Golf course to landfill: Madison City Council agrees to sell part of Yahara Hills Golf Course | Local Government
The Madison City Council has signed off on a $5.5 million deal to sell Dane County about 230 acres of the Yahara Hills Golf Course to convert parts of the grounds into a landfill and composting site.
The land deal, approved on a 17-2 vote late Tuesday, would split off the eastern part of the city-owned golf course into a “sustainability campus,” which could house a landfill, composting site and business park. The deal comes as the county-operated landfill across Highway 12/18 from the golf course is expected to run out of space by 2030.
Dane County has yet to approve its end of the deal.
Madison Streets Superintendent Charlie Romines told council members the land deal might seem “counterintuitive” because the county still has to determine a number of factors such as hours of operation, environmental monitoring and site limitations. But the county has to own the land before it can start the decade-long process of designing and permitting a new landfill, Romines said.
People are also reading…
“There’s a lot more process to come than I think would normally be thought of when you’re at a point of a sale and agreement,” he said.
Without a nearby landfill, Madison would have to send its waste elsewhere, potentially 40 miles away to Johnson Creek, the closest current landfill site.
Residents who live near the proposed site urged council members to postpone the vote Tuesday night, citing health impacts and a need for further community input.
Ald. Barbara Harrington McKinney, 1st District, sought to defer the vote, citing residents’ concerns over lack of information about the project, but the motion failed, 17-2.
Even if the deal is finalized by the city and the county, there is no guarantee the site will eventually get converted into a landfill.
Under the agreement, Madison could buy back the land through the end of 2024 should Dane County decide not to put a landfill on the site.
In addition to the landfill, parts of the golf course will remain as recreational space. Once the current landfill site close, parts of that land could see conservation and recreational use.
Should the sale be approved, the golf course will have its 36 holes of golf available through the 2024 season, with fewer holes open for play over subsequent years and 18 holes guaranteed through the 2042 season.
Like the city’s other golf courses, Yahara Hills has seen play dwindle in recent decades despite the sport’s surge in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2020, the course broke even, a first in two decades, Madison’s Parks Superintendent Eric Knepp said last year.
Racial quotas
Council members also voted Tuesday night to eliminate racial quotas for membership on the city’s Police Oversight Board, a policy that prompted a federal lawsuit from a conservative law firm. The change was approved automatically as part of the board’s consent agenda, meaning there was no separate vote on the matter.
The 11-member board, which is tasked with serving as a check on the Madison Police Department, had required someone from each of five demographics — the Black, Asian, Latino, Native American and LGBTQ communities — to hold a post on the board.
In a lawsuit against the city, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty argued the quotas amounted to racial discrimination. Instead of saying the board “shall” have representation from the groups, the new language describes a commitment to “strive to include members from a diverse background.”
Art of the Everyday: A recap of April in photos from Wisconsin State Journal photographers

Dancers perform during the 2022 Madison College Spring Pow Wow presented by the college’s Native American Student Association on the campus in Madison, Wis. Saturday, April 23, 2022. This year’s event recognized the 30th anniversary of the association and honored the heritage and cultures of the Ho Chunk, Menominee, Munsee, Ojibwe, Oneida and Potawatomi nations. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

Mary Frantz, third from right, who turns 99 on Sunday, is serenaded with “Happy Birthday” by friends she walks with weekly — from left, Kathy Converse, Barbara Chatterton Frye, Mary Somers, Deesa Pence and Nancy Schraufnagel — at Vilas Park in Madison, Wis., Wednesday, April 27, 2022. The group, all members of the Prairie Unitarian Universalist Society who started walking during the pandemic as a way to be together, had homemade blueberry muffins and a gift for Frantz before hitting the trail. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL

As high winds roil the waters of Lake Mendota, members of the Wisconsin Sailing Team and other participants in a Midwest Collegiate Sailing Association qualifier event prepare their crafts for competition on the campus of UW-Madison in Madison, Wis., Friday, April 8, 2022. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

Visitors to the MacKenzie Center take a horse drawn wagon ride during the Maple Syrup Festival in Poynette, Wis., Saturday, April 2, 2022. KAYLA WOLF, STATE JOURNAL

Madison Police Mounted Patrol Academy members Rebecca Holmquest, right, gets Dr. B, a 12-year-old Shire, to smile, with Liz Erickson, riding Torres, a 16-year-old Friesian, during a break from training at The Horse First Farm in Brooklyn, Wis., Thursday, April 14, 2022. The five new part-time riders with the Madison Police Mounted Patrol, who are finishing up a four week training course, will join two part-time and two full-time members of the unit. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL

Cecilia Ford of 360 Wisconsin uses a viewing scope to survey an Earth Day rally and march on Library Mall in Madison, Wis. Friday, April 22, 2022. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

