livescience.com The number of extreme hot summer days is increasing around the world with global warming, but sprawling cities are racking up these sweltering days faster than more compact cities are, a new study finds. This finding could be important to city planners, particularly because heat waves are a killer worldwide (heat waves kill more …
Monthly Archive: June 2010
Jun
23
Towns Can’t Force Coordination
Anti-Smart Growth activists in Oneida County suffered a setback as Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen issued a formal opinion that says that towns have no statutory authority to require other units of government to engage in a process described as “coordination.” Van Hollen said some towns have enacted resolutions stating they are requiring counties, …
Jun
22
GOP Lawmakers oppose KRM commuter rail application
The Daily Reporter Two Wisconsin lawmakers are joining the fight to delay preliminary engineering work for the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail project. State Reps. Jeff Fitzgerald, R-Horicon, and Robin Vos, R-Racine, sent a letter to the Federal Transit Administration asking that it deny the Southeastern Regional Transit Authority’s application to begin preliminary engineering on the estimated …
Jun
21
Money eludes Dane County transit planners
By Paul Snyder A half-cent sales tax increase would give Dane County planners the money they need to craft a regional transit strategy. But the Dane County Regional Transit Authority needs the strategy to persuade voters to hand over the money. “Yeah, it’s a bit of a conundrum there,” said Steve Hiniker, executive director of …
Jun
16
Madison Common Council lifts TIF restrictions for BioLink project
By Paul Snyder The Madison Common Council on Tuesday lifted a 50 percent pre-lease requirement to provide a construction loan for a proposed business incubator. The council’s action allows planning to proceed for BioLink, a 31,000-square-foot project that will hold a greenhouse, office and research space for new businesses in the city. The project will …
Jun
16
Summit voters choose to become village
By Mike Johnson of the Journal Sentinel Summit – Voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a referendum measure to turn the Town of Summit into a village. The vote was 483 to 85 in favor of incorporation as a village. Voter turnout was 14.6%; 570 of the town’s 3,898 registered voters cast ballots. Of the ballots …
Jun
16
Elections loom large for high-speed rail project
By Paul Snyder High-speed rail advocates are racing the state’s gubernatorial election cycle to line up support for an expanded track network to Green Bay and Minneapolis. “This is not a done deal,” said Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz at a rally Tuesday for high-speed rail expansion. “We don’t know what the next governor will do.” …
