Parks advisory board recommends Quarry Park master plan for Plan Commission and Common Council review

The Oshkosh City Parks Advisory Board voted to recommend a preferred master plan for Quarry Park to the Plan Commission and Common Council at its meeting, endorsing a largely passive design that preserves open space while accommodating a small central gathering area and site-specific construction limits.

The plan matters because Quarry Park is a former quarry that was later used as a landfill; that history imposes engineering and regulatory constraints on what can be built there. Staff and consultants presented a preferred concept developed with neighborhood input, a cost estimate of $521,370 for full development, and a list of required environmental and post‑closure approvals from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

John Kinnear, president of Rettler Corporation, told the board the master plan is intended as a guide for future development and not a final construction set. “This is a guide for future development. It’s not anything set in stone here,” Kinnear said, describing the site’s documented landfill boundaries, gas vent pipes and covered groundwater monitoring wells that limit deep foundations and root‑penetrating plantings. Kinnear said the consultant team and neighborhood favored…