Madison, Wisconsin...comprehensive plan...new zoning code.

Madison, Wisconsin, appears to be on the verge of adopting a comprehensive plan that reverses the trend toward sprawl and instead encourages denser development. Some future projects would fill parking lots or replace single-story shopping centers. The plan, which Mayor Dave Cieslewicz wants the Council to approve in January, promotes mixed uses in outlying areas, where people would rely less on cars. Three years in preparation, the plan also preserves farmland and open space. The city, whose population is estimated at 218,000 and is expected to rise by 57,000 by 2030, would add more buses and would explore streetcars and commuter rail while linking transportation to land use. The plan sets the stage for a new zoning code, which “could be the most important thing we begin during the time I’m mayor,” Cieslewicz said. “Although infill projects already dot the central city and New Urbanism has arrived on the outskirts, those approaches will become official policy of the city,” the mayor was quoted as saying in the Dec. 12 Wisconsin State Journal.