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DANE COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT STAFF REPORT: REZONING PETITION# - : (r.7 Igloo: Public hearing date: 4/28/98 I. BACKGROUND Madison Gas & Electric is requesting to rezone 19.4 acres of land in the Town of Middleton from the A-1 Agriculture district to the C-2 Commercial district. The utility company intends to site nine permanent supplemental electric generators on the property, adjacent to an existing substation. Each of the dual-fuel (diesel or natural gas), 1,250 kilowatt generators is contained within a metal housing. The generators will operate only during periods of an"energy emergency," usually in the summer,when peak demand for electric power exceeds normal capacity. Similar temporary generators were located on the site a year ago. MG&E now wishes to permanently install generators to meet emergency demand on an ongoing basis. II. GENERAL SITE AND LOCATIONAL INFORMATION The property is located at 4343 Willow Lane in the Southeast quarter of the Southwest quarter of Section 8 in the Town of Middleton. The property fronts onto the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad right of way on the south side of Highway 14. Access is from Willow Lane. The site is in a rural area, approximately 2 miles west of the Central Urban Service Area and the City of Middleton line (see attached map). The site is bordered by C-2 zoning on the east, west and north(on the other side of the railroad and Highway 14). Two forty-acre parcels of mixed woodland and grassland, both zoned A-1, border the property to the south. Six residential lots and three farmsteads, all zoned A-1, lie within 1,500 feet of the proposed generator site to the east. Madison Gas & Electric owns approximately 75 acres of land in the immediate area, including the 40-acre woodland/grassland parcel immediately south of the proposed generator site. The generators will be located on the southeastern corner of the existing substation area, and will be entirely contained within the substation's existing chain link fence and containment berm. (See site plan in petition file.) III. ENVIRONMENTAL FEATURES There is an isolated 2.25-acre pond/wetland approximately 360 feet west of the substation. Across Highway 14 to the north, a 36-acre wetland complex is partially drained by a channel that cuts across the northeast corner of the project site. The channel eventually flows into Black Earth Creek. A steep (35% slopes) 140-foot hill with wooded slopes rises to the southwest of the site, with fairly level terrain in all other directions. The substation and proposed generator site sits on level Kidder loam(KdD2) soils,which are typically deep, and well-drained, with a moderately rapidly permeable sublayer. There may be some incidental storage of potentially toxic chemicals on site (such as PCBs often contained in old transformers) associated with electric generator use. Appropriate containment