Madison Wisconsin

Early in the 20th century, Madison was a small city of a little more than 19,000 residents. Its neighbors, at some distance away, were small farming communities. The boundaries of the City were essentially those of an extended Isthmus. Over the years, plans and decisions about where and how the City would grow were being made in many different ways -- by businesses seeking to create environments that would help their industries and enterprises grow and prosper; by the University of Wisconsin as it expanded; by real estate developers and builders responding to residents' desires for new and affordable housing; and by concerned citizens and community groups seeking to guide and shape the City's growth in ways that would enhance and maintain Madison's essential character.

Madison today is no longer a small, compact community insulated from its neighbors and the larger world. As Madison and other communities in Dane County have grown, the City has become the center of a much larger region. Many of the issues are the same -- where to grow and how much, affordable housing, transportation for workers, how to enhance and maintain the City's essential character -- but the environment in which the City functions today is considerably more complex, and the number and scale of the entities that affect the future of the City more numerous.