[media-credit name=’GREG DIXON/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]The city of Madison looks to invest more than $1.2 million to renovate popular James Madison Park and improve the site's facilities to create a more attractive view of Lake Mendota.

Parks Superintendent Jim Morgan said James Madison Park currently features waterfront property with canoe and kayak rentals, two basketball courts, a sand volleyball court, playground areas and the Gates of Heaven Synagogue.

But Morgan admitted the 12-acre park is poorly designed. He said the layout of the park creates areas that often go unused by the public. Yet the overused areas experience too much traffic to sustain grass growth, he added, and are in need of a new irrigation system.

"The park has great potential, but there's a planning problem," Morgan explained. "For example, the bathrooms are now two-and-a-half blocks away from the basketball courts … so a whole lot of planning still needs to take place."

The other major problem with the park, he said, is the bathhouse building. According to Morgan, the building is nonfunctional to public visitors and has become a target for graffiti, homelessness and drug deals.

Residents expressed concern for this area of the park in neighborhood meetings, Morgan said, and many do not let their children in the park specifically because of the bathhouse building.

"It is not a real functional building, so the neighbors would like to make it into a restaurant or sandwich shop and have a fancy coffee and enjoy the lake or watch the sun go down," he noted.

Yet in order to generate funds to complete renovations, Ledell Zellers, president of Capitol Neighborhoods Inc., said the city must either destroy or relocate two historic houses. She said houses like the ones in James Madison Park are what "give a city and a neighborhood variety" from all the new architecture.

"Getting rid of historic buildings for new construction is never necessary and never a good idea," Zellers added.

Zellers also said preservation of historical sites is especially important to "break up" new construction in a time when much of modern architecture looks similar.

Morgan maintained the relocation of the houses is necessary not only to secure funds, but also to open the view to Lake Mendota from Gorham Street.

"The houses could be moved within the neighborhood and open up one of the best views on campus and in the city," Morgan said. "It's a million dollar view, but most of the public doesn't get to enjoy that."

Officials will be holding meetings in January and February to gather student and resident input on features for the park. If the planning process progresses as scheduled, gradual construction would begin on James Madison Park in the fall of 2007. Madisonians may start to notice major changes in the park as soon as 2008.

"We spend a lot of time talking before we go through with the plan to get the ideas on the table," Morgan added. "It's about thinking big about what could be a real jewel for the park system."