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WP&L Wisconsin Power and Light Company,222 West Washington Avenue,P.O. Box 192,Madison WI,53701-0192 Telephone(608)252-3311,Facsimile(608)252-3397 August 22, 1994 Mr. William Fleck Dane County Zoning Administrator Martin Luther King Drive Madison, WI 53703 Dear Mr. Fleck, I would like to address several points pursuant to Zoning Petition Number 6031, Wisconsin Power and Light Company's request to rezone 11.3 acres in the Town of Verona. This is in response to comments made by Dane County Regional Planning Commission. The function of Wisconsin Power and Light Company's Verona facility is to provide effective service to our utility customers in Verona and southwestern Dane County. The primary focus is on rapid response to emergencies; to react to life-threatening situations as well as restore power following outages. This centralized location, with its proximity to Highways 18/151, M and PB, minimizes our response time and also positions us to effectively meet customer needs as the county continues to grow. The timely construction of the Verona facility is critical to our company's restructuring of its field offices. Accordingly, we plan to begin building in the Spring of 1995. Our search for acceptable sites within the City of Verona's Urban Service Territory was without success. Our site requirement of 5 to 6 acres precluded locating in the new phase of Verona's Industrial Park. The development of the Van de Grift's Business Park located on the city's southeast side is dependent upon the extension of urban services, which will occur sometime in 1996, at the earliest. Our conversations with representatives of this development over the past year or so have always left us with a sense of uncertainty; there is no firm date as to when sites will be available, how much they will cost, when sewer and water will be extended to the site or whether the entire project will be set up as a TIF District. RPC makes the comment that our "...industrial-type use appears incompatible with adjacent residences." Our operations will consist primarily of storage of vehicles and materials used in utility construction and maintenance. To refer to this as an "industrial type use" seems to overstate the fact. In addition we have spoken with Theodore Peterson, the resident immediately to the west of the site. He is in support of our proposed facility and is confident we will be compatible neighbors. We are sensitive to our neighbors; accordingly we give special attention to minimizing exterior lighting, screening with berms and other landscaping, and maintaining an orderly appearance to our property. In addition, RPC states that the subject parcel is in an Agricultural Preservation area. According to the Town Plan Districts Map in the Land Use Plan, the parcel is designated as a Rural Non-Farm Area. To reiterate, Wisconsin Power and Light Company's desire is to construct its Verona Facility in 1995. Given the lack of suitable building sites within the city's Urban Service Territory and the uncertainty as to the availability of new sites, we feel that our proposed facility is being situated in an appropriate location. Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, Thomas J. Leuker Real Estate Department •