Kennedy Park Playground Improvements
January 16, 2025 Update
The City of Madison Parks Division held two meetings to discuss the playground improvements at Kennedy Park.
The first public meeting was a playground workshop held with four other neighborhoods on December 5, 2024 online via Zoom. 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 individual park playgrounds.
The second public meeting was a neighborhood playground meeting held on January 15, 2025 also online via Zoom. At this meeting staff presented two playground designs for each of the age ranges to be installed at Kennedy: 2-5 and 5-12 from the manufacturers chosen during the breakout room session from the workshop. Parks staff also reviewed some of the decisions previously discussed during the workshop for meeting two attendees who were not able to attend the first session. Attendees selected their preferred design for the 2-5 age range equipment from preferred manufacturer Burke (local vendor Lee Recreation) and asked for some modifications to one of the proposals from Gametime (vendor MWP). Parks staff will obtain a revised Option B/2 proposal from Gametime and share the options via email with all those who have either registered for a meeting or contacted staff to express interest in the project.
The new playground equipment will be installed in 2025.
View past project updates »Project Details
Kennedy Park
Project Information
The City of Madison Parks Division is replacing the playground at Kennedy Park in 2025!
PUBLIC INPUT MEETING #1 - PLAYGROUND WORKSHOP
Thursday, December 5, 2024 at 6:00pm via Zoom
Parks staff presented an overview of the playground replacement program and ask for input on design decisions during break-out sessions specific to each park location.
- Park Playground Input Process
- Kennedy Park Breakout Room Presentation
- Kennedy Park Workshop Highlights
PUBLIC INPUT MEETING #2
Thursday, January 15 at 6PM via Zoom
- Preferred 2-5 age range equipment and colors
- OPTION A 5-12 age range equipment
- OPTION B 5-12 age range equipment
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, consistently placing Madison within the "Top 10" on the Trust for Public Land’s (TPL) annual rating of the 100 largest municipal parks systems in the nation. Madison Parks is certainly proud of this ranking, but such a sizable system of playgrounds means that 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. During 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.