Hillington Green Playground Replacement

The Hillington Green playground replacement is complete!

Two public meetings were held for the playground replacement at Hillington Green. Meeting attendees reviewed playground equipment age ranges, equipment features, play surfacing and location options. During the December 11th meeting, area residents selected two potential equipment options for further review.  Below are the two finalists and the preferred neighborhood option.

FINAL EQUIPMENT SELECTION

The area residents and park users selected playground Option One as the preferred equipment for Hillington Green. The final selection was made via email correspondence and voting concluded on February 3, 2020.

• Hillington Green Option One
• Hillington Green Option Two

PUBLIC INPUT MEETING #2

The second opportunity for input was a neighborhood meeting held on December 11, 2019, at Sequoya Library. At this meeting City staff presented six potential playground options and two potential locations (3 options per location) . Meeting attendees discussed the various playground features and the two location options. The group's preference was to keep the playground in its current location and two equipment options were selected for minor changes and further review.

Monday, December 11, 2019 at 6:00 pm - Sequoya Library (4340 Tokay Blvd)

• Hillington Green Location Options
• Hillington Green Equipment Options for Location 1
• Hillington Green Equipment Options for Location 2

PUBLIC INPUT MEETING #1 - PLAYGROUND WORKSHOP

The first opportunity for input from the neighborhood was a playground workshop held with two other neighborhoods on October 14, 2019 at Seqouya Library. At this meeting City staff presented the Madison Parks playground input process, provided background on Madison’s playgrounds, and sought input from the neighborhood on each individual park playground.

Monday, October 14, 2019 at 6:00 pm - Sequoya Library (4340 Tokay Blvd)

• Park Playground Input Process
• Playground Equipment Examples
• Barrier Fence Example
• Hillington Green Park Neighborhood Playground Map
• Hillington Green Park Park Existing Conditions
• Hillington Green Park Existing Site Photos
• Playground Workshop Highlights for Hillington Green Park
• Playground Manufacturer Selection

Background on Madison Playgrounds

The City of Madison currently owns and maintains approximately 180 playgrounds across the park system. This does not include most school playgrounds, which are owned and maintained by MMSD. The 180 playgrounds equates to 7 per 10,000 residents. According to the Trust for Public Land’s (TPL) annual rating of the 100 largest municipal parks systems in the nation, this puts Madison at #1 and by a fairly sizable margin. As a comparison, Cincinnati has approximately 5 playgrounds per 10K residents, and is currently 2nd in the annual ranking in this category. This places Madison at approximately 40% more playgrounds per capita than other leading communities. Of cities reported by the TPL that have the highest playgrounds per capita, the per capita ratio is between 2.4 and 4.7 playgrounds per 10,000 residents. There are only two municipalities with amounts higher, Madison at 7.1 and Cincinnati at 5.0 playgrounds per capital. Madison Parks is certainly proud of this ranking, but such a sizable system of playgrounds does mean there are significant costs to develop and maintain the system in a safe and accessible manner.

In the 1990’s there was a significant reinvestment in playgrounds to move away from wood structures, which were inaccessible, towards equipment that was safer and met ADA guidelines. At this time, the primary surfacing selected for installation was crumb rubber and/or pea gravel. By 2012, there was a significant need to reinvest in our playgrounds again as many were reaching the end of their useful life at similar times. This led to the Parks Division working collaboratively with Alders, the Mayor, and the Board of Park Commissioners to establish a programmatic approach to the replacement of over 120 of the playgrounds over the next decade beginning in 2013. The Council adopted RES-13-00034, Legistar 27854, in January 2013. This called on the Parks Division to develop a replacement program that prioritized playgrounds based on safety, age and condition in a fair and equitable manner. The program was to include a standard playground equipment package, prioritized yearly capital budget plan for the replacements and equitable guidelines that would allow for neighborhoods to contribute financially to the project.

Additional history and information on the playground process can be found in this letter from Parks Superintendent Eric Knepp to All Alders on July 28, 2020.

All questions and comments regarding this workshop should be directed to MikeSturm, Landscape Architect at msturm@cityofmadison.com or (608) 267-4921.

Information on fundraising opportunities will be available at the meeting and also online: Parks Fundraising Opportunities

View additional updates on park projects.