Now is the Time: Verona Rd. hearing Oct. 13

Now is the TIME!  

Verona Road/West Beltline Reconstruction Public Hearing is Wed. OCT. 13

Over the past many months we’ve tried to keep you abreast of informational meetings about the planned reconstruction of Verona Road and the West Beltline.  Our Dunn’s Marsh Neighborhood will be hit with a double whammy because these highways form 2 of the 5 boundaries of the neighborhood.  The highways are either visible or audible (noisy) almost everywhere in the neighborhood, and because of heavy traffic that prompted past improvements, there is only one route across each one from the neighborhood.

Now is the final and official chance to express opinions about the project.  The full project is described – along with its effects – in the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS) for the project.  The SDEIS can be found online at http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/projects/d1/verona/environment.htm#sdeis   [Copy and paste the preceding link into your browser window.] Look at a hardcopy at many locations including nearby library branches and at Faouzi’s Restaurant at 4245 West Beltline Frontage Road in the neighborhood.  

This hefty 2-volume document is daunting, but if you are pressed for time, try the Executive Summary which is on pages ES-1 to ES-20 in the front of the first volume.

Everyone and anyone is invited to attend and speak at the public hearing or to submit written comments.   Don’t pass up this opportunity.  The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

DATE:  WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2010

TIMES & PLACES:  

12:00 NOON – 3:00 PM  at Boys & Girls Club, 4619 Jenewein Rd
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM at Cherokee Middle School Gym, 4301 Cherokee Dr.

WRITTEN & E-MAIL COMMENTS: accepted until Wednesday, November 3

Send your e-mail comments to "Barta, Larry - DOT" <Larry.Barta@dot.wi.gov>

Send your hardcopy comments to:  

Larry Barta, WisDOT Project Manager
Wisconsin Department of Transportation – Southwest Region
2101 Wright Street
Madison, Wisconsin 53704-2583

Feeling shy?  Come anyway.  You will be in good company, and friends from the neighborhood will be there to help you sign up to speak and can even accompany you to the microphone if you wish.

Need a ride?  Reply to this e-mail or call 271-5192, and the Dunn’s Marsh Neighborhood Association will see to it that you get one.

More about this project...

“The planned changes will profoundly affect the Dunn’s Marsh Neighborhood,” said JoAnne Kelley, a neighbor who lives on Crawford Drive who has been active in learning about it and arranging ways to inform the neighborhood.  On October 7, Dunn’s Marsh Neighborhood Association President Jeff Glazer and the Allied-Dunn’s Marsh Neighborhood Association President sent a letter and position paper to Madison’s Mayor Dave listing 16 comments and requests made by the 2 neighborhood associations.  It is attached.  The detailed rationale for each position item is available as a document by replying to this notice and asking for it.

The DOT plans include the changes listed below.

• adding 2 lanes to both Verona Road and the Beltline
• removing housing that is in the way of the expanded highways  and their frontage roads (10 residential buildings representing 31 households)
• removing businesses:  5-6 buildings representing 8-9 businesses and perhaps 3 more buildings & businesses
• raising the elevation of both highways
• rerouting the frontage roads, one of which will circle Walgreen’s, another which may dip down onto Britta Parkway
• extending the frontage road from Allied Drive to Carling Drive
• closing the current crossing of Verona Road that goes to Home Depot
• making a so-called jug-handle circular route to allow our neighborhood drivers to cross under Verona Road and get onto Verona Road heading south.  Traffic from our neighborhood going north to Beltline or Midvale will just turn right onto Verona Road as it does now.
• punching a second route under Verona Road a bit further south toward Verona
• putting up a noise wall to protect homes on the other (north) side of the Beltline (This won’t protect our neighborhood.)
• maybe putting up a short wall in the vicinity of the Highlander Motel along the Beltline
• removing and then replacing the pedestrian/bike bridge across the Beltline at Whenona Drive (The new bridge may empty onto the frontage road.)
• creating a new holding pond for stormwater in the woods on the west side of Dunn’s Marsh.  
• adding bike lanes and sidewalks
• much more
  

Learn more...

• For a short version DOT’s point of view, look at the flyer mailed to residents a couple of weeks or so ago.  View it at http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/projects/d1/verona/docs/nl-sept2010.pdf
• Go to the Verona Road Justice Coalition site:  http://groups.google.com/group/verona-road-justice-coalition
  

Remember, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.


This message is from the Dunn’s Marsh Neighborhood Association

Mary Mullen, DMNA Communications
608-298-0843, <mmullen@chorus.net>