11/30/2009 6:00:00 AM County unveils proposal
to upgrade park in Verona
This is one of several maps in the Badger Prairie park master plan. It shows a trail linking the Military Ridge and Ice Age trails, two new playgrounds and a new set of access points that will prevent cars from cutting through the park and help promote walking. The 41-page plan includes quite a bit of history and technical issues but also includes insightful descriptions of the proposed amenities.
Dane County will bring a $1 million plan for updating and upgrading Badger Prairie County Park to area residents next week.
It begins at 7 p.m. Thursday at Verona City Center's council chambers.
County staff have been working on the plan since June 2007, shortly after the county decided to shift the location of its nursing home for the mentally infirm to another part of the park. In the meantime, there have been several public input sessions and discussions with stakeholder groups such as trail, mountain bike, prairie and aeromodeling enthusiasts.
The consensus reached in most of those discussions was that the underused, 350-acre park would be best served with independent entrances rather than one long road that goes in one way and out the other. And of all the proposed changes to the park, that one would be the most dramatic, immediate and costly.
In addition to about $300,000 for new roads, gates, signage and parking lots that would create three separate vehicle entrances and multiple pedestrian-friendly access points, the plan also calls for a new $300,000 playground and shelter area just off Cross Country Road that would make the park much more convenient for families in the Maple Grove area of Madison.
It also would create a new exercise area just for small dogs (and eventually a playground there), a paved trail from Cross Country Road to the Military Ridge park-and-ride lot and one mile of new limestone trails linking the amenities. The plan, which is being coordinated with a proposed Reddan Soccer Park upgrade, also suggests improvements to the remote-controlled airplane field on top of the old landfill, a potential community gardening area and a handful of other improvements, though they are not listed among the cost estimates.
Already, preparations have included a $400,000 bicycle-pedestrian underpass of East Verona Avenue, moving the existing dog park to a more suitable location, adjusting the mountain bike trail and providing a more usable bike trail that's a companion to the Ice Age Trail.
"Implementation would be totally dependent on funding," explained park planner Chris James. "Typically when these plans get adopted, the County Board and the county executive take note and we have a road map to follow and there typically might be some budget appropriation."
If James gets a thumbs-up from residents at the Dec. 3 meeting, he'll probably bring it to the Park Commission Dec. 9 to start a two-to-three-month process of approvals.
At the meeting here, he'll give a 30-40-minute presentation, then open the floor for questions or comments. James said he feels the plan has been fairly well vetted by most people who have shown an interest, but this presentation ties it all together.
"It's not like it's a final plan, like there's no changes to it," James said. "But I would be pretty surprised if there were many changes."
The plan can be downloaded at www.countyofdane.
com/lwrd/parks. Click on Planning and Development, then scroll to Master Plans.
