About Quann Park:

Quann Park is an old landfill site best known as Madison’s Premiere off-leash dog park.  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:

 

Off-leash dog area

37 acres

soccer area

5.9 acres

Community 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

5.8 acres


The off-leash dog area is divided into two sections.  The main field is completely enclosed with a 4 foot chain link fence around the perimeter. A smaller semi-enclosed section gives access to Wingra Creek and contains a blacktopped path for handicapped accessibility.

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

Demetrol

~1 acre

McCormick

~1 acre

Total 69.33 acres


About the Quann Park Lease


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 make the politics for Quann off-leash dogpark very complicated.  The main concern for dog park users is the periodic take-over of the park by the Alliant Energy Center for overflow parking or other AEC events.  See the news page for anticipated closure dates.


The county Alliant Energy Center can close the dog park and access to the Quann parking lot because back in 1991, without opportunity for public input, then (and again) Mayor Paul Soglin leased 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!  The city has no rights to amend or refuse renewal the lease.

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.

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