BELLEVIEW, FL (352today.com) – A longtime park in the “City with Small Town Charm” is about to get a makeover.
Cherokee Park on Belleview’s west side, used to be home to a community center that was routinely rented out, and shuffleboard courts that entertained people of a certain age.
The city received a grant from Home Depot nearly 15 years ago to build a playground that has now fallen into a state of disrepair. The community center was razed two years ago, which was an older structure, and there is a new community center at the city’s other park at Lake Lillian.
The city’s focus has been on the park at Lake Lillian, but that’s all about to change, as the emphasis has shifted to Cherokee Park. Conceptual plans call for a number of improvements.
The project has been discussed for some time in planning workshops. The city council has agreed that they would like to go forward with the project, but it hasn’t yet been officially approved.
“We’re going to put a sundial as our feature point,” said Belleview Mayor Christine Dobkowski. “The idea for the sundial was that of Lezli Merriit, who is the city’s public works department assistant. We’re going to feature an area where we’ll have trees with fruits and nuts that are edible. We’ve been trying to get edible trees planted somewhere in the city for 20 years.”
Plans also call for a pavilion and passive walking trail around the perimeter of the park, restrooms and a storage area. Currently, there’s only a portable toilet at the facility.
“We have someone working on the actual plans, so we can start bidding on some of the things we need to bid on,” said Dobkowski. “Things don’t move as fast as we like, but by the time we get all of the plans approved, it will probably be more than a year.”
Belleview has an innovative funding mechanism in place for the project. A parks and recreation impact fee was put in place in the early 2000s. Impact fees are usually used for water and sewer. But, the city made the decision to put an impact fee in place for parks and rec.
“Every time a new home is built in the city, $1000 of their fee toward the city goes specifically into a fund for parks. Our new growth pays for the expansion and makes sure we’re able to accommodate all the new people.” said Dobkowski. “We also have a Community Redevelopment Area that works on tax incremental funding. As property values rise, that difference goes into a special fund that’s geared for community redevelopment, which is how we made a lot of the improvements at Lake Lillian.”
The mayor says the renovations to the park will help improve the quality of life on the western side of the city, providing a family-friendly environment.
“This will be a really nice neighborhood park where the kids can walk to,” said Dobkowski. “Our pavilions at Lake Lillian are rented out almost all the time, especially for birthday parties and family reunions.”