Stormy Gaylord is fitted for the Priestess Cassandra costume, designed by David Quinn, by artistic director Lisa Thurrell at Kanopy Dance in Madison, Wis., Wednesday, April 13, 2022. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL

Felix Harmon rollerblades down the sidewalk with his mom Jocelyn Harmon, not pictured, along East Dayton Street in Madison, Wis., Tuesday, April 19, 2022. KAYLA WOLF, STATE JOURNAL

Cheyenne Peloquin, center, with Chippewa Valley Technical College, uses a mannequin head to create a short razor haircut during a cosmetology competition at SkillsUSA Wisconsin at Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wis., Wednesday, April 6, 2022. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL

Ingrid Andersson takes the blood pressure of Naomi Takahashi during an appointment at Andersson’s home office in Madison, Wis., Tuesday, April 19, 2022. Ruby Takahashi, 3, and Christopher Olson sit in on the appointment. KAYLA WOLF, STATE JOURNAL

Therapist Frances Violante, left, works with Brody Koslowski, center, while he plays with his brother Colton at the Koslowski’s home in DeForest, Wis., Tuesday, April 12, 2022. KAYLA WOLF, STATE JOURNAL

Rod McLean, 81, has bibs from 368 races he’s run since 1992 displayed on the wall in a bedroom at his home in Monona, Wis., Friday, April 29, 2022. McLean, who will participate in his 26th Crazylegs Run, needs 1.5-miles to reach 24,901.4 miles, which happens to be the circumference of the earth. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL

Band director Will Janssen conducts John Philip Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever” during rehearsal at Mount Horeb High School in Mount Horeb, Wis., Tuesday, April 26, 2022. KAYLA WOLF, STATE JOURNAL

UW-Madison students with Pitches and Notes, a treble-voiced a cappella group, including Leah Terry, front, Ellie Fricker, right, and Alyssa Bruckert, left, use random props as microphones as they rehearse at the UW Student Activities Center on East Campus Mall in Madison, Wis., Tuesday, April 12, 2022. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL

Mount Horeb Choir director Diane Dangerfield leads rehearsal at Mount Horeb High School in Mount Horeb, Wis., Tuesday, April 26, 2022. KAYLA WOLF, STATE JOURNAL

UW-Madison students Maitreyee Marathe, front, a PhD student in electrical engineering, and, from left, Brittany Bondi, a second-year graduate student in environment and resources, Stephanie Bradshaw, a PhD student in atmospheric and oceanic sciences, and Savannah Ahnen, a sophomore in computer science and electrical engineering, install an electric Little Free Library that functions as a solar-powered phone charging kiosk at Lisa Link Peace Park on State Street in Madison, Wis., Wednesday, April 6, 2022. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL

Allen Centennial Garden horticulturalist Ryan Dostal clears unwanted vegetation from from a bed beneath a magnolia tree as he assists volunteers with a clean-up effort to the conservancy on the campus of UW-Madison in Madison, Wis. Tuesday, April 26, 2022. Workers at the garden are preparing the grounds for this season’s new displays of plants and flowers, which will be on display as part of the gardens’ “Abundant Harvest” theme featuring edible ornamentals. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

A cyclist rides past a pair of sandhill cranes at the UW Arboretum in Madison, Wis., Thursday, April 28, 2022. KAYLA WOLF, STATE JOURNAL

While sunny skies and slightly warmer temperatures offer a hint toward spring, a pair of snowmen created from the previous day’s snowfall add a wintry touch to Amy Utzig and Jen Schutz’s run along the shoreline of Monona Bay near Brittingham Park in Madison, Wis., Friday, April 1, 2022. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

Tom Sarbacker carries a bucket of feed to his young cows at his farm, Fischerdale Holsteins, in Paoli, Wis., Monday, April 18, 2022. KAYLA WOLF, STATE JOURNAL

Chris Ayers of Madison Window Cleaning improves the view of the Wisconsin State Capitol during a seasonal cleaning effort of the panes of the AC Hotel in Madison, Wis., Monday, April 11, 2022. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

With spring temperatures starting to take hold in the area, Chris Wiesneski and his English shepherd, Patrick, are reflected in the waters of a former hockey rink during a walk through Vilas Park in Madison, Wis., Tuesday, April 5, 2022. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

Volunteers and staff from the Ice Age Trail Alliance’s Lodi Valley and Dane County Chapters build a 371-foot boardwalk over an area of the Lodi Marsh segment of the Ice Age Trail in Lodi, Wis., Friday, April 8, 2022. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL

UW Band director Corey Pompey leads his musicians during the Varsity Band Concert at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wis. Friday, April 22, 2022. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL