In December the Residential Zoning Advisory Committee put the final touches on its report to the city council. Copies of this report will be available early in January and can be obtained from the city planning commission. The core of the recommendations, and the aspect that is most important to the Tenney-Lapham neighborhood, is the recommendation that a "Special Exception Procedure" be implemented.

As described in the report "The Special Exception Procedure is one mechanism used by many cities to avoid the rigid, quasi-judicial requirements of requiring applicants to show "unnecessary hardship" before the owners are authorized to make structural modifications or building additions to their property. The Special Exception Procedure is a process where properties with specific characteristics are given the opportunity to use a process different from the Zoning Board of AppealsŐ variance procedure to obtain the City's permission to develop the property. Such a mechanism balances the inherent tension between maintaining the existing built environment or "neighborhood character" and allowing renovation and expansion of existing properties. The Committee feels the Special Exception Procedure is ideally suited to Madison's R2 neighborhoods, many of which are already densely developed, because it provides greater flexibility to homeowners while maintaining a review process for projects that have potentially greater impact on both immediate neighborhoods and neighborhood character."

The "specific characteristics" referred to above include: 1). a narrow lot, less than 50 feet; 2) a shallow lot, less than 100 feet deep, and 3) a smaller than permitted lot size, less than 6000 square feet. There are several other characteristics related to structure placement, significant vegetation, and lot geometry, but for the most part nearly every lot in the Tenney Lapham neighborhood will probably be eligible to apply for the Special Exception Procedure.

These are all just recommendations at this point. The report will be formally received by the Plan Commission on January 11, after which it will be reviewed by several standing council committees before, hopefully, coming to a vote of the full council in spring or early summer. Progress of the recommendations will be updated in this newsletter. Overall, the proposed changes should be quite helpful to the Tenney-Lapham neighborhood and we may need to actively support the proposal in order to maximize the chance of its passage.

-Bob Kinderman


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