Portland Park Playground Improvements

The City of Madison Parks Division is replacing the playground at Portland Park in 2025! Per the Portland Park Master Plan, the playground will be re-located within the park. 

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. 

• Portland Park Breakout Room Presentation
• Portland Park Workshop Highlights

PUBLIC INPUT MEETING #2

Tuesday, January 28, 2025 at 6:00pm via Zoom - REGISTER IN ADVANCE

Staff will present two playground concepts based on feedback received at the playground workshop.

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.