secretary City, SMNA

Updates re: Legistar 63902 – Housing Ordinance Amendments

Here’s an update from the city, regarding the Zoning Ordinance amendments related to allowing greater residential densities and adjusting conditional use thresholds, Legistar #63902.

In advance of next Thursday’s Housing Strategy Committee meeting, where these proposed changes will be considered for their recommendation, they’ve posted the Staff Report/Memo to Legistar. The hope is that this can provide a good overview, as well as additional resources for those who may be interested in exploring these proposed changes in more detail.

Importantly, in order to allow more time to better understand the changes, the revised schedule for formal review of the amendments is as follows:

  • 2/25      Housing Strategy Committee
  • 3/22      Plan Commission
  • 3/30      Common Council

Meanwhile, staff will offer a Zoom-based Community Q & A Session on Monday, March 1, from 5:30-7:30. At the session, they’ll play a video presentation to provide an overview, and Zoning Administrator Matt Tucker and Planning Division Director Heather Stouder will be available for questions. Folks do need to register in advance to attend the session at this link:

Housing Ordinance Changes – Overview and Community Q & A

secretary City, SMNA

Snow Plowing Updates

https://www.cityofmadison.com/residents/winter/SnowIce/snowPlowUpdates.cfm

Tonight’s snow will disrupt your commutes this evening and Friday. All roads will be snow-covered. Streets Division trucks will be out, but it is far too cold to apply salt.

Once the snow begins to fall, which is expected to begin sometime around dinner time tonight, Streets Division plow trucks will be dispatched to service the main thoroughfares that make up the salt route network of streets. Crews will be working throughout the night.

However, these trucks will not be applying salt. When temperatures get below 20 degrees, salt at the rate it is spread by the Streets Division is no longer effective. Instead of applying salt, crews will switch to applying sand where needed. Sand provides traction, but it does not melt snow and ice.

This means the main thoroughfares will be snow-covered as will residential streets. Roads will be slippery, especially after traffic compacts the snow down. Plows cannot peel up compacted snow from the road surface. Sand can help with traction over these areas, but conditions will be slick.

You must be cautious on the roads and make good choices. Allow for plenty of extra travel time to arrive at your destinations safely. Anticipate your stops and turns so you do not slide. Be slow. Be alert. Be patient.

As these arctic temperatures are expected to linger into next week, snowy and slippery roads will persist until temperatures rebound.

Streets Division staff will continue to monitor the roads and the weather. Additional updates will be provided as conditions change

secretary SMNA

2021 Message from the SMNA Executive Committee

Hello to all members (and future members) of Stone Meadows Neighborhood Association! We wish you a happy and healthy 2021.

SMNA is looking to relaunch our neighborhood service in a safe and effective way for 2021 and beyond.

As an association, we are going through a number of changes. We are looking for more officers to serve on our SMNA Executive Board since we have had multiple recent retirements that have left us shorter than our regular numbers. Your neighborhood would appreciate any time that you can help out, and we would benefit from any and all new input as to how SMNA can help our neighborhood.

Our meeting procedures are also looking to change, as we are looking to embrace the new tools and will look to have our regular bi-monthly meetings on a virtual basis. We are looking to make this available to all who wish to attend, so we will be looking for any interested participants to go to SMNA.org and get info on contacting us for the next meeting on March 8th at 7pm.

As far as our SMNA yearly activities, we are still on hold due to COVID-19 considerations; but we are hopefully looking to the future to get back to our gatherings and so we are still talking and planning. We would appreciate help and input from new people to plan and execute these events. The most pressing need is a planner for our 4th of July Parade and Picnic. Please consider your time to help us out if you can. Go to SMNA.org to contact us if you are looking to help us out.

Membership in SMNA is voluntary, however the $20 per household membership dues is our only source of income as an association. In the past, we have canvassed the neighborhood via personal connections and mailings to gain memberships. However with personal contact very limited and with cost of mailings vs the resulting membership numbers in the past years, we are going to rely on our on-line membership sign-up and Membership Dues Payment. The signup form and information is available on the SMNA.org website.

Thank you for your interest in Stone Meadows Neighborhood Association.

secretary SMNA

SMNA Bimonthly Meetings Going Virtual!

With the pandemic continuing to rage, the SMNA board is considering taking our bimonthly meetings virtual. We are exploring the idea of having our meetings via Zoom. The tentative date of the next meeting would be Monday March 8th. If you are interested in joining (either the March meeting, or the annual meeting in May), please email secretary@smna.org.

On a related note, we are looking for topics for the annual meeting in May (Monday May 10th). If you have ideas for topics, or guest speakers that you’d like to see at the meeting, please email secretary@smna.org.