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Cottage Grove board approves Wisconsin Youth Company pickleball permit with parking and management conditions
Summary
After concerns about a same-weekend rugby tournament and past unsafe parking, the board approved Wisconsin Youth Company's two-day pickleball tournament at Bakken Park and directed staff to prepare a parking map, bolster signage, encourage carpooling, and ensure active on-site management.
The Village of Cottage Grove on Jan. 5 approved a special event permit for Wisconsin Youth Company to hold a two-day pickleball tournament at Bakken Park on May 30–31, while directing staff to implement parking and event-management measures to reduce congestion and safety risks.
Trustees spent more than an hour weighing the permit after learning the tournament would fall on the same weekend as a large state girls high-school rugby tournament on May 30. Several trustees recounted difficult traffic and parking conditions during last year’s rugby event on Vilas Road and urged stronger on-site oversight, clearer signage and a written plan from police, fire and public works before the events. One trustee described the prior conditions as an “unsafe condition of epic proportions.”
Tournament coordinator Reagan (speaker 9) said registrations had only just opened and that her team had already begun advertising; she said the organizer prefers the Bakken Park weekend but could consider other venues or dates if the board required more time. Staff described a new overflow-parking configuration intended to move cars off Vilas Road and said the overflow can accommodate additional vehicles; at one point staff cited a figure of “3369 is what's available currently” for available stalls without overflow and said they could add about 300 overflow spaces if parked correctly.
The board voted to approve the Wisconsin Youth Company permit while giving staff direction to: produce and disseminate a detailed parking map for the weekend; improve signage and no-parking enforcement; encourage carpooling and rideshare; coordinate messaging with the rugby organizers; and ensure active management on-site during the weekend. The motion to approve, which included these directions, passed by voice vote.
Board members said they expect staff to gather and include police, fire and EMS comments when the rugby special event permit is submitted so the village can evaluate both events together.
