August 2024

Welcome to the Team!

Planning and Development welcomes Alex DeSena as a new Project Assistant hired to help implement Dane County’s RHS Strategic Action Plan. She will be developing and delivering programming related to comprehensive plan housing chapters and zoning codes designed to assist municipalities and other housing stakeholders in reaching their housing goals.

Alex has dual Master’s degrees from UW-Madison Departments of Planning and Landscape Architecture and the La Follette School of Public Affairs concentrating in housing and community development. She brings experience working with youth experiencing housing insecurity at Briarpatch Youth Services, and housing data and analysis for projects at Institute for Community Alliances. As an intern in Sun Prairie, she created the Sun Prairie Affordable Housing Target Area Map, helped to establish the Sun Prairie Housing Coalition, and competed projects to support local housing initiatives.

Seeking Nominations for New Historical Marker Program

Watch this video to learn more!

Dane County is seeking nominations for places that are important to the culture and history of communities that are under-represented in the historical record. Submit them here. Dane County’s history of human settlement goes back at least 12,000 years, beginning with retreat of glaciers after the last ice age. Dane County has a rich history of contributions from many groups including indigenous peoples, immigrant farmers, factory workers, emancipated slaves, international refugees, and others who came to Dane County to start new lives and contribute to the cultural identity. While certain aspects of Dane County history are well documented, many stories remain untold or unrecorded. The Dane County Historical Marker Program will highlight these hidden stories.

Anyone can submit nominations using this form [link and crate button] by [insert date]. After nominations are made, the Dane County Heritage Preservation Commission will work with county staff, local experts, representatives of the communities, and the public to capture stories and select some for designation as markers, or inclusion in an online, virtual map.

If you would like to host or facilitate a meeting with your organization or group, please contact historicmarkers@danecounty.gov. A special thank you to the UW–Madison Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture, Catholic Multicultural Center, Centro Hispano, the Hmong Institute, the Urban League, the Ho Chunk Nation, and other contributing community organizations.

Regional Housing Strategy: Five-Year Strategic Action Plan to Address the Housing Crisis

The Dane County Regional Housing Strategy: Five Year Strategic Action Plan is out! On Thursday, May 2, 2024, more than 165 housing stakeholders, residents, elected officials, and business leaders gathered for the launch of a Road Map to Solving Dane County's Housing Crisis: Strategic Action Plan 2024-2028. Local leaders shared their support of the Regional Housing Strategy and their vision for collective action, read more here.

The RHS Action Plan calls for an additional 2,000 housing units a year to be built in Dane County to help reduce pressure on housing prices and increase the number and diversity of housing options. The action plan calls for the region to address racial disparities in housing and homeownership, create more affordable housing, and provide more pathways to homeownership. Sustainable development is also a core value of the action plan.

Since the release, staff and partners are diving into implementation. The County will continue to present the Road Map to Solving Dane County’s Housing Crisis report to assist municipalities and other partners in implementing the action plan locally.

Please reach out if you would like a presentation on the report and action plan for your community or organization at regionalhousing@danecounty.gov. Learn more about the Regional Housing Strategy in this video.

Staff is creating an RHS checklist and evaluation form, so cities and villages can determine the gaps in their housing strategy and what to prioritize moving forward. Keep an eye out for fact sheets on Affordable Housing, Missing Middle Housing, and Zoning for Housing before the end of the year. An RHS fact sheet for the towns is also in the works and staff is meeting with the Dane County Towns Association Executive Board in October. A “Best Practices Model Zoning Code” will be out this fall to aid municipalities seeking to update their zoning codes to address the housing crisis.

Learn about our new technical assistance program for municipalities updating the Comprehensive Plans Housing Chapters at the next Regional Housing Network meeting on August 8 from 3-4pm. Zoom link here. WHEDA will present on new housing and infrastructure funding and residential housing rehab program direct to consumers. Please join us!

Learn More

Announcements

TONIGHT! RHS Event August 8 from 3-4pm: Learn about programming to help update Comprehensive Plan Housing Chapter. Zoom link.
Staff attended to the Dane County Historical Society Annual Meeting to present the Dane Mapping Prejudice Project pilot study data and discuss next steps in advancing this restorative effort.
See our Dane County Equity and Inclusion Plans.
Check out the webpage dedicated to broadband expansion efforts in Dane County here: https://broadband.countyofdane.com/.

Looking for more information about ongoing planning projects, concepts and processes, or new resources and information in Dane County?

Visit Our Webite

Dane County Planning & Development

210 Martin Luther King BLVD, Room #116

Madison, WI 53703

(608) 266-4266