Garner Park Playground Improvements

The City of Madison Parks Division is replacing the playground at Garner Park in 2024.

The design process included an initial online playground workshop to provide general replacement information and a second online meeting to review specific equipment options. 

On January 25, Madison Parks held a community meeting for park visitors and area residents to learn and share ideas on the playground replacement project. Parks staff prepared two playground equipment options based on the initial public input. The options were presented at a second community meeting held on March 21. Neighborhood attendees discussed the merits of each equipment option and selected Option 1 for the new playground at Garner Park. 

The new playground equipment will be installed in fall 2024. Parks will provide further information on construction timing when the public works contract for the playground installation is awarded in August.

PUBLIC INPUT MEETING #2

Thursday, March 21, 2024 at 6:00 pm

Parks provided two playground equipment options for review based on the information gathered at the first public meeting. Attendees shared their thoughts on the options and selected equipment Option 1 for the Garner Park playground replacement. 

Garner Park selected playground equipment.

Meeting attendees also preferred wood mulch for the playground safety surfacing.

 PUBLIC INPUT MEETING #1 - PLAYGROUND WORKSHOP

Thursday, January 25, 2024 at 6:00 pm – online meeting via Zoom

• Park Playground Input Process
• 2024 Playground Workshop Presentation.pdf
• Garner Park Adjacent Playgrounds.pdf
• Garner Breakout Session Presentation.pdf
• 2024 Playground Fundraising General Information

Information on fundraising opportunities was provided at the meeting and also online s://www.cityofmadison.com/parks/about/documents/ParksFundraising.pdf

All questions and comments regarding the playground replacement should be directed to Mike Sturm, Landscape Architect at msturm@cityofmadison.com or (608) 267-4921.

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.