Community members, as well as business and property owners, will have an opportunity Thursday night to help determine the future of the Regent Street south campus neighborhood.
Members of the neighborhood's steering committee will hold a public meeting tonight to receive community input about issues such as the area's business development, housing, land use and transportation.
Ald. Robbie Webber, District 5, who represents much of the area and sits on the steering committee, said she hopes to see high student turnout at the meeting.
"It's an area that is heavily populated day and night by students, and this is immediately adjacent to the stadium, to a lot of apartments, to residence halls, to bars, restaurants, university buildings," Webber said. "What is decided at this meeting is going to affect the people that live or work or play there."
Input received during this meeting will help shape the city's plan for future development of the south campus area.
According to a release from the city's Department of Planning and Development, this project is funded by $20,000 from the city, another $20,000 from Dane County's BUILD Program, as well as $15,000 from the University of Wisconsin and approximately $20,000 from various other donors.
"The Regent Street campus neighborhood is an area that has a lot of potential to change for the future, and it's kind of a critical area where there's an interface between the university and the rest of the community," said Bill Fruhling, principal planner at the DPD.
Fruhling added he thinks it is important for students to attend the meeting, even if they will soon be graduating and leaving the city since decisions made now will affect future students.
"Because it is such a highly student-oriented area, and will be in the future, having that student perspective is an important one to understand," Fruhling said.
Some issues in which the steering committee particularly would like to receive input on include which types of businesses should be brought into the area, whether the area needs more student housing and whether transportation in the area is currently satisfactory.
Webber said this meeting will be conducted as a community conversation, and those attending will be able to pose questions to the steering committee, as well as members of the consulting firm hired to help develop the area.
Even if people are not interested in this particular project, Webber said it would still be important for them to attend the meeting.
"This is a great opportunity to see how the public process works, to see how to have input in local politics and planning," Webber said. "I'd like to see more people from the university and more students take this opportunity to practice that."
The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at the Neighborhood House Community Center on South Mills Street.
