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Ormond Beach
Real Estate and The Florida Lifestyle

Holly Hill Florida Hollyland Park renovation

HOLLY HILL - You'll have to forgive people if they get a little emotional when talking about Hollyland Park. Even city officials.

"A lot of people grew up with this park here. It's not that no one uses the park now, but we want to see more people use the park," city manager Tim Harbuck said. "Hollyland Park has played an enormous part in people's lives; my daughter played (sports) here and she's 35 now." Residents who have a similar attachment to the park are invited to add their input at upcoming workshops on the park's future. The city commission will be meeting with city staff in the next month to discuss improvements to Hollyland Park.

Although the first workshop was held at the end of August, it was not well attended by the public. The next workshop is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 23 immediately following the commission meeting.

The park is part of the community redevelopment area, a portion of the city deemed blighted in order to receive special tax funding. According to the CRA master plan, the park could receive $1 million in the next four years and another $4 million in the next 15 years.

The plan calls for the park to remain a green space, with improvements to the existing recreation areas but no commercial development. At the first workshop, commissioners had a chance to discuss their own ideas.

They looked at expanding the existing parking lot and making the park more visible from the street, rebuilding the library and chamber of commerce building, relocating the coach-pitch baseball field to make a modified quad-baseball set-up between the four fields and adding an amphitheater to the park. The park is also slated to include portions of a new disc golf course and walking paths. For now, it's a question of where to get started.

Inviting public input should also alleviate some of the concerns about possible large-scale changes to the park that residents raised during last November's elections, Mayor Roland Via said.

He assures the park will retain its small-town charm.

"Hollyland Park only became a hot-button topic before because (it was) a political issue," he said. "I like the idea of us being who we are ... and I'm excited to make what we have the best we can."

Bids for parts of the project could begin as soon as the end of this year and groundbreaking for any changes could happen in the next six to nine months, Mayor Via said. Changes will be coordinated around the baseball season, he added.

All the changes should make the park more user-friendly year-round, instead of just during major events or baseball season.

"It's been primarily used as a baseball park and I believe it needs to be made into a universal park where people come for other activities," Mayor Via said. One commissioner, though, said she did not agree with many of the changes because the city needs to "live within its means."

"An amphitheater and 171 parking spaces? I think it's a little ridiculous," Commissioner Liz Towsley said. "We need to clean up Hollyland Park a little bit and the money needs to come back to the whole city."

She does support building a skate park at the location.

Another idea for the park that's gaining traction at least with some commissioners is to add a pedestrian overpass across Ridgewood Avenue. For just about $1 million, the city could add an overpass similar to the walkway that crosses Clyde Morris Boulevard on Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's campus, public works director Chris Hurst said. The overpass would make a more cohesive city center, Mr. Harbuck said.

Commissioner John Penny said an overpass would give his young sons a chance to walk from home to the parks or schools.

As with any changes the commission would support, Mr. Penny said, it must be for the betterment of the city's children and families.

"We're talking about public safety," he said.

By Bethany Chambers Staff writer
Hometown News - http://www.myhometownnews.net/index.php?id=49169