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In early 2000, the Urban Open Space
Foundation (UOSF) purchased about three acres in the East
Rail Corridor from the City of Madison. UOSF was inspired by the Marquette Neighborhood
Association’s 1970 planning process, which discussed
a large Central Park in the same location. The City had intended
to use the parcel UOSF purchased for an office building and
parking, forever blocking the possibility of a park in the
area. The purchase was made possible on one hand by Mayor
Sue Bauman’s decision to allow the sale, and on the other
by a $600,000 loan from the Evjue Foundation, the charitable
arm of the Capital Times.
The Urban Open Space Foundation’s
original vision - which remains the core of our mission in
the East Rail Corridor - proposed an open space plan that
would:
- Create a "signature park"
and open space for community events, performances, exercise,
social gatherings, and relaxation
- Include engineering and design techniques
that improve the quality of water in Madison’s lakes
- Provide living-wage jobs
- Create a wide variety of residences
for all income groups
- Add to the quality of life for people
who live and work in Dane County
- Strengthen the community and the
neighborhood
- Conserve energy
- Set a new standard as a model for
mixed-use development
- Help preserve valuable farmland at
the city’s borders, and
- Further raise Madison’s profile
as a desirable place to live and work
As originally conceived, the park (then
called "Farwell Park") would have reached five continuous
blocks, from Baldwin to Livingston Streets. This vision generated
a great deal of excitement in the neighborhood and throughout
Madison.
The park concept featured the Central
Park as a core feature of the community’s vision for
a revitalized East Rail Corridor. This park would be both
the impetus and the catalyst for reinvestment in the corridor,
spurring the construction of numerous new mixed-income residences
along the south side of the park, and substantial economic
development along the north side, with new commercial development
taking advantage of the urban vitality.
The park would serve as both the green
corporate campus for a revitalized employment center between
East Washington Avenue and Railroad Street and as the “backyard”
for new, mixed-income, in-fill housing between Willy and Wilson
Streets. Its edges would be lively and diverse, and it would
be used morning, day, and evening, weekends and weekdays alike.
The configuration and content of the
Central Park concept have evolved as the Urban Open Space
Foundation has listened to the public and worked with other
area stakeholders. But our goals and vision remain constant.
The planning process so far has been
characterized by a high degree of cooperative and collaborative
efforts. For example, the Urban Open Space Foundation recently
teamed with MG&E, Common Wealth Development Corporation,
and Wisconsin Department of Transportation to prepare economic
impact projections of the Central Park and East Rail Corridor
redevelopment. Last year, the Marquette Neighborhood Association
passed a resolution in favor of the park idea. Meanwhile,
MG&E and Research Products have generously contributed
their facilities for various meetings during the advisory
committee’s planning process.
Support from elected officials has been
a key component of the park concept’s successes so far,
and of its feasibility in the future. The support of Alder
Judy Olson and Mayor Sue Bauman – and the Mayor’s
willingness to make the first parcel available last spring
– made the park planning process possible in the first
place. The City is also working hard to secure EPA funding
for environmental remediation in the corridor. Finally, the
Marquette Neighborhood Association and the Urban Open Space
Foundation have proposed a joint neighborhood-based park planning
process for next year.
US Representative Tammy Baldwin and
US Senator Herb Kohl worked hard to secure a generous HUD
funding package for the Central Park effort in the 2002 budget.
The project has also enjoyed the support of Dane County Executive
Kathleen Falk, State Representative Mark Pocan, and Dane County
Board member John Hendricks.
Local and state agencies have also played
key roles. Interest on the part of former Wisconsin DNR secretary
George Meyer and current secretary Darrell Bazell have made
access to information and resources for brownfield remediation
and stormwater management available. Madison Planning Commission
chair Dick Wagner has been invaluable to the planning process
in his role as chair of the East Rail Corridor Advisory Committee.
And essential information and resources have been provided
by the City’s Department of Planning and Development,
Parks Department, and Department of Public Works.
Public interest and involvement are
sometimes hard to maintain during a long planning process.
This is why the intelligent reporting of the Capital Times,
the Wisconsin State Journal, the Isthmus, Madison Magazine,
and the local television affiliates have been key in keeping
this issue before the public. Similarly, 1000 Friends of Wisconsin,
the Isthmus, and the other planners of the “Nolen in
the Next Century” conference greatly enriched the planning
process by making it the centerpiece of that event.
Also, Vandewalle & Associates have
helped the planning process to better understand and appreciate
the regional context of the East Rail Corridor and its importance
in the economic and transportation future of the city, and
MG&E has funded these efforts.
Finally, the Evjue Foundation, the Madison
Community Foundation, Art and Susan Lloyd, Restaurant Magnus,
and hundreds of individuals have generously supported the
Urban Open Space Foundation in its efforts on behalf of the
planning process.
 At
the urging of the Urban Open Space Foundation, the City of
Madison convened the East Rail Corridor Plan Advisory Committee
in order to create a plan for the entire industrial zone on
the East Isthmus, a total of about 32 blocks. The Committee
is charged with recommending a land-use plan that integrates
economic development, housing, and open space. The Committee’s
members include representatives of the Urban Open Space Foundation,
the city’s Department of Planning and Development, MG&E,
the Marquette Neighborhood Association, Common Wealth Development,
the Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Madison Inc., local businesses,
local landowners, and other concerned citizens.
In December 2001, the Committee drafted
a set of land-use recommendations that set aside about 16
acres as a Central Park, including more than three blocks of
large open spaces in the Central Park corridor, composed of 2
large urban squares linked by broad pathways. This park
would anchor about 24 total
acres of open space in the East Rail Corridor. The
Committee's land-use plan was approved by the Madison Common
Council in March 2002. The land-use recommendations will be
up for review in 2011.
UOSF will actively facilitate the creation
of two products: 1) a new master land use plan for the East
Rail Corridor and the adjacent area; and 2) a detailed physical
development plan coupled with an achievable, realistic funding
and financing plan.
We will use our resources to augment
city staff, bring in technical expertise from outside the
community, and conduct the studies necessary to insure a smooth
implementation of the community’s vision. So far, this
has included bringing in rail-operations consultants, landscape
architects, land acquisition experts, and others.
In short, we will take on, as
a nonprofit organization, some of the roles that a private
developer might typically take in bringing forward a new vision
for the urban landscape. We differ from a private developer,
however, in that we will not “cash out” on our planning
investment through the eventual sale of our real estate improvements.
Instead, the land we develop will become publicly owned open
space.
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