On 10/25/2021 the Appleton Parks And Recreation Committee received a presentation on the Lundgaard Park project. This park is located on the corner of Lightning Drive and Ashbury Drive in District 13 and is named after Appleton firefighter Mitch Lundgaard who was killed in 2019 by a drug user he was providing medical assistance to.
Parks and Recreation Deputy Director Flick told the committee that it was an honor to present the park’s master plan to the committee and the public. The project team had met with Fire Department personnel, members of the Lundgaard family, city staff, the mayor, and members of ISG which was the consultant the city hired to help them with this project. They brought together the concepts and ideas that the Fire Department, the Lundgaard family, and city staff and then held and open house for the neighborhood to view those concepts and provide feedback. He said that they received tremendous feedback from that open house and were very pleased with the number of responses they received.
The project team then took all of those comments and laid out the future park. At a little less than 7 acres, it’s not a very large park, so it was difficult to get everything into the site. They also had a large gas easement that goes through the park which has resulted in limitations on the development of the park.
The project team continued the process of meetings, talking about the land, the wishes and needs, and how they would like to create a space to honor all of the fallen firemen from the history of the Appleton Fire Department. They also wanted to create a neighborhood park that serves all demographics, ages, and abilities. After the presentation, if there was support to continue moving forward with it, they would then start estimating costs for the concepts in the design to get a better idea of how much money would have to either be raised or budgeted for the development of the park. One they do that, they can proceed down the road of actually implementing and putting something into a budget request for design, engineering, and construction.
He introduced Danielle from ISG. She had been the leader of the project team and was there to walk them through the master plan.
She said that to the north of the park was Fire Station #6. She noted that they had a really great opportunity to partner with the Fire Department both because of their strong connection to Mr. Lundgaard and also because the park was located right next to the first station. She said that the Fire Department was open to informally expanding the physical footprint of the park and allowing some program items to spread out on the fire station property. She didn’t go into detail as to what that might look like though.
Apparently, there was some recent tree loss at nearby Voster’s Park so they are creating a reforestation area at Lundgaard Park that will not only buffer the park from the training facility at Fire Station #6 and also restore some urban canopy, creating a little bit different character and experience in that area of the park. In that reforestation area, they will include a trail loop with some fitness stations in honor of Mr. Lundgaard who was passionate about physical fitness.
As had already been mentioned by Deputy Director Flick, there is a gas easement that runs diagonally through the park and there is a 75 foot space where they are not allowed to cut any of the ground or plant any trees or shrubs. So they will be keeping that area as a lawn surface and are thinking about creating a trail connection from the southeast corner of the park to the northeast corner since that is the direct route that people would want to take as they walk through the community and get activity throughout the park.
In the southeast corner of the park, they planned to have a small multipurpose grass field. Soccer is a huge sport these days and they wanted to make sure there was some open relatively level space dedicated to play. She acknowledged that it wasn’t a high-quality game surface, but it was big enough to allow youth play out in the park.
The center of the park will be a large oval trail. This will provide parents and caretakers the ability to circulate the park between the various play areas. The loop will be about 1/6th of a mile in size which Danielle said would be a meaningful increment that would factor into an overall fitness regime.
The center of the park will hold a large partially enclosed pavilion. They want the pavilion to be useful during the colder seasons in the spring and fall. They wanted a covered space that provided light, meshed well with the landscape, and had room for picnic tables and service counters. If members of the public wanted to have a crock pot picnic, there would be electrical outlets there to support that. They also wanted some kind of partial enclosure such as a roll down garage door or some kind of wind screen. The details of that would be explored further during the design development phase of the park.
Next to the pavilion they planned to install an outdoor games area with a bean bag area and outdoor ping pong.
The centerpiece of the park is the memorial area in the southwest corner at the corner of Lightning and Ashbury Drives. They envisioned that as a threshold or gateway into the park with some type of public art. She said that Appleton is well known for our public art projects. The project team was not trying to define exactly what the art is, but they did hear from the public, the fire station, and the Lundgaard family about what their vision for it was and what sort of components might be important as the artwork is developed. They provided some examples illustrating what they heard might be inspirational.
To the northwest of the pavilion there will be a restroom building and a place for the enclosure of a mechanical system to support a small splash pad. She said they heard very strongly from the community that a larger splash pad is desired but given the size of the park it may not be the right place for a splash pad like that. But they did include a splashy feature with some water bubbles where people could cool off on a hot day and play in the water. She said that the Lundgaard boys specifically had thought that a splash pad would be fund for themselves and other kids their age.
