Zionsville Parks and Recreation board used a unique process to solicit input for the development of a new town park.
A consulting team from Rundell Ernstberger Associates described Thursday night their ideas for what will be Overley-Worman Park. The park will be adjacent to Eagle Creek, across from Starkey Nature Park behind the new Vonterra subdivision on Zionsville Road. Using what's called a charrette, a process where everyone with an interest in a project meets at once to work out a plan, meetings were held Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights, including an open house, workshop and public presentation.
Zionsville Parks Superintendent Matt Dickey said he expects a draft presentation could be ready by the parks board's April meeting, with a final draft ready for the May meeting. From there, though, the process may slow down somewhat as funding is procured for the work. Dickey said he hopes to obtain a couple grants, which sometimes takes a while.
On Tuesday, the REA team met with focus groups made up of town staff, representatives of sports and special interest groups, community interest groups and merchants, and board members and commissioners, to learn their preferences for the park. Later in the evening, Zionsville residents had an opportunity to learn about the land donated for the park and provide input about what they'd like to see in it.
"The turnout's been fantastic with stakeholders and the public tonight," said Zionsville Parks Board member Tim Casady at the Tuesday open house. "There's lots of interest and input."
Tricia McClellan, of the REA consulting team, said most people expressed a desire for trails at the park.
That was the case for Jane and Jack Fuqua of Zionsville, who attended the open house. Jane Fuqua said she likes to walk, and sometimes bike, on the Rail Trail and would like to see it loop back around rather than dead end, forcing walkers to turn around and go back the way they came.
"We heard there's going to be a new park," she said. "We were happy to hear that and see what's going to be in it, and put in our 2 cents worth, so we came out tonight."
Michelle Howden, who has six children, said her family has used Zionsville's parks a lot throughout the years as her kids have grown, and they especially enjoyed sledding at Mulberry Fields. Howden said she thought an adventure trail or something like a zipline course would be nice.
"I think it would be a cool addition to Zionsville," she said.
Howden was pleased to be able to be part of the park planning process.
"I appreciate all of the graphics and maps, and people coming up to me and asking for my input," she said.
Kristi Mackay said her family uses the parks a lot, as well. She still has very young children, with four under the age of five. She's hoping for a "kid-friendly" park with accessibility for disabled children, that integrates play equipment with the natural environment.
Keeping the park natural was a big concern for most residents, McClellan said.
That shouldn't be a problem.
"Because it's in a flood plain, we can't impede the natural flow of water," she explained. "There's still a lot we can do, but there are a lot of restrictions. We can't put a structure in. We can't fill with more soil. We can do trails and paths — anything that can flood and be cleaned up, as long as it doesn't impede the water flow."
And simple cleanup will be imperative, as access to parts of the park may be problematic for large equipment.
McClellan said there's lots of contouring in the park, with 20- to 30-foot manmade hills and a manmade lake.
"It's a very disturbed property — as in manmade," she said.
The hills could come in handy for mountain-biking trails. Casady said those trail builders are "always looking for slope."
Michael Bush and Todd Settle, who said they both live near Starkey Nature Park and use it a lot, were glad to learn there would be a connection between it and the new park. They poured over the maps available at the open house to better understand the features of Overley-Worman Park's terrain.
"Our general consensus is this property lends itself to mountain biking," Settle said.
That seemed to be a popular suggestion among the various groups and individuals who made comments. Different variations on trails for mountain biking, as well as for hiking, biking, nature, multi-use, and adventure trails made the final list of ideas that might work for the park.
Other top comments included having a shelter, a play area, a picnic spot, disc golf, fishing in the lake, and a canoe/kayak launch on Eagle Creek.
"There was some congruency (sic) from the groups," Dickey said.
He explained Wednesday that the REA consultants were using the public input to look at the possibilities and limitations of the land, and use their expertise to meld everything into design concept options. Some suggestions that don't lend themselves to this park's terrain might work for another park later on, he said, so no ideas are completely discarded.
"They'll use their professional expertise to sort of litmus test this thing," Dickey said.