Members of the city’s Urban Design Commission listened to new proposals for the Hilldale Target location and the Edgewater Hotel at a meeting Wednesday.
Representatives from Target’s headquarters in Minneapolis presented changes to their initial store proposal that included a new location for the entrance to a truck loading bay and locating the main entrance to the store at a pedestrian level.
The Target representatives said the store will focus on pedestrian and bicycle traffic in the West Madison area. A parking facility will be located on the lower level of the store, allowing customers who drive to the store to park and take an escalator to the main entrance.
Members of the commission said they were generally satisfied with the changes to the proposal.
City traffic engineers were not present to answer questions about the effect the store would have on traffic on University Avenue and nearby Frey Street. The Target representatives will meet with the traffic engineers in a meeting scheduled for today.
Ald. Chris Schmidt, District 11, said the project has the potential to be a part of the ongoing urbanization of the area surrounding the Hilldale Shopping Center. He warned against forgetting the pedestrian focus of the store.
“Ultimately, we’re not going to be able to perfect this,” Schmidt told the commission. “If we worry too much about the vehicular traffic, we might corner ourselves and defeat our other purposes.”
Hilldale-area residents did not voice any major opposition to the proposal, but many did express concern about an auxiliary parking lot that would be included with the indoor facility.
Residents also said they were concerned about how pedestrians would safely reach the location from a nearby bike path and the Regent Street bike lane. Some residents proposed a pedestrian bridge crossing University Avenue directly into the store.
Schmidt said the proposed store would affect the entire West Side in the long term by reducing traffic and travel time to other Targets in the Madison area.
“I think it will have a very strong positive effect over time,” Schmidt said. “A lot of students will take the trip out to the west side to shop at Target…. [Now students] can do their shopping there.”
Also at the meeting, Madison developer Ken Saiki introduced his plans for the lakefront property at the end of Wisconsin Avenue atop what is currently the 1970s Edgewater Hotel structure.
He proposed an ice skating rink for winter months and an outdoor series of terraces that would be used for weddings, outdoor concerts or vendor markets. Saiki also proposed a European-themed staircase from the terrace level to the lakefront.
“Our goal is to design a building that has the substance of a civic building,” Edgewater architect David Manfredi said. “We don’t want this to be a sterile public space but a truly active public space.”
Several neighborhood residents voiced their opposition to the modified proposals. Area resident and Capitol Neighborhoods Inc member Gene Devitt said the public space is too close to homes on Wisconsin Avenue.
“I don’t think any of you would want to live next to the Memorial Union 365 days a year,” Devitt said.
