Capitol Area Regional Plan Commission really came through for clean water in Dane County. (See message below from Stefi Harris.)

Many thanks to Western Dane County Coalition for Smart Growth & Environment and CRANES for all of their advocacy & research on this. And it even looks like Falk even kind of stuck her neck out on the issue!

-Mike

Mike, Last Thursday 5-13-10 in a vote of 6 to 6, with one abstention, CARPC denied the City of Verona urban service request for 265 acres near the Sugar River and Badger Mill Creek, southwest of the city. Verona intended to eventually develop over 1500 acres in that area. Verona’s case has a long history. It asked the old Regional Planning Commission about six years ago for an urban sewer extension. Verona was told then that it would be problematic because of the sensitivity of the area to any kind of development. They were advised to get a study of environmental resources and impact of development on those resources for the entire 1700 acres north/northeast of the confluence of the Sugar River and Badger Mill completed before they apply again. That study was completed sometime in early 2009. It was done by Montgomery Associates. Verona paid them $90,000 for the work. I read it and actually studied it. In many places the authors minimize the value and importance of natural resources. They only talk about how environmental impacts can be mitigated by stormwater control structures. They do not discuss what could be done in case of failure of such structures.  They also refuse to discuss impacts of municipal groundwater withdrawals on streams and wetlands as well as the impacts of development on coldwater aquatic communities such as live in the Sugar river and Badger Mill Creek. Kathleen Falk and her assistant Topf Wells came to talk to the Commission on Thursday. ( A copy of her speech to CARPC is below.) The deliberations lasted three hours. CRANES and ourselves worked on Verona, on and off, for about 10 months from our two ends. On the way in we knew we had four sure votes. We needed six to prevail. But that was the best we could do.  It was sheer suspense from the beginning to the end. We just got lucky. We could have very easily  lost if deliberations took a slightly different course. But that is another story. I thought you might be interested. All the best. Stefi —– Original Message —– From: Wells, Topf To: undisclosed-recipients: Sent: Friday, May 14, 2010 9:20 AM Subject: Memo below 5/14/10 The County Executive presented the testimony below to the CARPC Commission last night. DATE:   May 13, 2010 TO:             Members, CARPC Commission FROM:   Kathleen M. Falk Dane County Executive RE:             Verona USA Expansion Request I respectfully ask that you vote to deny or substantially modify Verona’s request for an Urban Service Area expansion in the Upper Sugar and Badger Mill Creek corridors and watershed. CARPC’s first and foremost responsibility is to protect water quality.  The more valuable, rare, and precious the resource, the higher degree of protection – that’s a common sense principle that just about everyone can agree to and CARPC should follow. Other points of agreement are also, I think, clear.  The Upper Sugar River and Badger Mill Creek are valuable, rare, and precious resources.  Badger Mill Creek is a productive trout stream (and yes, I have fished it and even caught trout there) with wild and stocked populations of brown trout, located within a few minutes of rapidly growing neighborhoods in a major metropolitan area.  It also has great opportunities for further restoration and public use.  Public and private resources, lots of time and lots of money, have been devoted to Badger Mill Creek, (for example, dozens of volunteers from the Dane County Conservation League and Trout Unlimited, the extraordinary aeration system installed by MMSD, the inclusion of much of this area in the County’s Parks & Open Spaces Plan).  All of this has produced results.  As my staff reminded your staff, the latest information on Badger Mill that arrived in our offices in the last two weeks show that the trout population is now at a 15 year high. In the extensive questioning concerning this request that occurred at the last meeting, it also became clear that we cannot be reasonably sure that the recommended conditions will adequately protect these resources.  I also believe this is one of only two USA expansions of all the many you have reviewed for which CARPC staff has not recommended approval. The course CARPC should follow if it is to remain true to its mission is to deny this USA request or to reduce it in size so that it poses less of a threat to these resources.  As an example of the latter, CARPC could approve a much smaller USA in order to accommodate the Dean Clinic facility, which is in the area furthest from some of the most valuable resources. Either denial or partial denial would be the careful, cautious, conservative, conservation-oriented course these resources deserve from you. You are a water quality planning and protection agency.  You should and must be champions of valuable water resources.  Approving this USA expansion will be a fatal mistake for CARPC.  In a very candid exchange with the Chair, whose hard work and good intentions I acknowledge and respect, he made it clear that he thought CARPC rejection of this request would cause the City of Verona to reject the FUDA process.  He, and I think in this discussion he represents the views of some other Commissioners, believes FUDA to be an absolutely voluntary process; that communities can wholly decide whether to participate or not.  Both beliefs are, however well intentioned, wrong and will make it impossible for CARPC to function.  With the precedent of this decision, should you grant this USA, any and every community will demand approval of USA expansions as a condition of participating in FUDA. What then is the point of FUDA?  Secondly, every community that formally voted to create CARPC knows that, by the charter approved by them and the Governor, FUDA is the process by which CARPC will pursue its water quality planning responsibilities and that those FUDA’s will form the basis of future USA recommendations.  That is why, by the way, there are eleven “shall’s” used in the charter’s description of CARPC and communities’ participation in FUDA.  Participation in FUDA’s can and should be a prerequisite, not a reward, for approval of USA requests. No one else in this County but me has taxed citizens to preserve the RPC staff when that agency was destroyed and to then create the CARPC you are today a part of.  Specifically, I have levied almost $4 million in property taxes since 2004 for those purposes.  I did so willingly, publicly, and enthusiastically because I believed this agency and the FUDA process could be the means by which the protection of key natural resources and urban development could mutually proceed via a fair, well informed, and public process.  I have come to question my belief as I have witnessed CARPC approval of thousands of acres of new development approved in 27 USA’s with no discernable progress on FUDA. CARPC has moved too far from its clearly stated mission.  The FUDA requirements and schedules are clearly stated in the charter document that was reviewed and approved by almost every Dane County municipal government.  That document laid out the priority area and committed CARPC to “provide the [environmental] information described in Item a. to areas with the highest environmental sensitivity and growth pressure within three years of the date the CARPC commences operations.  g.  Communities shall submit their proposed Future Urban Development Area within 24 months of the date they receive the data from CARPC.  If a community does not meet this timeline, the CARPC shall not act on any individual USA expansion requests until the proposed plan is submitted.  CARPC may grant one six-month extension to this timeline.”  (ll. 170-179 of the charter)  (emphasis added) CARPC is now in its fourth year of existence, with no FUDA’s created. Approval of this USA will, in my judgment, ruin any prospect of FUDA succeeding.  At that point, County taxpayers are wasting their money ($700,000 a year on CARPC) on functions that can be handled by the DNR.  I cannot, in good conscience, continue to support CARPC if you make that unfortunate decision. You have before you a rare, important, and difficult intersection of several issues joined in this USA decision:  the protection of some valuable public resources and the continuation of what could be a key planning process for our orderly, sustainable growth.  To have both, please vote to deny or modify this USA expansion.