Longtime resident Vankahm Souannoy waters her garden beside her townhome in the Bayview community.
JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL
Madison is preparing for a major redevelopment of roughly 340 dated and deteriorating housing units for low-income, elderly and disabled residents on a big piece of “the Triangle” Downtown.
The City’s Community Development Authority is issuing a “Request for Qualifications” for a development partner to engage residents, analyze funding opportunities and forge a vision for the CDA’s piece of the Triangle.
The move has residents both excited and wary, despite CDA assurances that no one will lose housing as a result of the effort, which may involve renovation, demolition and new construction, or both.
The roughly 26-acre Triangle bounded by South Park and Regent streets and West Washington Avenue was once the core of the low-income, multiethnic Greenbush neighborhood razed amid national urban renewal efforts in the 1960s.
Today, the Triangle includes about 340 housing units at five sites and a small Asian grocery store on 10.5 acres owned by the CDA; housing and community center owned by the nonprofit Bayview Foundation, formed in 1966 to support culturally diverse, low-income families, many of them immigrant refugees from Southeast Asia; a UW Health clinic; and Select Specialty Hospital.
“We hope to bring on partners who share a vision of delivering affordable, safe, and sustainable housing for our residents that will build on the strong community that exists at the Triangle,” said Matt Wachter, city planning, community and economic development director.
The project comes as the Bayview Foundation prepares to launch a $50 million redevelopment of its diverse, international, low-income community. “Bayview plans to close on the financial aspects of the project in mid-July and start construction around the same time,” executive director Alexis London said.
The CDA intends to model a resident engagement process on one used to create Bayview’s plans, which resulted in a vision for what may become one of the coolest places to live in the city.
“I’m thrilled we’re getting started on the redevelopment of CDA housing on the Triangle,” said Ald. Tag Evers, 13th District, who represents the area. “With Bayview set to break ground on their enormously exciting project in a matter of weeks, we have an opportunity to follow their lead with respect to resident engagement, sustainability, and overall aesthetics.”
Avoiding past mistakes
The city and Bayview have been eyeing redevelopment efforts for some time with a commitment to engage residents and avoid the mistakes of the 1960s.
Back then, “renewal” eventually relocated 233 residential and 33 commercial/industrial buildings — meat packing plant, junkyards, taverns, liquor outlets — and more than 1,150 residents.
Several land use plans were proposed for the area, with housing as a primary use along with other commercial uses such as hotels, shopping centers, and medical facilities. Eventually, the majority of the area was reserved for affordable housing and two parcels were sold for medical uses.
For the CDA, The Gay Braxton apartments was the first housing to be built, opening in 1965, followed by the 10-story Brittingham Apartments in 1976; the Karabis Apartments, reserved for individuals with physical disabilities, in 1977; and finally, the eight-story Parkside Tower, Parkside Townhouses, and a single-story commercial building, currently rented to Midway Asian Foods, each in 1978.
Despite its setting at a prominent route into Downtown, the Triangle is isolated, physically turned inward through its design and cut off by its busy border streets.
All of the Triangle buildings have begun to deteriorate and face significant costs to renovate to modern standards, the CDA’s request for qualifications says. As they approach the end of their useful lives, the CDA expects it will be most cost-effective to replace most or all buildings with new construction, while ensuring that each structure fits within a larger master plan and vision that meets the needs of current and future Triangle residents, it says.
As of March 2021, approximately 321 residents live in 336 active CDA-owned units at the Triangle, spread across 12 buildings with large common spaces.
“I love it here because of the people,” said Cindy Julius, president of the Triangle Neighborhood Organization, who lives at the Brittingham apartments and is “excited” about the redevelopment.
But many residents, who have seen promises made and unfulfilled though their lives, are wary, especially about losing housing.
“Some people are really excited but really nervous,” she said. “Change is hard for people. When you get older, change can be even more difficult.”
Ne’ke Romashko, who lives at the Gay Braxton apartments, also likes her neighbors, but she and other residents must pass through dark outdoor corridors to get to their homes, which lack storage space. She prefers renovation. “I really don’t think we need to tear it down,” she said.
Lauren Anderson, CDA’s housing site manager, said many residents have lived in the CDA’s housing for years and that resident engagement will be critical as the project moves forward.
“This is their home, their safe space,” she said. The CDA, she said, must communicate “this is still your home. It’s just going to be different.”
Setting an example
As the CDA looks for a partner, Bayview is poised to launch its project.
Now 102 obsolete townhouses built in 1971 and a community center constructed in 1985 on 4.6 acres, Bayview is a rare oasis of low-cost housing in Madison. But the units are cramped, worn and inaccessible to seniors or those with disabilities, while the community center is bursting at the seams and unable to provide many of the services residents want.
The redevelopment, a joint project by Bayview and Horizon Development Group, is already approved by the city with fundraising nearly complete and construction to begin this summer. The redevelopment will be bursting with color and public art and an emphasis on environmental sustainability.
“Bayview set the template about how to do community-centric development,” said Evers, who sits on the CDA board. “Seeing how that played out with demonstrably stellar results, it makes sense we follow that path and not limit ourselves to conventional approaches that tend to be more hierarchical and paternalistic.”
“Our greatest hope is for the entire Triangle to return to a cohesive and connected neighborhood where all residents and visitors feel grounded and part of the fabric of the community,” London said. “We are eager to be a part of the planning process and collaborate on shared values and innovative ideas that make the neighborhood strong and healthy.”
“One of the most important lessons we took from them is to prioritize resident engagement and work through a variety of venues to get their feedback: group sessions, surveys, one-on-ones to give people a variety of ways to interact with the process,” Wachter said. “The other lesson was to look at the site in a holistic way, rather than focusing on each building or component in isolation.”
After the CDA develops a master plan for its site, there is still a lengthy process to secure federal funding and approvals for any project so it will likely be a few years before any construction would begin, he said.
- Dean Mosiman