Parks meeting on 9/14 - mark it down......

[fsu813]

Mark your calendars for Monday, September 14, 5:30-8:30 p.m. (location TBD), to be heard on a critical project for quality of life in Springfield. The City of Jacksonville Parks, Recreation and Entertainment Department, in conjunction with consultants HDR, The Project for Public Spaces (PPS) and SPAR, is undertaking a Visioning and Conceptual Master Plan for the revitalization of the 27-acre Hogans Creek Parks system, which forms part of the Historic District's southern boundary. Also included in the Plan will be the results of studies and efforts to minimize flooding, caused in part by an ineffective storm water management system, as well as strategies to clean up soil and waterway contamination in the area.


Since early this year, the consultants have been reviewing all planning and visioning undertaken on the park system in this decade, as well as environmental studies that occurred as far back as 1993, and will be incorporating past data/visioning along with input from this critical session into a new, complete Parks System Master Plan. This new Master Plan, which has the involvement and support of multiple COJ departments and our District 7 Councilmember, Dr. Johnny Gaffney, should be complete by the end of this year and will aid SPAR in continuing its push for project funding from both public and private sources.


Please plan to show up on 9/14 and give input on how you would like to use the park system, so the placemakers at PPS and the planners/engineers at HDR can develop a plan to turn it back into the regional lifestyle, economic development, and tourism asset it once was!