Lawsuit challenging Madison bird-safe glass ordinance delivered to appeals court.

• Author: Duran, Ethan
• Position: Associated Builders and Contractors of Wisconsin, NAIOP Wisconsin, the Commercial Association of Realtors of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Builders Association

Byline: Bridgetower Media Newswires

By Ethan Duran

eduran@dailyreporter.com

The case to decide whether a Madison ordinance requiring bird-safe glass on tall buildings will stay in effect is now awaiting assignment in the Wisconsin Court of Appeals.

The lawsuit aims to reverse a Dane County judge's decision to uphold a Madison ordinance requiring buildings larger than 10,000 square feet to use designs to stop birds from colliding with structures. The conservative legal group Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty filed a reply brief on behalf of fourtrade groups on Tuesday, court records showed.

The Associated Builders and Contractors of Wisconsin, NAIOP Wisconsin, the Commercial Association of Realtors of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Builders Association filed the appeal in August after the judge's decision. WILL's lawyers argued the city's ordinance violated state law by enforcing rules stricter than the state code.

"The city argues that the state law in question exempts "zoning" ordinances, and further that the ordinance is a "form-based" zoning ordinance, and is therefore lawful," the reply brief said. "For the reasons stated in the associations' opening brief, and as further explained herein, the City is incorrect, the ordinance should be declared unlawful, and the circuit court's decision should be reversed."

From Madison's perspective, a requirement for bird-safe faade glass which could be engravings like lines or dots in glass, for example is the same as regulating building faade materials in common zoning practices, the city's attorneys...