She said that there were two separate playground areas at the park, one for the older kids and one for the smaller kids. The areas were separate but adjacent so that parents and caregivers could oversee the kids’ activity but for safety the two groups wouldn’t mix so much. [I seriously wonder if Danielle has ever taken a child to the park. There is so much mixing of age groups and abilities that goes on. Whether or not a piece of equipment is intended for kids 6 and up, the more ADA accessible it is the more it will draw the toddlers to it. Plus, ADA accessible or not, kids are naturally drawn to trying more and more difficult things.]
They also plan to include a Gaga ball pit which was something they heard a lot about and which was on the wish list of the Lundgaard boys.
They also planned to include a basketball court and two pickleball courts. Members of the neighborhood had actually circulated a petition asking for pickleball courts and that was a request that was brought up during the public meeting as well. The courts may require some timed lighting features.
The presentation included a number of “precedent images” so that the project team could set the right tone to discuss the budget for the park and whether the city wanted to complete the park in phases or not.
They provided images of fire station themed playground equipment for 2-5 year-old kids.
They also provided images of fire station themed playground equipment for the older kids. The team had heard a lot about the desire for tall towers and things that are fun and challenging.
They provided images of the mini splash pad. This was going to be in a relatively small space. The team heard some fun references to what Mr. Lundgaard and his family enjoyed and the way the fire station does its work. They thought there was the potential to incorporate some of that into the water play feature, through the pavement or how the equipment was laid out.
They also showed pictures illustrating directions in which the memorial itself could go. They were not trying to pick what that feature looked like, but the pictures did illustration some of the ideas that they had heard when gathering feedback. The desire is to honor all of the lost firefighters across Appleton’s history perhaps by incorporating water into the memorial. They wanted to create a thoughtful space and have an adequate budget to explore what that space could be.
They also included images of what the parks furnishings and amenities might look like. They thought that using the colors red, gold, and black would tie in well with the fire station theme. They also thought having wooden features would merge well with the reforestation. They wanted to make things durable and accessible so that everyone felt welcome and comfortable at the park.
They also included pictures of shade components throughout the park and what the pavilion might look like.
They finished up with a couple birds eye views of the park, one focused on the memorial and the other focused on the center of the park.
Danielle then opened things up for question.
Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) who is not on the committee but is the alderperson for the district in which this park is being built, started things of. She said the Common Council had just passed a downtown street guide and she wondered if that guide had influenced the style of the amenities and furniture in the park.
She also wanted to know how large the grass field was and what they envisioned being played on it. Finally, she said that a lot of the neighbors she had talked to had expressed concern about light pollution from the park. She was concerned about the lighting feature around the basketball and pickleball courts which had been mentioned and also lighting of the memorial statue.
Deputy Director Flick said that the street guide that was recently passed by the Common Council had not been taken into consideration in the master plan process. Their next step would be the move into the design phase so the street guide could be used in that. The planning phase would also involve the lighting of the park. The lights for the courts would be on a timer and the city could control how late they operate. All their lighting would be dark sky compliant which means that it would be angled downward. It was still to be determined how much lighting was put throughout the park, the trails, and the memorial. They were not at a point where they could give detail on that, but they could still take feedback.
He forgot to answer the question about the field size at that moment but returned to that question later in the meeting. He said that on the plan the field size was about 105 feet by 135 feet. However, there is more space to the west it could stretch. Right now they were looking at it being a U-10 or U-12 soccer field size, so not a full sized field but large enough to be used by the Park and Rec’s soccer program for practices and to have nets there.
Alderperson Nate Wolff (District 12) said he knew that memorials are somber places and wondered if was possible to develop that area of the park to block out noises from the road. He has seen that done in other places and thought it was really beautiful.
Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) said that this was a special park and she wanted to make sure that it was accessible to everyone.
Deputy Director Flick said the playground would be 100% accessible to everybody. They planned to have a poured in place rubberized surface instead of woodchips which would immediately make it 100% accessible. He went on to say that there were different levels of accessibility for equipment based on needs. The universal playground at Memorial Park has a lot more specialized equipment, for example. He said there would have to be conversations regarding this playground and whether they wanted to take that extra step and bring in more specialized equipment instead of having it be a standard neighborhood playground. The space was adequate to add things, but it really came down to funding and how much they wanted to do with that playground.
