# Presentation: 213990

## NSDI Community Demonstration ProjectShaping Dane’s Future

- Planning for Sensible Growth in the City and Town of Verona, Wisconsin

## City and Town of Verona, Wisconsin

**United States of America**

**State of Wisconsin**

**City and Town of Verona, Wisconsin**

**Dane County**

## Community Partners

- Town of Verona Land-Use Planning Task Force
- City of Verona
- Dane County Executive Office
- Dane County Planning and Development
- Dane County Land Information Office
- Land Information and Computer Graphics Facility
- Federal Geographic Data Committee
- Natural Resource Conservation Service
- Environmental Systems Research Institute

## Background 

-    “Dane County citizens are smart, hard-working, and committed to having better communities.  The better information they can have about their communities’ future, the better choices they’ll make.”

## Action Plan “DESIGN Dane”

- Falk calls for:
- “Join with the UW-Madison to offer local communities a _**citizen-based**_, technology- linked land use decision-making approach (to) evaluate the impacts of proposed development, visualize alternative developments, and combine with county ordinances.”
- 			(Falk et al, DESIGN Dane, p. 53)

## Our Task 

- Prototype a Land Use Planning Toolkit which facilitates citizen-based involvement.

## Objectives of this Presentation 

-   Provide context.
-   Describe some lessons learned.

- Objectives of this Presentation

## Context

## The Local Context

-   Land use planning is value laden and inherently political process.
-   Access to information, including spatial information, is not 	sufficient in itself to result in sound land use decisions.
-   The GIS learning curve is steep.  Citizen planners, at this point in 	time, appear to be more comfortable directing technicians to 	conduct specific GIS analyses.
-   Local residents are most familiar with public meetings and 	expressing their views in these forums, but new internet 	technologies hold the promise of expanding the scope of citizen 	involvement.
-   Local units of government face significant financial and technical 	challenges to acquire hardware, software, data and maintenance, 	and hire professional staffing.

## Toolkit Functions

-   	Explore
-   Analyze
-   Allocate
-   Evaluate

## Slide 11

## EXPLORE

- Example questions with policy implications
-   How much land has been urbanized?
-   Where is urbanization occurring?
-   How has urban density changed over time?

## ANALYZE

- Town Chair of the Land Use Planning Task Force Asks:
- Where are important natural features located?

## Applying Phil Lewis’ Environmental Corridor Model

## ALLOCATE

- Using “Place It,” citizen planners determine where growth should occur:

## “Place It” Allocation and Feedback

## EVALUATE

- “On-the-fly” GIS and planning work session

## EVALUATE

- 8 Citizen-generated residential questions
- 1.	How many residential lots do not have any  improvement values?  How many acres?   What is their average size?
- 2. 	How many residential lots > 0.25 acres but < 2 acres do not have any improvement values?  How many acres?
- 3. 	How many residential lots are located on slopes > 12.5%?
- 4. 	Which residential lots are located on sites greater than 1000feet in elevation.
- 5. 	Which residential lots are sited on woodands?
- 6. 	How many woodlands do not have a residential parcel on it?
- 7. 	Where are homes located in wetlands or floodplains?
- 8. 	Where are the floodplains and wetlands?  (Places that you can not or should not build on?)

## EVALUATE

- 10 Citizen-generated agricultural questions
- 	1. 	What is the difference between the two soil models?  					Where do they differ?
- 	2. 	Where are single ag-land owners located in contiguous tracts?
- 	3. 	Where are parcels farmed by a single operator including 				rented lands?
- 	4. 	What parcels are currently assessed in agriculture?
- 	5. 	What parcels receive tax credits for agriculture?
- 	6. 	Where are the dairy farms located?
- 	7. 	What agricultural parcels intersect with good quality soils?
- 	**8. ****	****Two FPZ scenarios were constructed.  Where do these ****	****	****	****	****FPZs differ?  How many acres do they differ?**
- 	9. 	What agricultural lands include forested cover?
- 	10.	What agricultural lands include environmental corridors?

## EVALUATE

- Response to question 8:
- How much difference is there, in acres and location, between the farmland protection scenarios of different taskforce groups within the town?

## Only 70 Acres Difference!

## Some Lessons Learned

## Lesson #1: Usefulness of NSDI 	In respect to “Smart Growth” in Wisconsin and the 	role of the NSDI

- A comparison between the NSDI Framework Data and the actual data used in the Verona case study resulted in the following findings.

## NSDI Useful but Limited

- _NSDI Framework_:
- 45 data sets would have been applicable, of which
- 	18 (40%) are from the cadastral (ownership) data
- 	set.

- _Wisconsin Land Information Program and locally produced data_:
-   	87 data sets were applicable and incorporated into
- 	the database, of which 32 (37%) are from the parcel
- 	(ownership/tax parcel) data set.

## Lesson #2: Attribution Requirements 

- Lesson #2: Attribution Requirements

## Lesson #3: Resolution Limitations

- Resolution of Federally derived orthoimagery
- and resultant elevation data limits usefulness
- (e.g. local units of government area independently developing orthoimages of higher resolution).

## Lesson #4: Unfunded Federal

- 	Priorities

- Need to provide local units of government with funding support for the development of more accurate, up to date data.  (e.g. FEMA and the Cooperative Technical Communities Program – provide the appropriate level of funding and not just more responsibility).

## Lesson #5: Missing Data Sets

## Lesson #6:  Citizen-planner response:

- 	Usefulness of GIS

- Question 1:  *How useful are the computer-based information technologies you have seen demonstrated for your task of updating the town plan?*
- “Very useful.  They enable us as citizen-planners to visualize a number of geographic and other database attributes simultaneously.  Using selected criteria in “what-if” scenarios, we are able to better understand and appreciate our Town resources as we view maps and tables.  Land use policy and implementation are more easily accomplished with this interactive GIS support.”
**Professor Emeritus, Ted Peterson**

## Lesson #6:  Citizen-planner response:

- 	Role of GIS

- Question 2:  *What role(s) do you see GIS and the ability to visualize options have as your task force defines its land use policies for the Town?*
- “Mostly as a “what-if” answer to 2 potential choices.”
**Farmer, Laura Dreger**

## Lesson #6:  Citizen-planner response:

- 	GIS and Planning Process

- Question 3:  *Now that you know about some of the capacities and limitations of GIS, visualization, and impact analysis – If you you were to start the planning process over from the beginning, would you do anything differently?  What specifically?*
- “I would start with a GIS blitz.  Look at all of its potentials and shortfalls to better guide us through the discussions.”
**Town Chair, Steve Sheets**

## To Learn More about the Project

-   Visit our booth in the Map Gallery
-   LICGF web site – www.lic.wisc.edu
*  **Shaping Dane’s Future* Website –
-      www.lic.wisc.edu/shapingdane

## All of us want to thank the Federal Geographic Data Committee for sponsoring this opportunity!

***All of us want to thank the Federal Geographic Data Committee for sponsoring this opportunity!***

## Majid Allan - Dane County Planning

## Math Heinzel - GIS Functionality

## Fred Iausly - Database development

- 			and maintenance

## Phil Lewis - Environmental Corridor

- 	Planner

## Tom McClintock - Planning Analyst

- 	Training

## Doug Miskowiak - Farmland Preservation & Environmental Corridor Applications

## Sue Niemann - Parcel Database

- 	Development

## Ted Peterson – Citizen Planner