Top Madison area developers want a bigger voice in city and county politics so — what else? — they're  forming a lobbying group and planning to become involved in election campaigns. The group, called Smart Growth Madison, plans to push for voluntary inclusionary zoning laws and affordable housing. But not everyone welcomes the injection of more big money into local and county politics. See the Wisconsin State Journal story here.

Smart growth, it seems, is different things to different people. In central Wisconsin, it's being described as everything from a bureaucratic nightmare to a United Nations plot. See the Marshfield News-Herald story here. In Price County, the county's Smart Growth Committee asked the County Board to a seek legislation to repeal the smart growth law. Get the buzz from the Phillips Bee here.

Waukesha residents could be socked with $67 million to $70 million in costs to rid its municipal water system of naturally occurring radium, as a result of a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision from Washington, D.C. Nearly 600 communities across the country are in a similar bind, including a number in southeastern Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. See the story here.

The almost brand-new Marathon County Village of Kronnenwetter, carved out of its surrounding town just four months ago, has voted to swallow the town lock, stock and barrel by annexation, the Wausau Daily Herald reports. That comes over objections by the state Department of Administration that the action misuses municipal consolidation law and is contrary to the public interest. See the Daily Herald story here.

Racine is hoping to land a proposed high-speed ferry port away from Waukegan, Ill., setting up possible competition with a line proposed for Milwaukee and existing ferry service in Manitowoc, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. Discussions involve a route from St. Joseph, Mich. to Racine, then to Chicago and back to St. Joseph, with a passenger-only catamaran making three or four trips a day during peak periods. For the Journal Sentinel story, look here.

The Legislative Council’s Special Committee on Broadband released its report at a public hearing on Feb 19. The study committee recommended only one item for legislative action. The soon-to-be-drafted bill calls for an interactive database to be developed and maintained for the purposes of providing information about high-speed broadband availability in Wisconsin.

Milwaukee's Business Improvement District #21 has launched its own website, http://www.MilwaukeeDowntown.com/ The web site is aimed at downtown property owners and business people, but anyone can use it to find out what is going on in downtown Milwaukee.

How to handle a potential $3.5 million shared revenue cut is one of the bones of contention in the Madison mayor's race. The candidates are land-use activist Dave Cieslewicz and former mayor Paul Soglin. See the Wisconsin State Journal story on their response to the potential cut here.

A bill that would saddle property taxpayers with much of the cost of forwarding the location of 911 callers using cellular telephones to the dispatchers who need that information was approved, 10-1, by the Assembly Energy & Utilities Committee March 4. The committee responded to several of our concerns, but rejected an amendment that would have eased the burden on property taxpayers to accommodate the new technology. See our news release on the bill here.

Officials of Algoma and Kewaunee County are talking consolidation. Officials are asking if it would be feasible and cost-effective to consolidate county and municipal law enforcement, among other activities. See the Algoma Record-Herald story here.

A group of local governments in western Wisconsin have jointly contracted with the Public Strategies Group, St. Paul to look at the opportunities and obstacles to jointly providing local services. The group includes City of Eau Claire, Eau Claire County, Chippewa Falls, Chippewa County, the town of Washington, and the Eau Claire School District. The initial focus will be on sharing risk management, group purchasing, and procurement services. The study will also look at forming an ongoing intergovernmental partnership to seek other opportunities for sharing services or consolidation.