As many of you already know, the Town of Middleton (TOM) is moving forward with their planning for a 2019 Sun Flowers Day event.  As a part of their planning, the TOM has circulated a proposed conceptual plan.   The Zoerb/Pope Family, charged with enforcing the Restrictions controlling the usage of the Pope Farm Conservancy on behalf of Art and Betty Pope, are very concerned that the proposed conceptual plan is not in accord with those Restrictions and the Family has sent a letter to the TOM expressing their concerns.  For your information, we have set forth that letter (see below) in its entirety on our Website.

As you read the letter, please understand that decisions and positions that the Family makes and takes are not necessarily the same as decisions and positions which the Friends of Pope Farm Conservancy make and take because the Family is legitimately concerned with compliance with the requirements of the Restrictions while the Friends are concerned with care and maintenance of the Conservancy and the ease of access by the public to the Conservancy and the education of the public regarding the use and history of the Conservancy.  At the same time that these are separate missions, the Friends neither support nor oppose a Sun Flower Days event managed by the TOM but we do share the concerns of the Family that Sun Flower Days not become a commercialized event which restricts public access.

Letter from Zoerb/Pope Family to the Town of Middleton:

March 20, 2019

Dear Town Board Members:

Sunflower Days Should Continue to Be Free and Open to the Public.

As children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of Art and Betty Pope, we were very disappointed in the current activity and planning for the resumption of Sunflower Days at Pope Farm Conservancy.

When Art and Betty sold their property to the Town of Middleton, their vision was to create a unique outdoor and agricultural educational facility to preserve geological, environmental, historical, and agricultural resources available on that site for MCPSD, other area schools, and the general public.

To address this vision, the Town created a master plan which included an agricultural activity where several different agricultural crops would be grown and rotated annually to illustrate how crop farming works.  One of those crops was sunflowers.

When the first sunflower field came into full bloom amidst the rolling topography of the Conservancy, against the iconic backdrop of the Madison skyline and the two lakes, it became a “must see” destination.  In fact, pictures of the sunflowers spread virally throughout the country, and were picked up by several of the national media outlets.  By 2017, over 90,000 people visited the Conservancy during the 10-day window the flowers were in bloom. The event was free and open to the public, with donations used to enhance the Conservancy.

This unexpected, spontaneous flood of visitors certainly has created challenges to the Conservancy’s original mission, not to mention the health and safety of the visiting public.  From our prospective, it has also created a temptation and rationalization to commercialize and monetize this activity with the retention of an event marketing firm. Once the monetization of the Conservancy begins, this could be a prelude to more and more commercial activities, and change the ambiance and mission of the Conservancy itself.

To protect their vision, Art and Betty put in a specific restrictive covenant in the sale agreement to prevent these kinds of uses:

III.        Restrictions Affecting Park Parcel.  The Park Parcel shall be used for agricultural use and/or as a park.  No housing, office, retail, or manufacturing or any other use shall be permitted on the Park Parcel. 

1 (c) “Park” Shall mean a typical municipal park open to the public either free of charge or a reasonable usage charge and comprising only open space, picnic tables, recreational equipment or recreational improvements such as, for example only, a municipal swimming pool, which are in keeping with the character of a typical municipal park.

To us, this makes it very clear that any type of commercialization, including charging admission or selling goods and services violates these covenants.

In addition, the Town’s 0rdinances (Town Ordinance, Chapter 9, Parks and Recreation, 9.01 (c) definition of “Passive Recreation Areas”) would indicate the event marketing/commercialization would not be allowed and is inappropriate for the Conservancy.

(c) Passive Park – “Passive Park” shall mean a park designated for passive uses.  A basic level of passive use is viewing – views of nature, seasonal interests, and human activities that permit or encourage the unobtrusive engagement of viewing.  In this context, passive recreation as defined for a passive park may include hiking, jogging, cross-country skiing, horseback riding in designated areas and other non-motorized outdoor recreation activities that do not materially alter the landscape, degrade environmental quality or disrupt established tranquility.  A park that is designated as passive may accommodate activities that are engaged in by individuals or small groups that are not dependent on a delineated area designed for specific non-commercial activities, for example, educational field trips or Audubon groups.  No organized sports that require athletic fields or open space such as soccer, baseball, or commercial uses, are permitted in passive parks.  All Town of Middleton conservancy areas are passive parks. Passive Park category includes: nature areas and conservancies. All Town of Middleton conservancy areas are Passive Parks.

The Pope/Zoerb family would hope that the Town would review these proposals regarding the restrictive covenants as well as your own ordinances and definition of “Passive Recreation Areas” before committing to getting into the event marketing business at the Conservancy. We would support Sunflower Days if it continued to be free and open to the public, with the donations used to enhance the Conservancy. Our interest is to support Art and Betty’s vision as expressed in the Restrictive Covenants.

Thank you in advance for your consideration of our concerns.

Sincerely,

THE POPE/ZOERB FAMILY

(Dave Zoerb, Betty Pope’s son and Representative)