31 October, 2012

East Side Development in Holding Pattern

In Business Madison reports that the development of the old Royster-Clark site is idling right now but that construction will get underway without too large a delay.

“The demolition is complete, all the contaminated materials have been moved off-site … in accordance with the DNR rules and regulations and the way it was planned,” said Dave Nelsen, who is overseeing development of the site as director of engineering and architecture for Ruedebusch. “So right now, we’re in kind of a little bit of a waiting mode. We’re taking test readings, we’re monitoring wells on-site to verify that the groundwater is getting better and improving, and that’s going to take several months to potentially a year. … But it’s anticipated that in a year we’ll likely know kind of where we’re at.”

Nelsen says that if all goes well, in the next two or three years people will begin to see some significant development on the site.

“We’re confident that the site will be cleaned up and ready to go, and from there it’s just going through the city processes, so I don’t see any large challenges,” said Nelsen. “Hopefully, the economy turns around and things start moving forward a lot quicker than they are right now, but other than that, it’s kind of just a normal process."

Good news. That site should have been developed long ago and it sounds like this project is being looked at as the first step in revitalizing that section of the Eastmorland neighborhood. Good news. (Maybe Cottage Grove Road can get some decent bus service after this project is done.)

The article also notes that the development "borrows heavily from the new urbanist models". If you watch the video about the project, you can get a glimpse of the vision for the site.



Aside from putting store fronts on the street instead of the parking lots, what's new urbanist about it? I don't really know much about new urbanism but, to my eyes, it looks like a slice of suburbia with a subdivision in back on a cul-de-sac and a huge chunk of area devoted to parking lots. It looks divorced from the surrounding area. People are going to drive to the place, park in back, shop, and then jump back in their car and drive away. I wonder how things would go if there were less parking lots in this plan but street parking available on Cottage Grove Road. This might provide incentive to get out of the development's bubble and explore other businesses in the area.

Regardless, it's nice to see at least some progress.

2 comments:

  1. Looks fairly decent. Reminds me of Middleton Hills. While not perfect it's a step in the right direction!

    Ways it could have been improved: Could've had a single parking garage instead of all that surface parking. Also, could have had apartments above the 1-story storefronts.

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  2. True, it is a step in the right direction. Still, less lots and more apartments would be better.

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