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The Urban Open Space Foundation
- Engaged the public in planting thousands
of plants by hundreds of volunteers at Lynden Hill (Milwaukee)
and along the Yahara River Parkway (Madison).
- Managed and enhanced the state's
first protected community garden and natural area: The James
and Mildred Green Community Garden.
- Designed a comprehensive and integrated
site plan for the 26-acre Troy Gardens Urban Agricultural
Center.
- Launched a volunteer driven
restoration effort to restore the Troy Gardens natural
areas. Click
here to read more.
- Under contract with Milwaukee Metropolitan
Sewerage District, Urban Open Space Foundation expanded
the focus of their work in the Lincoln Creek Watershed by
focusing upon water quality improvement through citizen-based
environmental planning and stewardship.
- Launched the Friends of the
Yahara River Parkway and the Yahara River Parkway Stewards-two
local organizations dedicated to improving forest health
and water quality of Madison's Yahara River.
- Secured though purchase agreement
the first 3.7 acres of parkland for Madison's proposed Central
Park-a city-shaping initiative proposed to transform the
contaminated, abandoned rail yard located only steps from
the state capitol with a 35-acre Central Park surrounded
by hundreds of new homes and dozens of new business enterprises.
- Secured through bargain sale the
James and Mildred Green Community Garden in Fitchburg-a
long time garden serving families of diverse ethnic and
economic backgrounds in Dane County's Nine Spring E-Way.
- Protected through conservation easement
Troy Gardens-a 26 acre natural area and urban agricultural
farm on Madison's diverse Northside.
- Designed - in partnership with fourteen
state, regional and national organizations - the Community
Open Space Summit to explore,
shape, and launch the Community Open Space Partnership, a
broad-based network for local action. The Summit was held October 11-13, 2001, at the Paper Valley Hotel in Appleton.
- Launched the Community
Open Space Partnership Virtual Resource Center, a clearing
house of information for the citizen activists and business
leaders, public agency representatives and resource managers
dedicated to improving the biological, social and economic
health of neighborhoods through innovate park systems and
land use policy reform. Click
here to learn more.
- Purchased on behalf of the State
of Wisconsin, Dane County, the Town of Verona, and the Goose
Lake Neighborhood Association three critical acres providing
the community access to the State's Ice Age Trail and
Goose Lake. This parcel was conveyed to the Town of Verona
as the town's first public park.
- Created the
Open Space Checklist:
A Tool for Great Neighborhood Parks and Natural Areas. This
series of thought-provoking questions in an easy-to-use
format is designed to help both neighborhood groups and
resource professionals evaluate the park and natural area
needs of citizens.
- Launched the Friends of Lynden Hill,
a local group dedicated to stewardship and enhancement of
this full city block in Milwaukee's Midtown Neighborhood.
- Acted as fiscal agent to Friends
of Hudson Park, a local neighborhood group dedicated to
restoring urban forest health in Madison's lakeshore
park.
- Provided general public education
through displays at community events, the Foundation's
semi-annual newsletter (Lay of the Land) and web site (www.uosf.org).
- In addition, staff at Urban
Open Space Foundation have fielded hundreds of phone calls
and spoken at dozens of community meetings across the state
about land and water real estate conservation, park planning
and design, natural resource management, brownfield assessment,
public financing, nonprofit administration, and community
organizing for parks.
- Urban Open Space Foundation helps
fund public lands. We pulled together government, business
and community leaders to evaluate and coordinate Dane County's
1999 successful $30 million park and open space referendum
by polling public opinion, researching voter demographics
and history, building leadership and public support, and
identifying properties of highest priority to the public.
- UOSF spearheaded a property tax liability
waiver for lands held in public trust for community gardens,
urban agricultural/educational farms and neighborhood parkland.
This legislation allows nonprofit conservation groups to
work with local units of government on a case-by-case basis
to determine property tax responsibilities.
- Urban Open Space Foundation
is advocating the Great Neighborhoods Stewardship Program-a
50% matching grant program managed by the Wisconsin Department
of Natural Resources for the acquisition and development
of built and vacant parcels for open space development.
The following purchases would be eligible:
- Brownfields
- Lands for athletic and recreational
uses
- Projects that improve water quality,
preserve and restore wetlands, provide water-based recreation,
or include trail hook-ups
- Open spaces designed to enhance
cultural and historic understanding
- Buildings and structures (to
be removed for open space purposes)
- Lands programmed for with
a diversity of multi-seasonal uses and user groups
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