The City of Madison Board of Estimates met Monday to consider adding more public parking and a bike lane to the Capitol Square area, and to discuss a possible commercial development on Monroe Street.
The board decided to approve a plan adding 27 spaces of public parking on the square for increased accessibility to nearby businesses.
\We cannot sell large items unless we have a way to help our customers get them to a car,"" said Peg Scholtes, proprietor of Capitol Kids.
This project is being paid for by money from the Tax Incremental Finance fund. According to Ald. Judy Olson, District 6, TIF is ""the most important financing tool that the city has. As the project rises in value, those funds are used for public works projects adjacent to it.""
However, the board is hesitant to allot $10.6 million of TIF funds to the Monroe Commons project, which is a proposed commercial development that will include a grocery store with four stories of residential property above the structure.
For the last three years, this area has been consumed with blight property that takes revenue from local businesses and inconveniences the Dudgeon-Monroe neighborhood.
Steve Puntillo and his wife Mary Kay have owned Paragon Video on Monroe Street since 1988. He insists that ""[The Monroe Commons] can't wait another two years ... the new shops will just get sleazier.""
A resolution for the Monroe Commons proposal was not reached last night, but it will be addressed at the next city council meeting. However, Mayor David Cieslewicz appeared optimistic about the outcome.
""I think this has a fighting chance,"" Cieslewicz said.
