PRESS RELEASE

Urban Open Space Foundation

200 North Blount Street June 22, 2005

Madison Wisconsin 53703 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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Contact: Heather Mann 255 9877, x 11 mann@uosf.org

(see list of partner contacts below)

MADISON – The new concept plan for Central Park was unveiled Wednesday at its future site, with a mix of unique features and programming promising to turn an old railroad corridor on the near-east side into “A Park Like No Other” in the region.

“Central Park re-invents the idea of a park,” says Heather Mann, executive director of the Urban Open Space Foundation, the nonprofit organization spearheading the project. “It will look different and will have outdoor elements found no where else in the Madison region. It will feature collaborative programming by diverse partners, and it will be completed and maintained through a unique partnership of public-private financing.”

Mann was joined in introducing the plan by Jeanne Hoffman, the Mayor’s Liaison for Land Use and Transportation, Alder Judy Olson, and Curt Finkelmeyer, a staff member for U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, and many of the park’s key partner groups. The groups, including Madison Skatepark, the Eastside Farmers Market, the Mayor’s Committee on Community Gardens, Common Wealth Development and the Marquette Neighborhood Association, and the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin, will be active in helping design specific park features, schedule events for its spaces once complete, and help turn the park into a reality.

Representatives from these groups lifted a blue cloth to reveal the concept plan for the 17-acre park, planned for what is now largely vacant land bounded by East Wilson, Dickinson, Main and Paterson streets. The plans shows unique features such as a public market plaza where farmers can sell produce year round and people can enjoy farm-fresh meals at a café setting; a native garden centered around a bronze fountain; a bicycle Plaza acting as the hub destination for trails all over southern Wisconsin, with services for bicyclists and bicycle-related art.

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In addition, the park will feature a skateboard park designed by skateboarders, an open lawn and picnic area with a covered concert stage, garden plots for neighborhood gardeners, interactive play equipment and fountains for children, and beautiful paths for strolling and jogging and arbors and benches for quiet contemplation.

“The revised concept plan creates a one-of-a-kind park that reflects Madison’s diversity, serves the immediate neighborhoods and the greater Madison region, and provides a fitting gateway to Wisconsin’s capital city,” Mann said.

The mix of features and programming in this new plan reflects the needs and desires Madison citizens identified during public meetings held in 2001 and 2002. The location of specific features within the park, and the overall park concept plan, have changed to reflect more 2004 input and recommendations from stakeholder groups and other citizens in the broader Madison community.

The new concept plan was developed by Stephen McCarthy and Associates, a Milwaukee-based landscape design firm. Focus groups and a feasibility study have identified the revised concept plan as a key to securing the necessary private sector donations, Mann said.

Completing the park and maintaining it into the future is expected to cost $20 million, with about half of the funding coming from public sources and half from businesses, foundations and individuals through a fundraising campaign.

Already, financial commitments have been made for most of the $10 million in public funding. Most of that money – a $3.5 million federal grant and tax revenues pledged as part of a Tax Increment Financing District -- will be used to relocate the rail line now bisecting the property. The foundation is also starting work to identify potential donors for significant gifts.

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Lynn Olson, Eastside Farmers’ Market, 251-6776

Josh Furnald, Madison Skatepark, 347-3471

Rick Phelps, Greater corridor group, 239-3016

Marianne Morton, Common Wealth Development Inc., 256-3527

Marsha Rummel, Marquette Neighborhood Association, 257-6050

Marjorie Ward, Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin, 251-4456