What:    City of Madison Listening Session about Street Use Events with Neighborhoods & Residents
When:   Thursday, April 5,  6-8 pm
Where:  Goodman Parks Facilities Building, 1402 Wingra Creek Parkway (off Olin Av), First floor meeting room.  Google Maps: Goodman Parks Facilities Building
 
This facility is served by Metro Transit Route 13: http://www.cityofmadison.com/metro/schedules/Route13/index.cfm
 
 The City of Madison is fortunate to have an abundance of festivals, runs, concerts, marches, and other outdoor activities planned on the isthmus each year.  However, that also brings challenges for City staff, budgets, Metro bus riders, neighbors, and visitors.  The City of Madison is engaged in an analysis of special events in the downtown area and your feedback is requested.
 
Who should attend?  Anyone who attends or is impacted by City Street Use Events, Festivals, and Marches – especially those downtown on the Isthmus.  City staff will give an overview of concerns about events reaching a “maximum capacity” and facilitate a discussion to learn your concerns and ideas for the future of events downtown. This includes festivals, races, parades, marches, and demonstrations that close down a City street  in the downtown area.  (This meeting is not focused on events that are just held in City Parks.)  This is part of a Racial Equity and Social Justice Analyses of the permitting process for special events on City streets.
 
We look forward to a continued collaborative effort as we plan for the future of outdoor activities in downtown Madison.  You are an important voice in this process and we want to hear from you.  Our discussion will consider issues such as the number, location, size, and length (time and number of days) of events, particularly those on the isthmus, and the impact this has on residents, businesses and city services, staff, and resources. We look forward to your insights.
 
Please use this email, madisonevents@cityofmadison.com, if you have questions or comments.  Hope to see you April 5! 
 
Cordially,
 
Katie Sellner
Transit Planner
Metro Transit
608-261-9633

By Madison Food Policy Council

Fresh herbs. Tomatoes right off the vine. Sun-sweetened strawberries. Having your own garden can be one of the best things about summer. But what if you don’t have a back yard to garden in? What if you live in an apartment? Or your yard is too shady? Never fear – there are lots of options.
 
Gardeners around our city already make use of whatever patch of soil they can find. Anyone passing through Madison’s residential neighborhoods will notice the diversity and frequent creativity in what homeowners and renters plant around their homes, often extending to publicly owned street-side terraces. To promote more gardening opportunities, whether it be for food production, pollinator habitat, or beautification, the City of Madison has changed its policies to make it easier to grow a range of plants in residential areas. Plantings of many types are allowed in yards and on street terraces.
 
Yet many people are not sure what they are allowed to plant where, and sometimes neighbors have differing opinions. To guide Madison residents in what is and is not allowed in yards and terraces – and to reflect the growing interest in planting native plants, and edible and pollinator-friendly species – city agencies and the Madison Food Policy Council have collaborated in creating a new guide which is available online (https://www.cityofmadison.com/mayor/priorities/food/edible-landscapes), and in hard copy at public locations citywide.
 
So, you ask, where and what can I plant? Essentially, you can plant anything you want in either your yard or the terrace adjacent to your property, with a few basic limitations:

• You can’t plant any noxious weeds.
• You have to keep plantings within some height limits for safety’s sake.
• You can’t plant trees or bushes on the terrace.
• If you want to plant large areas of native grasses, you may need a permit.

 
The details are spelled out in the guide and city policies. The guide, and more information, is available at http://www.cityofmadison.com/mayor/priorities/food/terrace-and-yard-plantings.
 
If your yard and/or terrace is not enough space for you, see if there’s a community garden nearby - https://danegardens.net is a great place to start. Or maybe you’d like to plant fruit trees or bushes on public land? The City’s new edible landscapes permit allows you to do just that – see http://www.cityofmadison.com/mayor/priorities/food/edible-landscapes. There are already little “food forests” popping up in our parks, thanks to ambitious gardeners around the city.
 
One of our goals as your Food Policy Council is to increase your opportunities to grow food if you want to. Hopefully, making it clearer what you can plant in your yard and on your terrace will encourage more people to garden, and allowing some plantings on public land will increase the availability of home-grown fruits and nuts. Happy planting!
 
For more information, please contact George Reistad, Madison Food Policy Director, at 608-266-4611 or greistad@cityofmadison.org.