November 3, 2019

Edgewood plans mired in controversy

 Nikole Jaramillo, Edgewood College student

Edgewood High School’s plans for a new athletic stadium, announced back in February of this year, has been met with a series of controversies. Recently, Edgewood has filed a lawsuit against the City of Madison for religious discrimination.

Edgewood announced its decision to terminate the Master Plan, which Edgewood voluntarily entered in order to avoid having to go through Plan Commissions for each new project, earlier this year. Edgewood Goodman Athletic Complex’s FAQ says, “Edgewood will be agreeing to forego the benefits of the Master Plan, however, the City has indicated Edgewood would then be placed on “equal footing” with other Campus-Institutional zoned properties”.

In July 2019 the decision to terminate the plan rather than seek an amendment was made at the recommendation of Edgewood’s City Attorney, as well as the mayor.

 According to Edgewood, the City of Madison, in refusing to allow zoning and not allowing Edgewood to host day games without citation, has not been fair in its treatment of the school compared to the public schools.

Unlike other Madison schools, Edgewood voluntarily adopted a master plan to allow uses. President Mike Elliott’s letter to the Edgewood community states that back in fall 2018, Edgewood was suddenly told by the City that games could not be played on the field, despite having done so for 100 years.

He states, “The city decided to state that Edgewood’s master plan needed to explicitly spell out all activities to be performed on the field and if an activity was not listed in the master plan, the field could not be used for that activity”, and says that only Edgewood was expected to follow this rule. It is this unequal treatment that partially fueled Edgewood’s decision to take legal action.

However, unlike Madison’s public schools, Edgewood’s stadium is in much closer proximity to more homes in the neighborhood. The edge of the field is only 88 feet away from the nearest residential property. Meanwhile, the 2 public high schools with their own stadiums have a greater distance away from the nearest resident. In addition, none of these high schools are part of a campus as large as Edgewood’s, therefore none have a Master Plan to amend or exit.

Prior to Edgewood’s lawsuit, Madison’s Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway did introduce an ordinance to let Edgewood exit the Master Plan. On August 21st, Rhodes-Conway announced she would no longer support this ordinance after Edgewood filed the lawsuit.

In a written statement to numerous news outlets, Rhodes-Conway said, “The city of Madison does not discriminate against any religion. Edgewood High School is free to pursue the repeal of its master plan utilizing normal city processes. I encourage Edgewood High School to work with its neighbors to resolve ongoing tensions over the proposal to have a limited number of night games.”

According to Elliott in the June 15th, 2015 print of the Wisconsin State Journal, the Master Plan specifies that the field would only be used for practices and class to mind the needs of the neighborhood.

The new stadium plans include additional seating, lighting, and parking as well as plans to host night games. The neighborhood was led to believe that these would not be included, according to Yael Gen, a source with volunteer citizen group, No New Stadium.

 Allegedly, a new stadium is needed because Middleton is no longer available. However, Gen said that “emails revealed that Edgewood had cancelled the arrangement, not Middleton”.

 “We believe the high school’s decision to file a religious discrimination lawsuit against the City of Madison was a “hail Mary” pass because they feared they wouldn’t get what they wanted using the normal approval process everyone else in the city needs to use,” said Gen.

Neighborhood Concerns

Concerns neighbors share over Edgewood’s new stadium plan include disruption of the neighborhood and environment, including the behavioral issues from alcohol to altercations well known to occur at football games, as well as the impact on beloved recreational spaces such as Lake Wingra and the Arb. Despite Edgewood’s promise that higher technology would mitigate any negative effects as far as lights and sound are concerned, No New Stadium’s noise study as well as one commissioned by the high school “show noise would exceed legal city levels and the lights cast a glare for blocks around”.

On working with the neighborhood over new stadium plans, Elliott wrote in his letter that the concerns raised were researched and studied. He said that traffic would be improved since peak time was taken off and parking would be on Edgewood Campus and self-proposed restrictions for types of events, end of event times, and number of events were made.

However, he stated that the only feedback received from the neighborhood was “no”, along with admonition that Edgewood needs to work with the neighborhood.

 “Based on the extensive efforts by Edgewood [noted in his letter], we say it’s the neighbors who need to start working with Edgewood”.

On September 13th, in a good-faith effort to ease tensions, the Dudgeon Monroe Neighborhood Association (DMNA) released a statement supporting Edgewood High School teams playing day games on the athletic field, within reasonable parameters, and asks for a to return to the Master Plan process to achieve this.

No New Stadium is clear that it is night games that are the concern as the noise, light, and traffic generated in a dense neighborhood is “unacceptable”.

In the past, the neighborhood was very cooperative with other large-scale projects— such as a college dormitory, the new $9.8 million theater, and a dozen other building projects.

In a written response, Gen said, “In the past, the Campus worked with the liaison committee to hammer out agreements with the neighbors. There was a long history of partnership. Now, we feel deceived and bullied.”

In Edgewood’s perception of their uncooperativeness, the neighborhood now feels that Edgewood’s actions are in direct conflict with Dominican values of Truth, Compassion, Justice, Community and Partnership.

 “There were over 70 games this year in violation of the zoning code. EHS simply thumbed its nose at the neighbors and the law. This seems to be in direct conflict to the Dominican values,” said Gen.

Additionally, opposers to the new stadium are facing harassment. Incidents include stolen “No New Stadium” signs from properties, threatening mail and post cards —such as a post card with a picture of a coffin and a message suggesting that is where the receiver should end up next — sent directly to the homes of the most vocal members, and a brick being thrown through the window of a home with a “No New Stadium” sign.

Though a police investigation is underway, No New Stadium chose not to say anything publicly in hopes of reaching a compromise with the high school.

 “We still hope for that,” said Gen. “But the truth is that there is a huge difference between what Edgewood claims are its values and the way stadium supporters have been treating the neighborhood...So, the idea that THEY think they are being discriminated against is pretty ironic.”

No New Stadium made it clear that they are not accusing Edgewood staff or students of being responsible for the harassment.