Alderperson Van Zeeland said she noticed that there was a stormwater raingarden listed on the master plan. She wanted to clarify whether that was a pond or if it was an area where there were native plants. She wanted to confirmed that there was not a stormwater pond in the park.
Deputy Director Flick answered that because the park has not gone into the design phase yet they didn’t have calculations regarding stormwater. They were, however, confident that they could do a biofiltered raingarden even though they had not vetted it yet with the Department of Public Works and that they would not need a pond.
Danielle said that part of their team was civil engineering. They did take a preliminary look at the soil and it looked like there was fine filtration there and the rain garden would be sized to make sure that they did not have any standing water.
Alderperson Van Zeeland was pleased with that answer. As a parent, she felt that sometimes stormwater near parks was a safety issue.
Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) thanked ISG and the Parks and Recreation Department for getting things this far. He was pleased with how much of the wish list from community they had been able to incorporate into the plan. He agreed with Alderperson Wolff that there should be some separation from noise by the memorial and thought that that could result in a nice design element. He also wanted to know about the vehicle parking situation at that park. He was glad to see there were some pollinator opportunities at the park. He finished up by saying, “And when you get down the road and start talking sculpture, Sculpture Valley will certainly put their hat in the ring to help steer that conversation forward.” [I suspect I’m not alone in hoping that if Sculpture Valley gets involved in the memorial, that they will pursue something outside of their normal aesthetic style.]
Deputy Director Flick said that this is a smaller park and using that valuable greenspace for parking was not high on their list of how to use the property. Lighting Drive does not have residential properties on it so both sides of the street could be used for parking. He noted that there are only a couple parks in Appleton that have off street parking. Appleton has a history of developing neighborhood parks that do not include parking. That did not mean that they couldn’t do that for this project if there was a community need and desire, but from an operations standpoint they always look at ways to limit the impervious surface area as that can lead to stormwater issues.
Alderperson Schultz appreciated that insight and wondered if maybe there could just be a couple handicapped stalls put in so that those individuals would not have to cross the street or get up from street level into the park space.
Alderperson Joe Martin (District 4) wondered if it would be possible to install misters in the park. He thought that would tie in nicely with the firefighter theme and how in big cities when there is a large fire they bring in misters as part of their firefighting equipment. He also said that he had reached out to Pierce and to Oshkosh Corp. regarding funding the playground and possibly the statue.
Alderperson Hartzheim, going back to the comment about parking and speaking from her knowledge of the neighborhood, thought that a lot of people would be walking and biking to the park and she did not think parking in general would be a concern, although she thought the ADA parking was something that should be looked into further.
She was grateful to see the reforestation area because the loss of trees at nearby Vosters Park was a big concern in District 13. She saw that they were putting in fitness equipment and a trail in that area but she also thought that there would be many children on bicycles wanting to ride through the trees. There were a lot of kids at Vosters Park who dirt biked between the trees and she wondered if, when they got to the planning stages of Lundgaard Park, if they could look into adding some kind of dirt bike track so that kids would not be interrupting the people using the fitness equipment.
Alderperson Martin agreed that having a couple of ADA handicapped parking spots, one van accessible and one regular, was important. He mentioned his own difficulties in getting out on the grass.
Alderperson Van Zeeland echoed the importance of accessible parking. She also thought that installing misters was an excellent idea and something that all ages seem to enjoy. [I can say I was pretty disappointed when they removed them from Memorial Park. When it’s the middle of July and 90 degrees out it’s really nice to be able to cool off in the mister. They can help extend the amount of time kids spend playing out in the heat.]
Alderperson Schultz didn’t want them to think he was suggesting a lot of parking. He was spoiled a bit because he lives next to Pierce Park which has a lot of off street parking. He echoed the value of ADA accessible parking. He also misters would be fun and perhaps they could actually be something that shoots out a light stream of water from a firefighting themed apparatus. He thought kids would love to be able to shoot mist at each other.
Alderpersons Van Zeeland and Martin both agreed that misters would be nice and appropriate for the park.
[So, it sounded like popular opinion was coalescing around handicapped parking stalls and misters. It doesn’t get more wholesome than that.]
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=890286&GUID=9DBC4865-6823-4D3D-9734-734E40BC92BF
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