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About Quann Park:
Quann Park is best known as Madison’s Premiere off-leash dog park
and is certainly it’s largest. But Quann Park is more than just
the off-leash dog park. We share this roughly 70-acre park with tennis
courts, a community garden, a bike/pedestrian path and city facilities.
The off-leash dog park is the largest part of the acreage, but is also
the part of the park taken over by the Alliant Energy Center for alternate
uses. (For park closure information see our News page
.)
Here is how the current 71.4 acres in Quann Park is allocated:
| dog area | 37 acres (when landfilling is completed, this includes
the section at the north/east corner where active landfilling is still ongoing). |
| soccer area | 5.9 acres (this is the area currently under appeal before the Board
of Park Commissioners.) |
| gardens | 1.6 acres |
| tennis area | 5.1 acres |
| path/creek corridor | 6.7 acres |
| parking | 1.1 acres |
| Streets facility | 8.2 acres |
| water utility site | 5.8 acres |
The dog area was reduced in size by 5.3 acres during the landfill remediation,
since the gardens and soccer area were previously part of the off-leash
dog area.
The off-leash dog area has a large unfenced perimeter. There is currently
fencing installed only between the soccer/tennis-parking areas and the
dog area. Fundraising for fencing is underway.
Go to advocacy page.
The distance around the dog area still needing to be fenced includes:
1500 feet along Expo Drive,
1200 feet along the Streets & Water Utility buildings, and
1500 feet along the bike path.
For comparison, here is the acreage of all the other city of Madison Dog
parks.
| Quann | 37 acres |
| Sycamore | 20 acres |
| Warner | 10 acres |
| Brittingham | 1/3 acre |
| Total | 67.33 acres |
About the
Quann Park Lease
As many of you may know, Quann Park is "owned" by the city,
but is currently "leased" to the county. There are additional
jurisdictions by the DNR and the city engineering department related to
the landfill. These multiple controlling entities have made it difficult
over the years for the Quann off-leash dog park users to get any clear
answers, or even to know whom to ask!
One of the greatest threats to the off-leash dog park is the county’s
Alliant Energy Center (AEC) use of Quann Park. Now that the landfill remediation
is coming to completion, the AEC has greatly expanded their planned take-over
of Quann Park. In the past, the AEC used Quann only for overflow parking
during large livestock events such as the Midwest Horse Fair and World
Dairy Expo. This year, now that the park is nice, they are scheduling
events IN Quann park, for instance the ESPN Great Outdoor Games, Eyes
to the Skies Balloon rally and Lands End Corporate picnic, in addition
to their overflow parking needs!
The county AEC can do this because back in 1991, without opportunity for
public input, then Mayor Paul Soglin sold out Quann dog park to the county
in exchange for financial help with building the Monona Terrace Convention
Center. This agreement gives the AEC the right to use Quann park, whenever
they want, for whatever they want, for 50 years!
Here for your perusal is the full agreement.
If anyone wants a real copy of the agreement, you can request one from
the city or county.
What you can do: write or call your alder AND your county
supervisor. To find your alder go to http://www.cityofmadison.com/council/index.html
To find your county supervisor go to http://www.co.dane.wi.us/coboard/supervisors.asp
Additionally contact alder Matt Sloan district13@cityofmadison.com and
county supervisor Don Eggert eggert@co.dane.wi.us whose districts contain
Quann park.
Tell them that you do not like this agreement and that the city and county
should legally amend this agreement to limit the AEC use of the park to
OVERFLOW parking ONLY and limit parking to a maximum number of days/year.
Demand assurance that they support the Quann off-leash dog park and will
act to preserve and maintain it for our use.
Quann Park Satellite photo:
This satellite photo was taken before the landfill remediation and the
establishment of the community gardens.
You can navigate the photo here