Fiscal Note
No new fiscal appropriations are necessary. Costs for maintaining and/or improving the Southwest Path are already included in the operating budget.
Title
Authorizing the City to Enter into an Updated Interim Trail Use/Rail Banking Agreement with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and the South Central Wisconsin Rail Transit Commission for the Southwest Path. (5th, 10th, 11th and 13th ADs)
Body
WHEREAS, in 2000, the City entered into a 20-year interim trail use/rail banking agreement (the “Original Agreement”) with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WDOT) and the South Central Wisconsin Rail Transit Commission (SCWRTC) that allowed the City to construct, develop and operate what is now known as the Southwest Path, a heavily used bicycle and pedestrian transportation corridor running from the City’s southernwestern border with Fitchburg north and east to its eventual intersection with the Brittingham Park Bike Path at North Shore Drive and, to the east, the Capital City Trail. The Original Agreement covers 4.22 miles of the Southwest Path, from roughly Lovell Lane to Randall Avenue, all of which is former railroad corridor owned by WDOT but subject to the jurisdiction of the SCWRTC; and,
WHEREAS, the Original Agreement allowed the City to develop and manage the former rail corridor, and required the City to protect WDOT’s property rights throughout the corridor by enacting and enforcing an ordinance regulating encroachments within the corridor; and,
WHEREAS, in 2018-2019, when the City attempted to renew the Original Agreement for an additional 20-years, it was informed by WDOT and SCWRTC that, due to the large volume of encroachments within the corridor, many of which had expanded or been placed within the corridor since the Original Agreement was entered into, the agreement would not be renewed and that a new agreement would be necessary; and,
WHEREAS, the Original Agreement expired in 2020 but the City, WDOT and SCWRTC entere...
Click here for full text