It's an eerily vacant piece of property on busy East Washington Avenue. A newly built stretch of Winnebago Street cuts through the 15 acres to an unused traffic roundabout with an arm that leads to nowhere. On Sunday morning, a man throws a Frisbee for a dog. A battered camper, suspiciously like those whose overnight presence has provoked neighbor complaints elsewhere in Madison, is parked nearby. A flock of 20 geese peck at the scrubby weeds near a ridge of stacked brick in the center of the property.

The stalled build-out of the planned $100 million Union Corners project is a local testament to the severity of the economic recession that slowed development across the country.

Community activist Joe Mingle says it is also an opportunity for a community-driven development that would be a model of affordable housing, sustainable living and green industry.

Momentum for a community-based project is building. A grassroots group of activists, the Friends of Union Corners, hosted a "speak out" about the Union Corners site last month that drew more than 50 people to the Salvation Army, many from the adjacent low-income neighborhood. Representatives of several local non-profit organizations that focus on housing have been strategizing for months. But acquiring the property, already eyed by commercial interests, before it is broken up poses a formidable challenge.

Mingle says it can be done. "Out of the destruction of the old model of developing, a new innovative way needs to be built. Where better than the east side of Madison?"

In 2003, Todd McGrath, owner of McGrath Associates with brother and partner Lance, unveiled his vision for Union Corners, on a site composed of 22 parcels assembled by the developers. Over the next two years, the plan was developed and refined in public meetings and with a panel of neighborhood residents to include 450 units of rental and owner-occupied housing as well as extensive retail space.

The McGraths were honored for their other urban residential projects in 2006 by the environmental group 1000 Friends of Wisconsin with an award presented by Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, a former director of the non-profit organization.

The brothers' track record still engenders respect among the activists who are now planning to supplant the brothers' last, unrealized dream. They point to the pile of bricks on the abandoned site -- salvaged from the controversial razing of the historic Rayovac building for reconstruction on the site -- as a concrete example of the pair's responsiveness. Several people interviewed for this story say they have spoken to Lance McGrath about their ideas and describe him as generally receptive, although the future of the undeveloped property in the current economic climate is uncertain. The McGraths did not return calls over several days seeking comment for this story.

One clear message from neighbors at the most recent Union Corners meeting was the need for family-supporting jobs, Mingle says. Other needs identified were a small grocery store, a day care center, and multi-generational housing with assisted living capacity. Why not provide those jobs in the burgeoning green industries, training area residents for practical jobs in solar and other emerging technologies? Why not a green enterprise center with a program of micro-loans to help residents start their own small businesses? "The smart money is green," says Mingle.

Possible tools to fund such a development include such things as a community investment fund or bond issue, he says. "None of the big boys wants to make a move, so let us do it."

A proposal to site a store on the property by retail pharmacy giant CVS a year ago drew sharp criticism from the neighborhood. So, an immediate goal is to gain control of the land, preserving it from piecemeal development, while planning for more comprehensive development continues.

Acquiring money for that will be a challenge, acknowledges Greg Rosenberg, executive director of the Madison Area Community Land Trust. He is part of a group that includes representatives from Common Wealth Development, Project Home, Independent Living, Inc., and Third Sector Housing Group that has been meeting over the past two months to gather information and look at options to purchase and develop the site.

Officials from many of the groups had collaborated earlier to lobby city officials to change the tax-exempt status of non-profit housing. The experience got them thinking about their increased capacity as a group. "If individually we can't take on a project as large as Union Corners, together we can take on very ambitious projects," Rosenberg says.

He says his experience with the nationally recognized Troy Gardens, with its community garden, cooperative farm and low-cost housing, helped convince him of the real possibilities of the Union Corners site. "I'm not sure this is a long-odds project," he says. "I do know you've just got to keep working and get people excited about the vision. Then the answers hopefully start to reveal themselves."

Much groundwork for development of the site already has been done, including the extensive research for the McGrath project about what residents want. And public officials are more receptive, in part because of Troy Gardens, than they were when Rosenberg helped shepherd that project through the city review process, he says. "The folks at City Hall are very open to outside-the-box thinking in a way they weren't 10 years ago."

When asked about it, Cieslewicz says he hopes some form of the McGrath project will eventually be built "substantially along the lines of what was planned for." The city has already made substantial investment in improvements at the site, he points out.

No tax increment financing -- a tax subsidy used to promote development -- was included in the city's 2010 budget on the assumption that development would not proceed next year. "It remains in a state of limbo," the mayor says. The city has acquired and held land for future development before, but adding capital expenses is tough in this economy and talk about this site is premature, he says.

Lance McGrath is quoted in a May article in the Wisconsin State Journal saying any Union Corners development would be sharply scaled down. At that time, the city was interested in gaining control of the site itself.

Dace Zeps, president of the neighborhood association in Worthington Park, adjacent to the Union Corners site, says area residents are looking at uses for the property that, driven by a changed economy, go beyond the McGraths' vision. "People are really excited about possibilities of common space for use by the community," she says. One example would be the development of a commercial kitchen where neighborhood residents could turn their produce to food products. Zeps herself has been working with residents on a green jobs enterprise center, for which the Union Corners site might be a good location.

Ald. Marsha Rummel says she, too, is excited about the possibilities. "How many opportunities do you have in the central city for such an incredible development?"

Rummel, in whose district the Union Corners site is located, is not yet sure how doable a community-driven development might prove to be. "Unless you try to do something, you don't move forward," she reflects. "My role is to start the conversation at the city and see what my colleagues say."

Add or View Comment

Login to post your comment. If you don't have an account, you may register for one.