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Current events can create potential issues in real estate development. At the heart of Smart Growth is our advocacy work; we stay atop all information that affects our area, advocating for our members and keeping our community informed.
Public Policy Issues
The state Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS) has adopted the 2021 International Building Code (IBC) and International Energy Conservation Code as Wisconsin's commercial building code and energy conservation codes, with some modifications to make the consistent with Wisconsin laws. As of November 1, 2025, plans submitted to DSPS for review and approval must comply with the new state commercial building code.
However, a bill in the state Legislature would delay the date on which the new commercial building code would apply to submitted plans from November 1, 2025, to April 1, 2026.
Please click here to sign Smart Growth's petition supporting delaying the date on which the new commercial building code applies unit April 1, 2026.
Please click here to watch a YouTube video of a DSPS educational program about Wisconsinisms that modify the 2021 IBC to be consistent with Wisconsin law. Below is a link to the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0Nu8XsZ3_Y
Below are links to large slide decks about the 2021 IBC:
In 2021, the City of Middleton began the process of preparing a new Zoning Ordinance and Map. The purposes of this project are to modernize zoning regulations, streamline zoning processes, encourage reinvestment, and implement the City’s Comprehensive Plan. In summer 2023, the city government released a first public draft of the new zoning code, which was the product of a workgroup consisting of city staff, an outside consultant, and a few stakeholders, with input at various times from the Plan Commission. A primary focus of the new zoning code is to provide enough varied zoning districts so that, in theory, the vast majority of development projects can be facilitated by conventional zoning. This will enable the city government to discourage the use of Planned Development zoning for development projects.
Smart Growth provided feedback on this first draft on issues such as the provisions requiring parking places with charging equipment for electric vehicles (EVs).
On October 25, 2023, the city government released a public hearing draft of the new zoning ordinance. A number of concerns Smart Growth raised regarding the first draft were addressed in the public hearing draft of the new zoning ordinance.
The public hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, November 14. Smart Growth will provide feedback on the public hearing draft of the new zoning ordinance before or during the public hearing.
Starting in 2021, staff of Mayor Rhodes-Conway’s office began circulating the outline of a proposed ordinance that would require owners of commercial buildings (excluding multi-family residential buildings) to file annual report on the energy usage of the entire buildings and requiring buildings to have energy “tune ups” every few years. Smart Growth provided extensive information about how much owners of commercial buildings already are investing in increasing the energy efficiency of their buildings and how owners of multi-tenant commercial buildings will not have access to the information needed to report the energy usage of the entire building.
In July 2022, Mayor Rhodes-Conway and alders brushed aside this information and announced they would be introducing an ordinance that exactly matched the earlier outline.
In staff-led workshops about the ordinance, Smart Growth and many other stakeholders raised more issues with the feasibility of the concept for the proposed ordinance. In addition, Smart Growth pointed out there is no data from cities that have enacted similar ordinances showing the amount of energy savings caused by a mandatory benchmarking ordinance—there is data that shows how much energy consumption decreased after enactment of the ordinance, but that does not separate the amount of reduction that would have occurred without the ordinance from any additional reduction caused by the ordinance.
Again, all of this feedback were brushed aside, and ordinance just like the initial outline was formally introduced in January 2023.
During committee hearings on the ordinance, Smart Growth and other stakeholders raised many concerns about the ordinance. Finally, this feedback resulted in the introduction of a substitute version of the ordinance to address many of the issues raised. The Common Council adopted the substitute version of the ordinance in March 2023.
The ordinance established the general terms of the mandatory building energy benchmarking and tune ups program, which was euphemistically called the “Building Energy Savings Program.” But the ordinance left many details needed for implementation, such as the “handbook” for the tune ups, to be written by staff at a later date. Smart Growth has repeated communicated to city staff that our members are eager to work collaboratively with city staff on the details of how the program will be implemented.
In January 2023, the Madison Common Council adopted an ordinance establishing a transit-oriented development (TOD) overlay district. The Common Council's consideration of this ordinance was delayed for two weeks to allow more time to inform the public that the Transportation Policy and Planning Board and Plan Commission had recommended changing the ordinance to include parcels in the local historic preservation districts and the National Register historic districts. There was considerable controversy about this change in the ordinance. The Common Council adopted the ordinance in a form that incorporated the recommendations to include the historic districts.
The TOD overlay zoning district spans 1/4 mile on each side of the east-west BRT route and other high-frequency transit routes. The TOD overlay zoning district makes various adjustments to underlying “base” zoning districts to allow more intensive development while adding design regulations to improve walkability in the portions of Madison best-served by transit. The most prominent adjustments within the TOD overlay are:
Allowing additional residential dwelling units as a permitted use in residential, mixed-use, and select employment zoning districts
Allowing additional building height as a permitted use in some multi-family residential and mixed- use zoning districts
Removing usable open space requirements for residential dwelling units
Removing minimum automobile parking requirements and adding tighter maximum parking limits
A minimum 2-story building height in multi-family residential, mixed-use, and employment districts
Additional site layout/design regulations to ensure that buildings are close to and easily accessible from public sidewalks.
Smart Growth supported enactment of the TOD ordinance despite the requirement for buildings to be at least two stories tall, because it will permit greater development density.
This paper published on February 17, 2022, explains the impacts of recent Madison city government actions on the supply and price of housing. READ MORE