[Reprinted from The Capital Times, October 16, 1995. -Ed.]
By Pamela Cotant
The Capital Times
A sign in the window of a house facing the proposed Yahara River pedestrian and bike trail made it clear the plans don't thrill everyone.
"Go Away! Bicycles" read the large sign in a bay window overlooking the river. Homeowner Karen Odterby put up the sign because she knew a group of neighbors would pass her house as they checked out a proposed route for the trail.
Osterby and others in secluded areas on the Yahara River are concerned their peace will be disrupted if the path runs past their front yards.
"Obviously, I don't want bicyclists looking into my living room windows. My windows are that close," said Osterby, who has lived at 105 Riverside Dr. for about six years.
On Saturday 14 neighborhood residents tramped through the area proposed for the Yahara River Parkway. The trail would run alongside the Yahara River-- the one-mile waterway that stretches across the isthmus, linking Lake Mendota with Lake Monona.
The parkway idea is to make the riverfront more usable.
It would include underpasses or overpasses to get across East Washington and East Johnson, which also would make a safer route across the isthmus, neighbors say. They are particularly concerned about kids at Lapham and Marquette elementary schools who go back and forth across the isthmus.
The bike and pedestrian trail also would hook up with the Isthmus Bike Path built recently.
Ed Jepsen, members of the Tenney-Lapham Neighborhood Association, and Rick Bernstein, member of the Marquette Neighborhood Association, organized the Saturday walk. They also head the Yahara River Parkway ad hoc steering committee.
The committee, which includes neighborhood residents and City Council members, was formed by the city to come up with a conceptual plan for the parkway. The committee's second meeting will be at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in Room GR10 of the Municipal Building. It is open to the public.
The city's planning department has drawn up two possible trail routes, which in both cases would run mostly along the east side of the river. The latest idea would have a portion of the route cross over the river and run along Thornton Avenue on the west side for a short distance. That would move it away from the front yards of homeowners on Riverside Drive such as Osterby.
Jepsen would like to see Thornton become a one-way street so the bike path could use part of it. He also suggested a bike path could be created on one side of the river and a walking trail on the other, at least along the stretch between East Washington Avenue and Williamson Street.
Barbara Vedder, committee member and alderwoman for the area, said, "The beautiful part of it is that people will be able to get from one lake to the other and from one side the isthmus to the other so much easier."
Some longer term plans call for redeveloping some of the property along the river that the city and neighborhood think is underutilized. The spots could be used for higher-density housing, small corporate headquarters and businesses that would work well along the riverfront such as a coffee shop, Jepsen said.
The neighborhood is hoping the parkway would spur a use other than offices for the vacant Sentry store in the More Shopping Center at East Washington and First Street. Jepsen said it could be at least two to three years before any trail would be built.
The committee is supposed to come up with the neighborhood's ideal plan, which then would be refined by the city, Jepsen said. The process has allowed residents, who would like to make the riverside more attractive, a chance to dream a little.
One idea discussed during the walk would tear down the dark brown quonset hut-style boathouses near the MGE substation off Johnson Street. They would be replaced with a boathouse built according to a 1902 plan designed for the river by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Phil Hodapp, 1418 E. Dayton St., suggested creating spots along the river where people could moor their boats and climb out to patronize a business.
Sheri Rein, secretary for the Emerson East Neighborhood Association, said her neighborhood would like a neighborhood center created in one of the vacant stores in the Fiore center. Or the center could be located nearby in the, soon to be vacant Madison Curling Club building in Burr Jones Field, she said.
But Bill Jolin, 222 Merry St., whose apartment faces the river near Williamson Street, said during the walk that he was alarmed by some of the proposed development for the riverfront.
"You couldn't have this discussion right here if there was a bike path running through it," said John, as the group paused in a grassy area.
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? ? ? About the BCP |
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