater than the height of an "ordinary" 12-story building because of the retail space and elevator shaft.
At the meeting, Verveer said, the architect will be showing more updated and detailed plans for the site concerning aesthetics and height.
In addition, Erlanger said owners of several smaller buildings across the street from the proposed site have expressed concerns with the way the proposed structure will alter sunlight exposure with its large shadow. Residents who share these concerns, he noted, should attend today's meeting and make their opinions known to architects and project managers.
"We might not want something that big in the district, and we might wish it was a little smaller," Erlanger said. "But the best we can do is make our concerns known and hope the developers listen to them."
Despite these concerns, Erlanger said the project is likely to see approval from the city of Madison, as it has in the past with many of the high-rise buildings along West Johnson Street.
"I think there are some specific concerns in the steering committee … but I also think that there's a sense that our concerns are not ones that will make the city turn [the project] down," he added. "I think we are being pragmatic about the fact that the city has OK'd these kinds of buildings in the past."
