City Council vote on greenway plan--Attend tonight!

The City Council meets today at 6:30 pm to vote on the City's Hillcrest-Upland greenway plan that was approved by the Board of Public Works recently.  Citizens should attend and register (before the meeting) to speak.

The greenway is item #16 on the agenda:  "Approving Plans, Specifications, and Schedule of Assessments, Hillcrest Upland Greenway and Sanitary Lateral Assessment District."

To find out more about this miscarriage of planning, see today's excellent article on the issue here.  According to this article on the Capital Times website, planning went awry when the city proposed something without consulting residents first.  Yes, that's true--but the planning was off the track even before then, when City Engineering failed to consider larger watershed issues. 

The erosion in the greenway was caused by excessive runoff, yet ZERO effort has been made by City Engineering to assess or address runoff issues.  This project is like a Band-Aid for a seriously ill patient.  It's like solving a leak in your roof by putting pots on the floor inside.  When will the city start to "fix the roof?"

We need a new planning process which will really "fix the roof" by addressing watershed issues.  The result will be healthier lakes and streams, a more liveable city, and money saved on infrastructure.