3/12/2009 6:00:00 AM Woods: District out, city still talking
Unstimulating
If Verona gets stimulus money, it could actually cost jobs in the short-term.
Because of complex rules and multiple layers of government that have to be sifted through in order to take advantage of the money made available in recent federal legislation, a major project Verona is ready to do this summer would have to wait for next year, city engineer Bob Gundlach explained Monday. That's the Nine Mound Road extension that is being done to improve traffic flow around Epic's massive campus.
Gundlach said the first round of stimulus grants has expired and this round has to be ready to bid by April 1.
Ald. Ken Harwood (Dist. 4), a member of the Madison Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, which approves federal funding for local projects, noted, however, that if such money were awarded - at 100 percent funding - it would allow the city to spend its construction money elsewhere.
"We will have budgeted resources available, and ... will take a look at other projects," he said. "Hopefully that means more jobs, more opportunities."
The city will be on its own preserving Stewart's Woods.
City administrator Shawn Murphy reported Monday that the Verona Area School District has decided not to invest money into the land next to the woods on the southwest edge of the city in order to gain access to what would be a city/school forest. But that doesn't preclude the 33-acre forest from being preserved, Murphy said, indicating that the city will stay involved in talks with the state.
After all, the forest is in an environmental corridor, making development difficult at best and impossible at worst.
Whether it would be harvested of invasive species and given trails or simply left untouched as an urban forest has yet to be determined. Access probably would be highly limited, anyway, until a road is built through a corner of the woods from West Verona Avenue to Paoli Street, and that could be a decade or more down the road.
Falbo gets OK
A Madison entrepreneur got the Common Council's approval Monday to open a Falbo Bros. Pizzeria in a South Main Street building.
The restaurant, which would occupy the same building as Tuvalu Coffeehouse and Gallery, at 300 S. Main Street, got a conditional use permit Monday despite a torrent of criticism over parking and public safety concerns.
Alders asked for detailed plans for surveillance cameras, tables and walls and the likely nature of clientele who might drop by and hang out around the video game room. But owner A.J. Ramirez told the council what he had twice told Plan Commission, that despite asking for the flexibility to expand his dine-in section, it would primarily be a delivery/carryout operation.
Though the parking in the area falls short of what the city typically requires and downtown is already a "mess," as Ald. Louie Eifert (D-4) put it, city planning director Bruce Sylvester pointed out that no business that moved into that building would have enough parking spots by city standards.
Ramirez, who had asked to be allowed to put in as many as eight tables and be open until 2 a.m., will be limited to three tables in order to limit the number of customers on-site.
