Wauwatosa Looks For Feedback On New City Park Plans

Press release from the City of Wauwatosa:

10/14/2022 10:10 AM

We're building a new city park near 116th Street and Gilbert Avenue. Attend an open house or take a survey to provide feedback about the park features.

You may have heard the news - Wauwatosa is building a new city park.

Open House and Survey

We'd like to invite you to an open house to learn more about the park and to provide your feedback:

Open House: New City Park at 116th Street and Gilbert Avenue
Location: Wauwatosa Public Works, 11100 W Walnut Rd, Wauwatosa, WI 53226
Date and Time: Thursday, October 27, 5:00-7:00 pm

You can stop in at any time during the two-hour event, and it is family-friendly. In fact, we encourage kids and adults to participate because we will all be users of the park. We'll have interactive ways for people to share which park features they'd like to see developed in phases.

If you're not able to attend the open house, you can participate in an online survey to provide your feedback. The same questions are asked of online and in-person participants.

Background on the park

In April 2022, the Common Council allocated $2 million for the development of this park. These funds are from the American Rescue Plan Act. Per federal rules, the city has to design, bid, and have a contract for these projects by December 2024. We also have to expend all construction and final payments by December 2026.

We completed conceptual planning for the park, and this was approved at a previous Park Board meeting. The plan includes walking trails, a sledding hill, a playground, a pavilion, a mountain bike pump track, solar panels, a sculpture garden, and stormwater/natural features. Although we have concepts for the park, we are looking for your feedback on which features to prioritize. The current budget we have will cover some but not all of these features.

This project offers significant opportunities for partnership, donorship, grants, and/or naming rights funding. If you are interested in donating or exploring naming rights, please contact David Simpson, the City’s Director of Public Works via email at dsimpson@wauwatosa.net.

The city has the opportunity to partner with Wisconsin Department of Transportation contractors for clean fill and rough grading services related to their work on the interstate. This saves the city significant expenses and we anticipate beginning grading work on the park area in early 2023. Grading will significantly help our stormwater efforts as well as preparing the site for future park features.

We’ll keep a project webpage updated and send emails at certain milestones so please subscribe here to stay informed: wauwatosa.net/newpark.

This press release was produced by the City of Wauwatosa. The views expressed here are the author’s own.