Source: The Advocate (Baton Rouge, La.)
Residents will get their first look Thursday at two plans to redevelop City Park: One that would improve the existing nine-hole golf course, and a second that would eliminate it.
Mark Thornton, superintendent of the East Baton Rouge Recreation and Park Commission, said Friday the decision on whether to do away with the golf course is likely to be a controversial one.
"The preliminary public input we've been receiving has been running about half and half. About half want to keep the golf course, and the other half don't really care, but wanted other things," Thornton said.
The challenge, Thornton said, is trying to squeeze everything into the 150-acre park off Dalrymple Drive north of City Park Lake.
The park is about one-third golf course, one-third water and one-third "everything else," Thornton said, including a large tract of mostly undeveloped land west of Dalrymple that has become a haven for illegal activities.
"It's a good spot to do something bad because hardly anybody goes up there, and there's little chance of getting caught," Thornton said.
Thornton said he asked the planners hired to design the two plans for City Park to pay special attention to that area.
Thornton said he hasn't seen the two development plans for City Park that are being prepared by Henslee-Cox at a cost of about $38,000.
The plan will make its public debut at 6 p.m. Thursday at the City Park Recreational Center, 1442 City Park Ave.
BREC staffers will hold an all-day session from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday at the recreation center to get public input on the two plans.
Thornton said the process will allow individuals to speak freely on the plans who otherwise might be reluctant to give their opinion before a large audience.
BREC also will continue to take written comments on the two plans through Feb. 28.
Thornton said another all-day public meeting, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. March 10 at City Park, will be held to unveil a single proposed plan for consideration by the BREC's board.
The BREC board's planning and engineering committee will consider the proposal March 16, and it's tentatively slated to go before the board March 22.
Thornton said the level of response from the public-input process will be considered heavily in deciding whether to keep the process.
"No matter what the outcome is, it's important to me that no one can shoot holes in the process," Thornton said.
