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Vilas Park Master Plan

Update on the Board of Park Commissioners Meeting, March 10

The Board of Park Commissioners reviewed the Vilas Park Master Plan on March 10, 2021. During the meeting, they approved it unanimously. Friends of Lake Wingra submitted comments to the commissioners on March 8, 2021. Additionally, we submitted final comments in February 2021 (building off of our December 2020 comments) as part of the master planning process in Phase III. The Parks Division followed up on some concerns expressed during the Board of Parks Commissioners meeting with a memo. memo details incorrect information shared regarding cultural resources, like effigy mounds, during that meeting and the next steps moving forward.

This February 17 letter submitted by some of the Vilas Neighborhood residents explains the impact the master plan might have on the effigy and burial mounds at Vilas Park. Another resource explaining the issue is the letter submitted to the Board of Park Commissioners regarding additional protection of the mounds.

Phase III Update from Friends of Lake Wingra

The City of Madison and MSA have compiled the community’s collective responses to propose a final draft master plan of Vilas Park. The final public meeting will take place on Thursday, February 4 at 6pm. You can register for it at https://www.cityofmadison.com/parks/projects/vilas-henry-park-master-plan.

Friends of Lake Wingra submitted December comments for the final draft of the plan and you can read them here. We serve on the resident resource group and plan to attend a final meeting in that role.

Phase II Update from Friends of Lake Wingra

The City of Madison released a survey for you to review different concepts for the Vilas Park Master Plan. The survey asks for your preferences for the location of the shelter, the future of Vilas Park Drive, the layout of parking, playgrounds, lagoon management, and park amenities. In addition, you can also comment on missing features or amenities in the concepts. We’re here to offer some tools to help you critically think about the concepts as it relates to the environment and user experience! We structured the questions below so they can guide you through the organization of the survey. You can also view Friends of Lake Wingra’s comments about the concepts online.  

Keep in mind: A master plan serves as a framework to help identify general projects for the city to pursue at the park over the next 15-20 years. Specific details of each project will come later when the city is ready to consider implementing each individual one.

Actual Links
Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/VilasParkConcepts

FoLW questions to guide you through the survey: https://www.lakewingra.org/questions-to-help-you-process-the-vilas-park-master-plan-concepts

FoLW Comments on Master Plan Concepts: https://www.lakewingra.org/download/management_plans_and_reports/Vilas-Park-Concept-Public-Comments.pdf

Many people have told us how pleasant their experience at Vilas Park is with Vilas Park Drive is temporarily closed. We want to capture all these amazing stories and pictures to share with our community. Do you have something to share? Here are some ways you can share: Take a picture or share your story and hashtag it with #CarFreeWingra on Facebook or Instagram. Tag us too! 
Send us an email info@lakewingra.org and we can share it for you.
Share your experience using this Google Form and we’ll share it for you.