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Everything is in place for a redevelopment of the vacant Bancroft Dairy -- except a private developer and some public money to help make it happen.

The City Council Tuesday night is excepted to approve the Wingra Creek Market Study, a comprehensive plan for a 64-acre triangular-shaped area on the city's south side.

Over two years in the making, the plan aims at maintaining Park Street as a commercial and business area with Fish Hatchery Road remaining more of a residential corridor. It also calls for increasing housing densities on the south side to make light rail or other public transit a viable option. Park Street from the Beltline to the University of Wisconsin campus has been identified as a possible route for the city's first trolley line.

Central to any redevelopment plan is the Bancroft Dairy site, which is owned by Suiza Foods Corp. of Dallas. The dairy, which last operated under the Dean Foods Morningstar label, closed in 2004. Dean had purchased the dairy in 1988.

The Wingra Creek plan identifies the site as ideal for a three-story "specialized lodging" facility, perhaps a hotel to serve the nearby St. Marys and Meriter hospitals. Other options include a medical conference or adult education facility, something akin to the Fluno Center on the UW-Madison campus.

The plan also notes that a public-private partnership may be needed to serve as a catalyst for redeveloping along the corridor. But the city is still waiting for interest from the private sector.

"At this point, nobody has come forward with a proposal," said Jule Stroick of the city Department of Planning and Development.

The dairy site includes parcels at 1010 and 1102 S. Park St. along with a surface parking lot. The Wingra Creek Market Study identifies the parking lot as multi-family residential housing. The corner of Fish Hatchery Road and Park Street would also be an appropriate site for residential development, the plan said.

The owners of the Bancroft Dairy site are said to be seeking $3 million for the various parcels, although they declined to discuss specific pricing. Harold Ginsburg, the real estate representative for the owners, said there has been interest both locally and nationally in the site but nothing has come together yet.

"Anything is still a long way off," he said.

Ginsburg said there was no timetable for disposing of the property and said the owners were not under any pressure to sell.

"We'd sell it today if somebody pays us what we're asking," said Ginsburg. "We're not trying to hold anybody up."

Madison developer Gary Gorman knows the Bancroft Dairy site well. It's just a couple of blocks from his offices at 1244 S. Park St. "I drive by it all the time and think there has got to be a play there somewhere," he said.

Gorman agrees that a hotel, medical lodging or some sort of mixed-use project would work at the site, although he said his company has too many other things in the hopper to tackle a major urban redevelopment.

"The only drawback I see is whatever environmental problems are left" from the dairy operation, said Gorman. "It might be worth more if they took the building out first."

The city could eventually have money available to a developer willing to tackle projects within the Wingra Creek Market Study. Completing the study is the first step in creating a redevelopment district and eventually a tax incremental financing district.

At the same time, city leaders are warning there is only so much TIF available. State laws cap the amount of property tax dollars that cities can earmark in a given year.

"I'm afraid we're setting up expectations for people that we can't follow through on," said east side Ald. Brenda Konkel. "There is a limit to the number of TIF districts we can do."

Gorman, for example, was recently denied a request for $4.2 million in TIF for a redevelopment project on the 800 block of East Washington Avenue. He said the project across from Breese Stevens Field is all but dead.

City planning director Brad Murphy said the city has not moved forward on recommendations in all the various neighborhood plans approved over the past 20 years. He cautioned that any progress on the Wingra Creek Market area could be years down the road.

"We don't have any firm development proposals at this point," he said.

Kevin Snitchler, facilities manager for Dean Health Systems, has been involved in the planning. He called the concept plan "a great one" although he acknowledged that a lot of things need to fall into place.

One key piece to the puzzle is improving road access between Fish Hatchery and Park Street. There is currently no easy east-west connection between the two busy thoroughfares.

"We're kind of land-locked right now," said Snitchler.

The study calls for constructing several new streets through the 64-acre area while providing over 2,000 off-street parking stalls in three parking ramps. The largest ramp would hold from 1,000 to 1,400 vehicles and would be built in the existing Dean Clinic parking lot, behind the Copps Food Center fronting South Park Street.

Possible new roads include an extension of Olin Avenue west to the Dean Clinic; extending Cedar Street west all the way through to Fish Hatchery and building a new road north from Wingra Drive just west of the current U.S. Post Office.

Other road changes identified include making Beld Street a dead-end cul-de-sac, adding a new traffic signal at Cedar and Park streets and creating traffic calming and pedestrian improvements on Emerson and Midland streets.

"All the different options have their advantages and disadvantages," said Archie Nicolette of the city Planning Department.

But opposition has already surfaced to the proposed Cedar Street extension. Several homeowners in the area are worried that drivers will try to cut through on the quiet residential streets to save a few minutes on their morning commute.

"We should be looking at ways to reduce traffic, not encourage it," said Rick Richards, who lives at 710 Spruce St. "I would recommend that any capital be used to build park-and-ride lots that encourage commuters to give up their cars for a bus connection."

Those concerns have already caught the ear of south side Ald. Isadore Knox, who supports maintaining the Beld and Park street intersection and not routing traffic through the neighborhoods.

"There has been a lot of neighborhood concern about maintaining Beld Street," said Knox. "I don't want to put staff on the spot but I'd prefer not making it a cul-de-sac."

Neighbors shouldn't worry just yet, however. Any road improvements along South Park Street could be years away.