A new study from Downtown Madison Inc. and Smart Growth Greater Madison, which focused on mixed-use and multifamily developments with over 60 units issued building permits in the city and four nearby cities over the last five years, discovered Sun Prairie had the longest median development process at 461 days, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. Madison ranked fourth-longest at 391 days, and Fitchburg was the quickest at 236 days. Other cities included in the study included Verona and Middleton.
The study looked at the “front end” and “back end” processes, from the time of a proposal until land use approvals, and from land use approvals until security of a building permit, respectively. It evaluated both average and median wait times but focused on median times to account for development timeline outliers and sample sizes.
Madison was unique in its pre-application notification process; it requires developers to provide notice to an alder or registered neighborhood association 30 days prior to submission of a formal development proposal.
The city also had the third-longest median back-end process at 253 days. Once again, Fitchburg was fastest at 175 days, and Sun Prairie was slowest at 323 days.
