Posted on July 17, 2023
The Stoughton City Council approved spending $3,500 on a wetland and woodland restoration plan for the Magnolia Springs development at its Tuesday, July 11 meeting. The council also approved naming the park for the development, located roughly between Isham Street Aaker Road, Teigen Farm Park, honoring the long-time landowners.
The development contains around 5.5 acres of parkland in the northeast corner of the property, including existing woodland, wetlands and a pond, which were the main reason the site was selected for the park. Following development completion, the park area will also include a playground, two stormwater ponds, and a recreational trail system with an associated 0.81-acre right-of way corridor.
A total of 3.69 acres of the parkland will be dedicated to the City of Stoughton.
The city has contracted with Heartland Ecological Group to complete a wetland and woodland restoration plan, of which the city will pay $3,500, and Magnolia Springs Development will contribute $407,920 to the park development fund for park improvements, which can fund the wetland and woodland restoration plan, according to council packet notes.
The city has requested that Heartland prepare a restoration plan for the 3.69-acre park area and the associated 0.81-acre trail corridor that provides recommendations to improve native plant communities, wildlife habitat, aesthetics, and park user experience. Restoration plan development would begin this year, with implementation of that plan and development of a long-term management plan set for 2024-26.
Starting in 2027, the city would begin to maintain the natural area.
They are looking at what they can do as far as preserving that wetland and that ‘well’ area they have in there,” said Dist. 1 Alder Brett Schumacher.
According to council packet notes, a woodland and wetland restoration plan would:
• Assess existing plant communities (existing site conditions)
• Recommendations for enhancing existing plant communities
• Recommendations for restoring newly graded park and corridor areas (linking the habitats between the Lowell Park natural area and Magnolia Springs Park natural area utilizing the trail corridor)
• Provide a cost estimate for implementation of the Restoration Plan and three years of implementation
The board later voted to name the park within the new subdivision Teigen Farm Park, which follows the wishes of the former landowner.
“We talked about lots of different options, but this one seemed the easiest and made the most sense, given the history of the land and the family’s roots here in Stoughton,” said Community Affairs/Council Policy Committee chair Jonathan Schroerlucke in introducing the resolution.
Mayor Tim Swadley said family patriarch Odean Teigen, who died in 2019 at the age of 86, was a long-time chief of the Stoughton Fire Department and public works director, and his family owned the farm for years.
“That’s what this area is known for,” he said. “That’s the history.”
Council vacancy update
The city is moving closer to potentially filling two open alder spots.
Dist. 1 Alder Rachel Venegas announced her resignation at the Tuesday, June 27 Council meeting, stating that her last day would be June 30 as she was moving out of the district. That follows former District 4 Alder Frank Raff’s resignation in May.
Clerk Candee Christen said at Tuesday night’s meeting the city has received an application for the open District 4 vacancy and she’s expecting one to come in for the open District 1 vacancy. The city is still accepting applications up until Friday, July 21 for both vacancies.
“We will be moving through the process and have everything prepared for the (council’s) July 25 meeting,” she said.
Fair talk
Mayor Tim Swadley said he, city parks and recreation director Dan Glynn and a city engineering consultant from Strand Associates met with fair board officials recently to discuss the Mandt Park master plan, and the city’s commitment to the fair.
“We are under contract with the fair until, I believe, September first of 2028,” he said. “So in spite of what you might hear on the streets, we are under contract and we’re committed to the fair for the long run, and we are working with them to address improvements that we can make that we feel will be beneficial to not only the fair, but the park and the community as a whole.”
No parking zone extended
The council voted unanimously to extend the no-parking zone near Stoughton High School on the northside of West Wilson St. from 15 to 40 feet west from Lincoln Avenue.
Stoughton Police Department Chief Dan Jenks said the idea is to increase visibility and reduce congestion in that intersection during student drop-off and pick-up times.
“That hill presents a certain problem that kind of makes it more feasible to extend the no parking back from 15 to 40 feet,” he explained. “It also is an attractive area for employees in the area to park, so oftentimes, they are parked right up to the 15-foot, if not protruding into the 15-foot area that’s prohibited now. So extending it to 40 feet would … improve the line of sight. The amount of pedestrian traffic there is pretty high, and then we have the large vehicles such as the school buses entering and exiting the school.”
Jenks said the 40-foot zone was suggested by the public works department.
“It just seemed to make more sense to more than double it, so keeping it more than three car lengths back from the intersection,” he said.
