By Beth Sluys
Northside News

It is hard to believe that, all these years later, the work of visioning the Oscar Mayer factory’s post-industrial future and what Northside residents hoped it could be began with the work of the OSCAR Group in 2017. The group hosted two focus groups (40 people attended) and completed a survey (427 people) in the fall of 2017. They found that people were hopeful for a vast array of potential uses for the Oscar Mayer property, such as affordable mid-range homes, community gardens, high-tech jobs, restaurants, a hotel and living wage jobs, as well as the creation of a park or natural area at the Hartmeyer property. 

Next came the work of the Oscar Mayer Strategic Assessment Committee supported by the work of Annette Miller of EQT by Design, which designated redevelopment objectives and a list of recommendations for the site after an open house and more focus groups in 2019 that expanded participant input to include housing, transportation and business development, common concerns for Madison. These were folded into the discussion as the process moved forward.

A public walk along the railroad tracks outside the Oscar Mayer property launched the second phase of the process, along with more focus groups, and city staffers meeting with area landowners as the plan morphed toward its current version. The Oscar Mayer Special Area Plan (OMSAP) wended its way through two public “show and tell” meetings

an alder-sponsored town hall meeting, an NPC and citizen-sponsored community roundtable, and consideration of a multitude of letters and comments from area residents. Most importantly, we found our way as a global pandemic emerged, ending face-to-face meetings, and learning to use Zoom, an online meeting platform.

Hartmeyer Natural Area

One theme that carried through the planning process is saving all 30 acres at the Hartmeyer natural area. The Friends of Hartmeyer Natural Area formed and guided a massive upwelling of support from Madison residents and environmental groups, including Muriel Simms and Madelyn Leopold. Many letters of support can be found on the city’s Legistar site (files 58107 and 59745). 

At the July 21 council meeting, after a wide variety of public comments and discussion, Alder Abbas made a motion to conserve all 30 acres and consider options for housing on other areas in the plan; to no avail, motion failed. A second motion was made to expand the acreage to a little over 17 acres, the motion failed. Alder Abbas made a third and final motion to expand the area to 16 acres, an addition of 2 acres based in part on input from some of the committee work that occurred as part of the original referral process. Alder Abbas inquired about the possibility of placing some housing over on the ShopKo property but was told by city planners that it is too isolated and remote of a location. In the end, the motion to save 16 acres passed on an 11‒7 vote.

The plan will show a land use map of a little over 7 acres of delineated wetland and about 9 acres of neighborhood park. The balance will be devoted to housing of up to 395 units. Whether these will all be dedicated to affordable housing was not clear. In addition, the property is currently tied up in a lawsuit between the Hartmeyer Estate and Kraft Heinz and 910 Mayer, LLC to get the property cleaned up from the fuel oil leaks and coal related contamination in surface soils. If the fuel oil is cleaned up, there are low impact bioremediation systems that could be implemented to address the other issues in the surface soils. 

Coolidge Street and Eken Park

The Coolidge Street extension issue focused conversations on opening a pedestrian and bike path (similar to the one at Leonard and Monroe Streets) at the end of Coolidge Street versus opening up the neighborhood to thousands of daily auto trips through Eken Park. Overwhelming public support was for the bike and pedestrian path option, in keeping with the trends for fewer cars and more public transportation use. Eken Park supported this wholeheartedly, as did the area neighborhoods. 

The conversation expanded to include information related to the railroad crossing at Roth Street. A long-term railroad employee and former employee of the Office of the Commissioner of Railroads spoke to the need to use the existing crossing, based on their knowledge of federal rules and regulations. This could impact the cross street that is planned to chop up the Hartmeyer property to connect to North Sherman Avenue.

Alder Abbas once again offered a motion to change the plan to include a bike/pedestrian opening for Coolidge Street only, with no vehicular traffic opening onto Packers Highway. After deliberations, this motion received a resounding vote of yes, 13‒5.

Contaminated Land and Worker and Public Safety

Other looming issues touched on but not included in the OMSAP planning process were the city purchasing 15 acres of highly contaminated land on the Oscar Mayer property for a Madison Metro bus facility in a building (#43) that contains high levels of toxic gas vapors of trichloroethylene (TCE), and for other potential uses on the northern end of the property along Aberg Avenue. The other building (#50) should also be tested if Metro offices are to be housed there. 

The possibility of hundreds of buses a day pouring out onto Aberg Avenue at 5 am, along with over 200 additional cars from planned housing units on Huxley Street, and the fleet of diesel trucks that will soon be moving to the Aberg area on the new MG&E facility has been disconcerting news to area residents and businesses. The Sherman Neighborhood Association has spoken out against the “bus barn” use on the Oscar Mayer site. It has been their hope that more innovative uses for the area could be developed. Of course, any future use for the site would require the property contamination be addressed.

Several boards, committees and commissions reviewed the plan, and while the recommendations were considered by the Plan Commission at its June 29 meeting, none of them were adopted. The plan passed without changes. 

At the July 21 Council meeting, Alder Abbas brought forward his concerns for the contamination in the area and offered an amendment to include language in the plan from the Sustainable Madison Committee motion, which reads: “to address racial justice and social equity during the OMSAP redevelopment process must include assessing and preventing human exposures to toxic chemicals at the site and/or released from the site among all people and particularly at-risk low-income people and people of color.” This motion passed unanimously.

Finally, Alder Abbas recommended a third goal including several specific actions be placed in the plan as part of the Green and Resilient recommendations. This goal states: “Verifies the use of green building strategy and certification in the development and redevelopment project to achieve holistic integrated sustainability outcomes including water resources protection, waste reduction, climate resilience and community health promotion.” The motion prompted dialogue among the alders and staff about the importance of this being a goal in the plan, without the specific action items but rather to provide some ideas that could be “implemented as city-wide policy,” as mentioned by common council president Alder Sheri Carter. This language was voted into the plan as a goal, with Alder Abbas offering to become involved with a city workgroup focused on these issues of sustainability and green-focused development.