This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
06/29/2021 01:35 PMA controversial project known as The Ledges, a cluster of luxury condos near downtown on Boston Post Road, was approved last week by the Planning & Zoning Commission (PZC) in a 6-3 vote, ending a lengthy and contentious public hearing process that saw hundreds of residents push back against the development and brought up a wide variety of issues in the community, centering around town character and the environment.
After the public hearing phase closed earlier this month, the final vote came at the end of yet another lengthy meeting on June 17. Previous hearings ran late into the night, sometimes lasting multiple hours, as both the applicant, Faith Whitehead, and an opposition group sparred over both technical merits and broader implications of the development to the town.
In the end, however, PZC members seemed unconvinced despite passionate, emotional pleas from the opposition, some of whom banded together to file a legal petition to intervene against the application, and focused on how the project fit under the more tangible strictures of Madison’s zoning code.
“I think there was a lot of throwing of sand back and forth,” said PZC member Joe Bunovsky. “I see [the property] becoming more conforming [to regulations]... I think, taking all opinion out of it and all feeling out of it and just going on the merits of the application, I don’t see the need to continue on this. I’m ready to vote on it right now.”
“This is not a popularity contest,” said PZC member John Mathers. “We can’t go with making a decision here based on who’s got the largest number of signs in town.”
With it’s approval, the special exception application allows for the existing home at 856 Boston Post Road to be converted into two units. An existing garage and its second-story apartment will both be removed, and a gatehouse and two additional buildings will be introduced. Each unit will have a two-car garage, and only the original home and gatehouse will be visible from Boston Post Road.
Completing the project will require explosive blasting of underground rock, which neighbors have worried will affect their properties. Nicole Wiles, President of the library Board of Trustees, wrote to the PZC expressing concern about the potential of explosive blasting to damage the new library and requested it be included in pre-blasting surveys. PZC members have also acknowledged other issues with expanded septic systems.
The PZC added half a dozen conditions to their approval, including technical guidelines for the blasting, a stormwater management plan, restrictions on fertilizer use, and preservation of water service to adjoining properties.
Some members of the commission were sympathetic to the more qualitative arguments made by those who objected based on loss of neighborhood character, consistency, or appeal, which are codified in the special exception permit process that The Ledges was submitted under.
PZC member Jim Matteson, who eventually voted against the application, said he believed neighbors who claimed the application would “bring harm to the area.”
“I think that view of whether it will be...permanently injured really is in the minds of the people who are in the neighborhood, and those people have spoken very clearly,” he said.
Those who have opposed The Ledges have framed the project as merely another step in the erosion of these values in Madison, with denser land-grab type projects replacing historic homes and sprawling single-family properties.
Attorney Keith Ainsworth, who represented the opposition during the application process, drew explicit comparisons to another recently approved condo development, The General’s Residence, where developers successfully petitioned for a slight tweak in zoning regulations in order to build that project.
Ainsworth described the current construction on that property as “a filthy mess” with noisy, disrespectful contractors, spilled sediment, and standing pools of stagnant water.
“You must forgive my clients if they don’t really trust the promises that this will be a high-quality project from which the town will diligently protect them,” he said. “And being afraid that they’re being sacrificed for the chosen few whom the small-cluster regulations were designed.”
Whether it was questions of crowding or character, the PZC seemed more inclined to focus on The Ledges for its own merits, which most members seemed to view as adequate, if not overwhelmingly positive, as many members still expressed concern even as they moved to approve it.
As far as these bigger picture issues which have arisen during a handful of other lengthy, controversial applications in recent years, there was some acknowledgment of growing tension in Madison.
PZC member Joel Miller called out what he described as “bullying,” seemingly referring to Ainsworth and some of the objectors, who he accused of threats and use of “conjecture and hyperbole and misinformation.”
“We get into conduct that is probably more suitable for cable news than a community like ours,” he said. “It’s so off-putting that it would undermine the legitimate agenda of concerned parties. Luckily, enough concerned parties could speak respectfully...that their voices could be heard and duly considered.”
Matteson added that he was “offended” by “both sides,” saying the applicant did not treat objectors with respect as well. He also referenced The General’s Residence, contrasting what he described as an eventual change of heart from many neighbors who had initially objected to that project, which has not happened with The Ledges.
There remain questions around the project, many of which the PZC have described as outside of their purview, including wastewater management- though how much responsibility the commission had as far as the larger, more philosophical questions was up for debate.
“This commission doesn’t bear responsibility for all,” said Town Planner Dave Anderson.